The Glue That Makes Learning Stick. Figure 2. 1. National Anti Suffrage Association Headquarters. Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division LC USZ6. DLCImportance of Background Knowledge. I was visiting an 8th grade social studies class soon after the tsunami hit Japan in 2. The teacher had abandoned the textbook lesson to focus on the disaster. With copies of USA Today in front of them, students read about the imminent danger of the nuclear reactors having a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. School Law 34Th Edition With Web Apps. Suddenly, I realized that my background knowledge was insufficient for understanding the potential consequences. Yes, I knew that it would be a very bad thing if the nuclear reactors experienced a meltdown, but beyond that, I had no concept of a melting nuclear reactor. Because I cared about what happened notice the intrinsic motivation, I read several articles about nuclear reactors online found some simple graphics that described possible scenarios and asked my father, a retired nuclear power plant engineer, to explain how they operate. As the gaps in my knowledge filled, my comprehension soared. How important is background knowledge According to Robert Marzano, What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content 2. John Guthrie is equally adamant as he writes about comprehension as impossible without prior knowledge 2. National Research Council states definitively, All learning involves transfer from previous experiences. Even initial learning involves transfer that is based on previous experiences and prior knowledge 2. Background Knowledge. The problem for students and teachers, however, is obvious the background knowledge playing field is not equal. Discovery Education helps incorporate gamebased learning into the classroom with puzzlemaker. Create a new puzzle now Overcoming Textbook Fatigue. ReLeah Cossett Lent. Table of Contents. Chapter 2. Background Knowledge The Glue That Makes Learning Stick. A persons background. This lesson focuses on reading comprehension by answering the 5Ws about the story, The Three Little Pigs. The printable reading comprehension worksheets listed below were created specially for students at a 3rd grade reading level. Each file includes a fiction or non. Lets take a chapter in a science textbook on stars and planets. In a typical science classroom, especially in grades 7 and up where students may have come from a variety of elementary schools, you might have several students whose elementary science teacher worked at a planetarium during college and enthusiastically helped her students build a mock planetarium in the classroom. On the other hand, you may have a group of students whose teacher never really got into astronomy and whose background knowledge is almost nonexistent. Then there are all those other students kids whose parents have telescopes, kids who live in brightly lit cities and never notice the night sky, and kids who search the Internet for information on constellations because they have an inherent interest in stars. Educational shareware, choose from our Prediction, subject learning, or math software. Use this interactive, fastaction classroom game with your English language learners to increase student engagement and work on vocabulary. In addition, there is an affective component to prior knowledge. A good example is the knowledge 5th graders bring to a textbook chapter on the civil rights movement. Those who have visited the Kelly Ingram Civil Rights Memorial Park in Birmingham will likely have a strong visceral response when studying the bombing of the 1. Street Baptist Church in 1. T-L-51969-KS1-Great-Fire-of-London-Differentiated-Reading-Comprehension-Activity_ver_2.jpg' alt='The Great Ball Game Comprehension Test' title='The Great Ball Game Comprehension Test' />Students whose relatives were active in the movement may have heard so many stories that they feel like they were there, though they were not born until decades later. These students bring to the social studies or English text not only objective information but also an emotional response that creates a virtual experience as they read. Beginning with the first chapter in a textbook unit and moving lockstep through the book is not only an inefficient way to teach but is unfair both to those who have background knowledge and, more important, to those who do not. Assessing Background Knowledge. Before beginning any chapter or unit, it is essential to find out what your students know about the topic. What students know is difficult to predict without some sort of objective measure, especially considering the ranges of background knowledge in any one class. Following are several ways to assess individuals background knowledge and get a feel for how much the class as a whole knows about the topic. Prediction Guides. Prediction guides, also called anticipation guides Buehl, 2. As an added advantage, such activities give students clues about whats coming next and that helps them set a purpose for learning, an important aspect of motivation. The idea behind a prediction guide is that the teacher provides students with written statements related to the text before they begin reading. Students indicate that they agree or disagree with these statements, and then the teacher can facilitate the discussion centered on students reasoning for their predictions. See Figure 2. 2 for a sample prediction guide on probability in 8th grade math. Figure 2. 2. Sample Prediction Guide on Probability. Student name Read each statement and circle A if you agree with the statement or D if you disagree. Remember that this is not a test, so make your best guess. Agree Disagree. The probability of zero means an event is impossible. A        D2. When studying probability you may be asked to play with dice. A        D3. The sum of the probabilities of all the possible outcomes equals one. A        D4. Two mutually exclusive events can happen at the same time. A        D5. You should understand fractions before beginning the study of probability. A        DMake sure that students understand that this is an activity, not a test, and that they will not be graded according to the accuracy of their answers. You can turn it into an engaging activity by inserting some crazy predictions. For example, a 4th grade science teacher gave her students a prediction guide about weather before introducing them to the chapter. One of the items asked students to agree or disagree with this statement Fog is really just clouds that have fallen from the sky. Some students knew that both fog and clouds are composed of water droplets, but the falling from the sky part made them pause and think. When asking them for their reasoning, the teacher found out who understood the concept of fogs and clouds, with a bit of fun mixed in. Anticipation guides provide the teacher with some understanding of the quality and quantity of prior knowledge students have about the ideas in the reading assignment Anders Spitler, 2. When you collect the guides and tally the responses, you will see a clear pattern indicating which concepts the entire group has or has not been exposed to as well as which individuals may need additional instruction. You may return the guides to students, allowing them to change their answers as they read if they find information that contradicts what they originally believed, or you may want to have students readdress their guides at the end of the unit. An added benefit is that once students invest in a prediction, they are eager to find out if they are right, and the information often sticks with them longer because of that investment. In any case, you will have a much better idea about how to approach the chapter or unit after you take a look at your students responses. Design your instruction to specifically meet students needs. You may put less knowledgeable students in a group with a student tutor who has more knowledge you may jigsaw the reading so that students who already know a little about the topic read a different part of the text and share what they learned with other students or you may offer extended learning opportunities, including online research, to those who have solid background knowledge. Although creating prediction guides can take time, one easy way to accumulate several for every topic is to have students write their own prediction guides when they finish the unit. The exercise serves as a great review for your students prior to assessment and gives you a variety of prediction guides by the end of the year. You can choose among the best statements for next years or next semesters students. Not surprisingly, you will find that students statements are often more creative than those we write. Puzzlemaker Game Based Learning Discovery Education.