Justify and Predict

Overview

This 60-minute lesson enables Year 3 students to practice justifying and elaborating on their opinions and predictions using evidence from the text The Wizard in My Shed by Simon Farnaby. It emphasises critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and discussion skills aligned with the UK National Curriculum (English - Reading).

Curriculum Links

• English - Reading: Comprehension (Year 3)
  • Develop positive attitudes to reading, and understanding of what they read, by listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction.
  • Understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by predicting what might happen from details stated and implied.
  • Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts, and motives from their actions.
  • Retrieve and record information from fiction.
• English - Spoken Language (Year 3)
  • Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations, and debates.
  • Justify answers, arguments and opinions using evidence from texts.

Learning Objective

When prompted, students can justify and elaborate on their opinions and predictions, referring back to The Wizard in My Shed for evidence.

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Resources

• Copies/large print excerpts of The Wizard in My Shed (key chapters or scenes)
• Whiteboard and markers
• Sticky notes
• “Opinion and Prediction” sentence starters on flashcards
• Character and event cards (prepared in advance)
• Mini whiteboards and pens for students
• Visual vocabulary cards (e.g. justify, predict, evidence, opinion)

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Lesson Structure

1. Starter Activity (10 minutes)

Engage & Activate Prior Knowledge

• Quick read-aloud of a short, intriguing excerpt from The Wizard in My Shed with dramatic gestures and tone.
• Ask students: “What do you think will happen next?” Write down a few spontaneous predictions on the whiteboard.
• Introduce key vocabulary: predict, justify, evidence, opinion using visual cards. Discuss meanings with simple examples.

2. Teaching Input (10 minutes)

Modelling Justification with Text Evidence

• Display a short passage from the book showing a character’s decision or event.
• Think aloud to demonstrate making a prediction and justifying it by pointing to specific words or sentences in the text.
• Example: “I think the wizard will help Joe because it says he is kind and spends time fixing things in the shed.”
• Show sentence starters:
  • “I think... because...”
  • “The text says... which shows...”

3. Guided Practice (15 minutes)

Paired Discussion Using Text and Sentence Starters

• Split students into pairs (stronger readers with developing readers).
• Give each pair a different short passage or scene from the book.
• Each student makes a prediction or gives an opinion about the characters or events.
• Partners discuss and justify their opinions using sentence starters and pointing back to the text.
• Teacher circulates, scaffolding language and encouraging deeper reasoning.

4. Group Activity (15 minutes)

Opinion Carousel + Sticky Note Evidence

• Set up stations around the room each with a different question about the story (e.g., “Do you think the wizard is good or mischievous? Why?”, “What will happen to Joe next?”).
• In small groups (4-5), students rotate between stations every 3 minutes.
• At each station, students write their opinion on a sticky note and attach another sticky note underneath with a quote or paraphrase from the text to justify it.
• Teacher collects a few examples to discuss briefly as a class.

5. Plenary (10 minutes)

Whole-Class Sharing & Self-Reflection

• Invite 3-4 students to share their favourite opinion and evidence from the carousel.
• Highlight how they used the text to back up their thoughts.
• Ask students to self-assess: “Did I use the text to justify my opinion today? How can I improve?” on mini whiteboards, then hold them up.
• Teacher praises effort and models next steps for strengthening justification and elaboration.

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Differentiation

• Provide sentence starter cards and vocabulary visuals to support EAL and SEND learners.
• Offer simplified extracts or allow use of audiobooks for lower reading levels.
• Challenge confident readers to find multiple pieces of text evidence or to anticipate alternative outcomes.

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Assessment Opportunities

• Teacher notes anecdotal evidence of students’ ability to support their opinions with text evidence during paired and group discussions.
• Collect sticky note responses to check understanding of justification and prediction.
• Use plenary self-assessment to inform next lesson planning.

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Extension Ideas

• Drama: Students act out a scene and then predict what the character might say or do next, using evidence as justification.
• Writing: Compose a short paragraph explaining their favourite part of the book with justification.
• Art and Reasoning: Draw a new magical object inspired by the wizard’s shed and explain its powers based on clues from the story.

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This lesson plan not only meets the UK curriculum requirements but also uses active, collaborative strategies to deepen Year 3 pupils’ analytical and spoken language skills, making literature comprehension dynamic, interactive, and evidence-driven.