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Understanding the importance of background knowledge can transform teaching methods because teachers can get a better understanding of what students know and what they need to be working on. This will help teachers meet students where they are at and hopefully show more growth.

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As teachers we can help students to focus students' thinking about meaning by asking those open ending questions that get them thinking about how they solved the questions or came up with the idea.

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One strategy that I use to engage reluctant learners is to work on building a positive relationships with the student.

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One reason I think students might struggle to enjoy learning is parents don't view school as important. Parents don't talk about school or show interests in their students' work.

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I like to begin each lesson by giving students their "learning target;" what they should be able to teach someone by the end of the lesson. This allows students to focus of what they really should be learning that lesson; what meaning do they need to be focusing on. At the end of the lesson we always circle back to that learning target and students self-assess their success; how close are they to mastery after the lesson? Because this is one on my daily lesson routines, students know to expect it. They know that they will be assessing their understanding, or meaning, of the lesson, and will then have to prove their self-assessed score through their independent work. Multiple times throughout a lesson I will remind students of their learning goal or have them point out a time in the lesson that directly practices the lesson goal. Students are provided ample time throughout each lesson to discuss their work and their practice with their should buddies, which helps to solidify their learning into "meaning."

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Throughout the reading, Willingham stresses the importance of background knowledge and how it directly effects student understanding. We must ensure that students have the proper background knowledge when introducing or teaching a new concept and provide applicable background knowledge when it is lacking. I think it's important to remember, as Willingham points out, that students will have varying levels of background knowledge based on their individual experiences. Oftentimes, our less fortunate students have limited experiences and thus limited background knowledge. It is important that teachers recognize these differences and work to bridge these gaps.

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Making connections with your students is imperative to student engagement. When students feel as though you are invested in their learning and in their individual success, you have their buy-in; they want to work harder and give you more of their effort. Taking the time to find about their individual interests and hobbies forms the bonds that are essential to learning. Staying in touch with these throughout the year is so important.

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I find that student enjoyment is directly tied to student success. When students feel that they are being successful, really understanding the lesson content, and being able to complete the required classwork, they feel happy and enjoy what they are doing. I can't tell you the number of times I have heard a student say "This is fun!" once they have mastered a skill and are able to complete a task independently. When the work becomes difficult and students feel unsuccessful, that is where you see a lack of enjoyment. It is human nature to not participate in activities that you deem yourself unsuccessful in. Of course this is unavoidable. We must ensure that we are providing enough successful moments for students to remain motivated through the times that are more difficult.

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Understanding the importance of background knowledge will keep each individual student at the forefront of the teacher's mind as they plan and teach lessons. This will require that the teacher gets to know each student individually and gain insight into their lives that will improve relationships and for the student overall learning.

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Understanding their past learning habits can help structure the new lesson plans that will be suit their learning needs. A successful teacher is able to adapt to student's learning needs subject to subject.

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Engaging a student in a lesson by relating the material to something in their personal life will keep them focused.

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A strategy that has worked to engage my students is showing interest in their personal life.

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The main reason is no connection with their teacher's, so they don't have confidence to admit they're struggling.

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By understanding what students already know, as a teacher I can connect new information to their existing knowledge base, making learning more meaningful and relevant to their lives. I believe this ultimately boosts comprehension and motivation.

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Allowing time for students to reflect on their ideas. Show students how they can push back on their own thinking to analyze and question their assumptions. Students might ask themselves, “Why is this the best answer?

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Strategies that I have found effective to engage reluctant middle school learners are to focus on building relationships first of all,offer choices so they have some buy-in, make it relevant to their interests, and provide positive reinforcement for their efforts and accomplishments.

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I believe there are several factors all of which are important: peer pressure, lack of motivation, learning difficulties, poor teaching methods, mental health issues, bullying, no support at home, lack of sleep, and feeling hungry.

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I think anytime we can connect what we are teaching to how it can be applied in a practical way will help students to see the importance. Also having connections with students so that you can present materials and content in a way that will help them see the meaning behind the learning.

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I think relationship building is key. Finding a genuine connection with each student and then taking an interest in their interests and incorporating that into activities or content that is less appealing for them.

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I think that students might struggle to enjoy school because so many students are lacking basic executive functioning skills such as planning, prioritizing, working together. I also think that a lot of students are used to instant gratification and do not have a lot of stamina when it comes to things that are outside of their comfort zone or might require some grit and stamina to get better at or complete.

