I am sure they must have been around for while, but I have only just discovered them.
I observed a Year 4 lesson where the students had examined the cover of "Where the Forest Meets The Sea" by Jeanie Baker. The students were then given a predict-o-gram sheet similar to this one which they completed with a partner.
The sheet required the students to predict the vocabulary that might appear in the text and then to predict what might happen in the text. I was very surprised to find that only three children in the class had actually read the story before....so it was very interesting to hear their predictions.
Walking around the room I listened to the conversations that took place between the pairs of students. Every student was busily discussing the types of words they thought would go with the story. Obviously sea and forest were in there, but those who knew something about rainforests included words like rain, canopy, trees, mulch etc.
Some of the predictions for what might happen in the texts were interesting. The children tried to relate what they knew about forests and the sea to narratives about getting lost, getting wet, getting attacked by animals, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.
Following filling in the sheet the students shared with the class their predictions. Each word was discussed by the class and the teacher provided the students with the meaning for each word if the students themselves could not define the word.
I found this lesson to be a great example of the importance of explaining key vocabulary prior to dealing with a text. This will allow the students (especially the two EAL/D students in the class) to interact more deeply with the text as they will have an understanding of the technical vocabulary that will be featured in the text.
It was an enjoyable activity - you could tell the students had fun filling in the sheet and hearing the narrative predictions (although when they finally read the book they may be disappointed there are no earthquakes or tsunamis!)