Hi all!
One way that I challenge my students to link the current lesson to prior knowledge is using KWL. If I fill it out before hand it refreshes the students minds about the topic so that we can build from where they are at currently. I also am often surprised just how much information the kids already know about the subjects I'm teaching. They teach their peers a lot as well during this time because of the information we are able to combine from all of our background knowledge. This really gets us prepared to start where we left off.
Another strategy I use during reading is always asking the students to make a 1) text to text connection 2)text to life connection. This helps the students to think about what they know and relate it to what we are currently learning. My students always have something to share!
Another strategy I've been encouraging all of you to make a part of your regular practice, one that works at any point in a lesson, is questioning. Before a lesson, a well-designed question prompts connections between the new and the known, building schema-bridges that help kids engage more quickly with a new lesson.
ReplyDeleteOne terrific word that makes all the difference when teachers kick off a lesson is "already", as in, "Let's see what you already know about triangles/characteristics of rocks/categorizing/spelling words with back-to-back vowels in them" followed by a thought-provoking question. Think of the difference between these two prompts:
"I'm going to give you a spelling test to see what you know about words that have side-by-side vowels in them"
or
"I'm going to give you a spelling test to see what you already know about words that have side-by-side vowels in them"
Which phrase expresses confidence in kids existing prior knowledge? Which is more motivating?