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By understanding the importance of background knowledge teachers can activate prior knowledge, differentiate learning and scaffold new learning.

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Making learning relevant and trying to make connections between students and learning. Asking open ended questions and scaffolding learning.

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Building connections! I always take the first couple minutes of class to ask the students how things are going, what they did on the weekend, about any sports or other things they are involved in. I also try to use humor whenever possible and I try to make my learning fun by using a variety of technology, while also mixing in no tech lessons as well.

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In some cases, their basic needs are not being met at home, which makes it more difficult to learn in school. In other cases, the work is too hard, too boring, or education isn't valued.

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Understanding background knowledge allows the teacher to know where the students thinking is going to be. It also allows the teacher to choose resources and materials that will help the students understand a topic.

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Build relationships with students to know what their interests are. Focus on practicing what we want students to know from the lesson. They will remember what they are thinking.

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Usually when I give students choice in the outcomes of the assignment, they are more willing to engage.

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Depending on the grade/age, I think that students lack basic skill and they also lack background knowledge in order to understand things. Students also struggle with motivation to do anything, even if it is considered fun, they will complain and find excuses.

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Background knowledge is important. If a student student knows things about a topic before you teaching about the topic the students feel more confident and have a starting place in their minds. It is our job as educators to link the new knowledge to the student's background knowledge. If we can do do this in a motivating way it helps students be more interested and engaged in learning. Also, if you find ways to show that different students have background knowledge in different topics and have students present to peers this helps students be motivated to learn. At least third grade students like learning from their peers. In addition, kids like learning that a student may know more than their teacher about a topic - showing that we can be life long learners and that teachers can learn from their students.

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I think we have to show student how the content we are learning connects to their lives. If we show them and teach them that fractions are in cooking, sharing a pizza or a candy bar they seem to think more about the meaning the meaning of what they are learning.

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I try to help my students by breaking the content into manageable chunks of information. I also try to include fun projects such as our Arctic Animal diorama project and report.

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I think the main reason that students in third grade struggle to enjoy learning is due to the fact that we are asking them complete academic tasks that are not developmentally age appropriate for the average Third Grade student.

For example:

For an 8-year-old, a math problem should ideally have 2-3 distinct steps to solve, allowing them to focus on understanding the core concept without getting overwhelmed by too many calculations or complex procedures.

Developmental stage:

At this age, children are typically mastering basic operations like addition and subtraction with larger numbers, so problems should primarily focus on these skills with minimal extra complexity.

The Math problems that Grade 3 students have to be able to solve in NYS go way beyond the developmental ability/maturity of a typical 8 year old student.

Students are rushed through a lot of academic content and end up mastering very little of that content. This is because students are not given the time and repetition to master foundational skills.

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The old-fashioned K-W-L chart could be extremely valuable to educators because it would give you the baseline data you need to know what students already know about a subject. That way you could possibly partner students with someone who already has good baseline knowledge with someone who does not but it also gives you a great visual of where you are and where you are going. You could even fill in the "Learn" section of the chart with clear objectives so the students know where they need to get to. That way you know you have taught them what you want them to learn.

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It is very valuable to connect their learning to real life. Visual, auditory, and written work also help make connections.

It is helpful to use Graphic Organizers, bullet points, group or partner work, utilize the digital fluency standards, and have students learn how to use AI to find information more quickly. I believe that students who can access information more quickly are more likely to continue to investigate what they are learning.

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I have always tried to make learning fun and more streamlined. I teach students strategies to approach learning that makes it easier to remember and more fun to learn. In the past few years, I have incorporated a "16 Personality Test" that is free online and it has helped my students learn what type of learner they are and how they best learn. This has been one of my best tools for teaching them.

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Some students are not good at school or they have other things that interest them rather than what they are expected to learn in school. I also think we teach a tremendous amount of "fluff" in school and not things they truly need to know.

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Knowing your students individually helps with the teaching methods on where each student stands. As a start we can start our lessons by checking what the students already know about the topic through questions, existing knowledge they share, or finding an quick activity to help build onto the foundation they start on. Making your students engaging on asking new questions on the topic helps them explore their curiosity. Having them share information together will bring discussions and learning from each other if engaged enough.

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As teachers we can ask open-ended questions. This could help others students open up and give their opinions as well that may not usually do this. If possible connect the learning to real world situations that will draw the students into wanting to learn and know more information. As long as its tuning them in then they are thinking.

