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Are You Tapping into Prior Knowledge Often Enough in Your Classroom?

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Blogger Rebecca Alber explains why using students’ prior knowledge to guide instruction is key to learning.

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English Language Learners

Students learn better when they first access what they already know-and this plays a big role in improving English language learners' academic literacy.

Educators and researchers, along with the Common Core authors, recognize that activating prior knowledge is a necessary step in accessing complex texts, whether in the form of written words, images, charts, or other text types. However, you can have too much of a good thing. As the , "Student background knowledge and experiences can illuminate the reading but should not replace attention to the text itself."

of K-W-L extend the chart to include columns for how students can find answers to their questions (online searches, personal interviews), what actions they might take after learning this new information (apply it, teach someone else, create something new), and/or what new questions they have based on what they've learned.

Providing simpler, preparatory texts in anticipation of a more complex reading task can be very helpful in building background knowledge and reading confidence. We often use the same text written in different Lexile levels. There are that make it easy to find or create these types of accessible texts. We're not suggesting that teachers simplify the complex text they're planning to use for close reading. Instead, teachers can provide simplified texts addressing topics or themes similar to the ones in the complex text as a way to build background knowledge.

Providing ELLs in advance with texts or videos in their home language can be another way to promote background knowledge. There are also many that can help with this kind of support.

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Activating Prior Knowledge With English Language Learners

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Students learn better when they first access what they already know-and this plays a big role in improving English language learners' academic literacy.

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The content standards adopted by the California State Board of Education are listed below: Printed publications can be purchased from CDE Press Educational Resources Catalog.

Current Standards

Search the California Content Standards
This application contains the 12 California content standards. The application is designed so educators can quickly find, search, and sort relevant standards across disciplines to aid in instructional planning and assessment. This is a web view of our available mobile application, which we encourage you to download. You can find more information about the mobile application on the CA Standards Mobile Application web page.

English Language Arts

Mathematics

English Language Development

English Language Development 2012

Brochures for Parents/Guardians
These brochures on the ELA/literacy standards provide parents/guardians insights into what their children are learning as they progress through the grade levels. The brochures also offer suggestions for parents/guardians to support their students' learning and a list of additional resources.
Spanish

Career Technical Education

Computer Science

Health Education

History-Social Science

History-Social Science, Adopted October 1998 (PDF)

Brochures for Parents/Guardians
These brochures on the history-social science framework provide parents/guardians insights into what their children are learning as they progress through the grade levels. The brochures also provide a brief summary of the instructional shifts in the framework.

Model School Library

Physical Education

Science

California Next Generation Science Standards

Brochures for Parents/Guardians
These brochures on the science standards provide parents/guardians insights into what their children are learning as they progress through the grade levels. The brochures also offer suggestions for parents/guardians to support their students' learning and a list of additional resources.
Spanish

Arts Education

The State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the California Arts Standards for Public Schools, Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve ( Arts Standards) on January 9, 2019.To download the publication version of the standards, select the link below:

Information about the 2019 Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards Revision is available on the California Arts Standards Web page.

World Languages

The State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the World Languages Standards for Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve on January 9, 2019. To download the publication version of the standards, select the link below:

Previous Content Standards

Questions: Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division | CFIRD@cde.ca.gov | 916-319-0881

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, July 25, 2023

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Content standards were designed to encourage the highest achievement of every student, by defining the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire at each grade level.

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Let's Read It Again: Comprehension Strategies for English-Language Learners

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One of the most effective ways to engage English-language learners (ELLs) and help them comprehend and read English is through repeated readings and retellings of appealing bilingual picture books. Using Con Mi Hermano/With My Brother by Eileen Roe, this lesson has second grade Spanish-speaking ELLs identify the main idea of the story, construct meaning from text and illustrations, and learn English words.

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Here are a few strategies that we use to build and maintain positive student-teacher relationships.

1) Regular Check-Ins

The simplest way for teachers to get to know their students is by talking with them on a daily basis. This can easily be done by "checking in" with a few students each day, either before class, while they are working at their desks, or after class. Taking this time to ask students about their experiences, both inside and outside of school, helps to build a genuine relationship, one where the students feel that their teacher takes an interest in their lives.

2) Reading Student Writing

Another simple way for teachers to learn about their students is by reading what students write. Sometimes they feel more comfortable sharing through writing, and a quick note from their teacher can mean a lot. There have been many times we have learned about our students' feelings, problems and successes by reading their weekly written reflections.

3) Teachers Writing About the Classroom

Students can also read what the teacher has written, especially when this writing is about the class and about the students. In today's world, many teachers already blog and write about their teaching experiences. However, they may not take the extra step of sharing this writing with their students. This can be powerful on a number of levels, but in terms of relationship building, it shows students that the teacher thinks about them outside of the classroom. Taking a few minutes to write about the class (whether it is a simple reflection on how a lesson went, how a student demonstrated an exceptional insight, or sharing a few successes and challenges from the week) and then sharing this writing with the class can increase trust and respect between the teacher and the students.