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I will focus on students who needs more time on them than others. I find it has helped one of my students to keep her going on getting work turned in even though she is struggling but I keep her going so she does not fall and get farther behind. When asked once with a question as a whole class " what quality do you like in an adult to make you feel comfortable the answer put down was "kindness". This helps the students grow and work harder.

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With the students I work with and watching other grades I find students that struggle to enjoy learning in school are bored until something grabs their attention to want to know more. The other times they don't pay attention, fool around and want electronics like using chrome book for games, music and YouTube. They are addicted to this. Some need that one on one to help them to focus and keep them moving ahead on their work. I have one student that I call "My Shadow" due to moving over to where I am to do her work once on their own. So some are not capable to work alone due to distraction.

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Identifying background knowledge is important when teaching because you need to know how to reach the objective. You need to know what they already have confidence in, how to push them, and what to have them reflect on.

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Students should be allowed to collaborate, reflect, and learn how to develop confidence and self-esteem.

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I have done interest inventories and asked students what they like. I try to incorporate their favorite things into my lessons. I also like to identify how they prefer to convey information when completing projects ect.

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Students aren't always interested in the material and often want to play and be kids. A lot of them may be upset about not having much freedom or time to do what they enjoy.

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Understanding that background knowledge is so important makes me better realize the importance of "pretesting." It can show me just what background knowledge the students have that will be important to the new content so that I can address shortcomings before they become a hinderance to the students.

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I think that collaboration makes a big difference. When allowing students to work through a problem together, if encourages them to discuss the problem, the possible solutions, and the significance of those solutions before coming to a consensus.

Making things memorable is also important. Using demonstrations, videos, activities, and/or stories that MAKE the content memorable helps tremendously.

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Definitely 1-on-1 time. I feel that this does two things: it shows the student that you care about THEM individually and it forces them to be engaged with you.

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Although there are many reasons, I think there are two main reasons: too many distractions and the desire for instant gratification.

With cell phones and social media, students are far more focused on the social aspect of their lives than on the academic. Even when the phone is not in their hand/line of sight/pocket, they're more worried about the "likes" and "streaks."

They also live in a world where they can get what they want/need almost immediately with very little effort: Amazon, food/grocery delivery, the Internet.

These issues hinder active learning and engagement and prevent many students (even strong students) from being genuinely successful.

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It is important to know how much your students know so that you can save time and energy when teaching new information. It would be a waste of time if you didn't know that your students knew more about a topic than you thought and you spent three days on that topic. This time could have been spent learning the next topic which could be harder and needs more time to go over.

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I think showing kids how the things they are learning connects to their daily lives is helpful.

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Something that has helped me is finding ways to incorporate things that interest my students. Another would be making the things they need to learn into a game.

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They are not getting the same dopamine hit from school as they would from playing a video game. I also think that school is always seen as bad in the media kids consume, so they are taught to see school as a place they don't want to be.

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"If students lack background knowledge, the question you pose will quickly be judged as "boring". If students lack the background knowledge to engage with a problem, save it for another time when they have that knowledge" page 19

Students need to understand what you are teaching if they stop and go "huh" then you already can tell they are not going to learn much from this lesson and comprehension will not take place. They need to be engaged! If they already have background knowledge of the material, you are teaching the more they are going to understand and retain.

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After completing a lesson, I always get feedback from the students. I ask them if something was difficult, one thing they understand, and if they liked the lesson. I use that feedback to help prepare for upcoming lessons to keep them more engaged. When presenting a lesson, I always give my students an objective or question to be able to answer by the end of the lesson. Their exit ticket for the lesson is to be able to answer the objective. This makes them feel satisfied they have learned or accomplished a goal for that lesson. In my classroom we also do a lot of think-pair-share. The students get to hear others' opinions and thoughts, not just their own all day!

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I get to know my student's interests. I use topics that my students are interested in to teach most of my content. I make sure the content that I am teaching is engaging and pertains to topics they like. I make sure the content I teach is appropriate for their academic learning level. If it's too easy or too difficult then my students are less engaged. I give my students options when learning. I do not expect them for example to solve a math word problem with a specific strategy. I give them multiple strategies to solve the problem, and they pick which one works best for them.

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Students I find struggle to enjoy learning in school because they are bored. They would rather play their video games or chat with their friends. My students are very immature and not independent this year. Many of my students struggle with academics and that makes learning at school difficult as well.

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I feel building relationships with the students is a must. Once you get that the students are more willing to work with and for you,

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I think if we are able to admit our mistakes that students may see that it is ok. Then we can work with them and instill that mistakes are one way we learn and that it is ok.

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I have spent time building the students trust and try not to push the help on them. I try and engage other students along the way so that they feel comfortable asking for help from me and possibly a peer.

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Students are to distracted by social media and are not able to focus on the tasks they are asked to complete.

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Understanding what they know prior is very helpful to me as a teacher. As we all know, some know a lot and others not so much. So talking to them, building those relationships, figuring out where they are and moving forward. If students still seem to be not "grasping", I take a small chunk of time to further talk to them. But, I have them all day so time is to my advantage. Some days, I use what I learned from them in the begining of the following days lesson. It doesn't hurt my top learners and gives that extra learning to my struggling learners.

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I teach in many "chunks" and we discuss. This gives them a chance to make connections. I also will come back to them, usually 1:1 because they are with me all day, and attempt to make meaning connections with them.

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With my students, being so young, it is so important to build strong relationships. Once this happens, they love coming to me when I do small group or 1:1 instruction. This goes for not only my reluctant learners but my top learners love this as well.

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Students love to socialize and it is difficult for them to ignore distractions.

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Understanding the importance of background knowledge can create a fundamental basis of learning to direct students on diverse paths.

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Make what they are learning relevant and create meaningful connections!

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Over the last few years I have really focused on creating student centered learning activities and that has increased engagement in most students.

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Students are "forever elsewhere" due to distractions from social media and technology. Combine that with the effect of the Covid learning environment and we have a recipe for a pretty apathetic student in most cases.

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Background knowledge is important because if you already know some about a topic or problem you are half way there. "When faced with a problem, you will first search for a solution in memory, and if you find one you will likely use it". Studies have shown that people with background knowledge remember substantially more material than the people who do not have background knowledge. Also the amount of information you retain depend on the information you already have stored in your memory about that particular topic. Making connections with new and already stored information helps make the new information meaningful to the learner.

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Making it rememberable the author suggests by telling stories or framing our lesson story like. Stories are easy to remember so that would help student remember the lesson or meaning behind it. Cognition and Connection, so like mentioned in my previous post relationships and learning how to think or learn is key.

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Building positive relationships and supporting student though a task they feel is overwhelming by breaking it down into smaller parts and providing guidance and support.

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I think academic skills arn't taught but expected and kids don't know how to organize, study, or think to learn.

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This can help by allowing the teacher to move quicker or slower based on the amount of background knowledge being brought to the table.

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By allowing them to have conversations with each other about the content and ensuring the content is meaningful and engaging.

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I think building relationships is the most important way to help engage reluctant learners. Taking a break from what they need to get done and asking them about themselves and what is going on in their lives helps get to know them.

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I think most students are worried about what others think of them.

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It helps to build a foundation for learning. It helps to engage the students. If they already know something about the topic, it catches their attention and you can build on that. It helps teachers know where the kids are at and helps us catch any knowledge gaps that may exist before moving on. It saves time. If kids have a strong background knowledge of a topic we may not need to spend as much time with that topic and can spend more time with others.

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1. Make what they are learning meaningful to their lives.

2. Allow collaboration.

3. Use graphic organizers.

4. Allow the kids to reflect on their learning.

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Building a relationship with students is the best way! I find if I have a positive relationship with the reluctant learners, they are more likely to work for me even when they don't want to.

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I find kids have a lot of distractions today. They are always worried about their social media and what notifications are coming up on their phones. This makes it difficult to focus on much else.

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Just getting to know your student. This help with connection. It shows you care. Not just about school but the students.

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One way we can help students be focused is to make sure we all make mistakes. The mistakes help just as much as getting it right. We learn from them. Also let the students know you doing a great job. Keep it up.

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One of the strategies I have used is having the students teach me. It been a long time for me with 7th and 8th grade math. This way we learn together.

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The main reason students might struggle is they worry more about being liked by their classmates.

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I find as a TA that if I ask questions of a students that are struggling, they say things like I am hungry, I didn't sleep I had to watch my brother. ect. I find one on one with no one else around I can get my students to work with me to get work finished.

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I find there are a lot of distractions while teachers are trying to give content, which in turn throws off the class.

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I find spending time one on one works with some students.

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They want to socialize, more than spend time learning.