When students feel that they "matter," their levels of motivation and achievement are more likely to increase. Joanne Yatvin explains this idea in the context of the "Hawthorne effect" -- the results of a well-known study of workers in a Michigan manufacturing plant where lights were dimmed so workers had a hard time seeing, and production actually increased. Yatvin argues that this study is often interpreted as illustrating "the fact that human subjects who know they are part of a scientific experiment may sabotage the study in their eagerness to make it succeed." However, she points out a deeper meaning which reflects the importance of students feeling valued in the classroom: "When people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don't believe they are important, nothing works." In other words, when students believe they are an important part of the educational process, then they will act like it! Having students see that teachers are writing about their insights and their successes publicly, whether on blogs or in emails to other teachers, is just one more way to show them they are an important.

4) Teacher/Student Letter Exchange

A good way for teachers to introduce themselves is by writing a brief letter to the class during the first week. This letter can serve as a model for students to follow as they write back to the teacher. The teacher's letter could be simplified depending upon the level of the class, and the teacher could give beginning students sentence frames to scaffold their letter. (My name is _______. I am ______years old. I was born in _______.) This activity helps teachers learn more about their students and also provides a quick sample of each student's writing. It can be helpful to keep on hand copies of both the teacher letter and the instructions for the student letter to give new students as they enter the class later in the year.

5) Weekly Reflections

One way for teachers to stay connected to students is by having them write a weekly reflection. This reflection could simply be a journal or responses to questions. The teacher can structure the journal prompt or questions as an invitation for students to share their feelings, concerns and questions about the class and about their lives outside the classroom. (What classroom activity did they like the best this week and why? What are their weekend plans?) Reading student reflections can help teachers "take the pulse" of the class -- which activities are being enjoyed, areas of confusion, pacing issues, etc. Teachers can immediately make adjustments, offer feedback, and address any concerns. Teachers also gain important information about what is going on in their students' lives, and can use this information as "talking points" when they speak one-on-one with students. These reflections can also function as a formative assessment.

6) Evaluations

A teacher can build trust with students by asking them to anonymously "evaluate" his/her teaching and use the results to reflect on his/her practice. This could be done by distributing a quick survey or set of questions about class activities, the teacher's style, the pace of the class, etc.

7) "Talking and Walking"

Having one-on-one conversations with students about their goals, interests, struggles, etc. can be difficult to do during class time. One way to quickly connect with students is to take a brief walk around the school campus. This five-minute conversation could take place before or after school, or even during a teacher's prep period (if they make prior arrangements with the student's teacher for that time). These talks can strengthen the teacher/student relationship and can also be helpful when getting to know new students or when dealing with students who are having behavior challenges.

This is not a comprehensive list of ways that teachers can develop positive relationships with English-Language Learners and other students. What are suggestions that you would add?

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7 Tips for Building Positive Relationships with English-Language Learners

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Teachers Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski share seven suggestions for reaching out to and gaining the confidence of English-language learners in the classroom.

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42 content based ESL lesson plans for beginning through intermediate students

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SIOP Lesson Plans and Activities

Our collection of SIOP lesson plans and activities includes exemplary SIOP lesson plans developed by teachers who were involved in the foundational SIOP research study, as well as new updates from our current research and professional development projects. We invite you to read these lesson plans and activities individually or with your colleagues in order to learn more about the SIOP Model. You may want to discuss why these lessons are effective for English learners or how to incorporate the SIOP strategies these teachers used in your own lessons.

All Grade Levels Early Childhood Elementary Middle High GED/Adult
Spotlight

CAL was a partner in the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE). CREATE researchers developed curriculum to build the language and literacy skills of English learners in the middle grades. Lesson plans and materials were infused with instructional features of the SIOP Model including language objectives, explicit vocabulary instruction, student interaction, building background knowledge, and comprehensible input.
Learn more.

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Our collection of SIOP lesson plans and activities includes exemplary SIOP lesson plans developed by teachers who were involved in the foundational SIOP research study, as well as new updates from our current research and professional development projects. We invite you to read these lesson plans and activities individually or with your colleagues in order to learn more about the SIOP Model.

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In content-area courses, English language learners (ELLs) have a double challenge: they must learn language and content at the same time. ELLs may struggle in content-area courses such as literature, science, math, and social studies because they haven't acquired the literacy, language skills, or background knowledge necessary to master that new content knowledge.

One way to address that challenge is through effective lesson planning. Depending on their different stages of English proficiency and literacy, ELLs will benefit from the skills that a well-designed lesson can address.

Effective lessons include:

building background knowledge

explicit instruction and modeling

guided practice

peer practice

assessment of content learned

For examples of content-related lesson plans for ELLs, take a look at the following:

Teacher-student interactions, as well as peer interactions, are critical for learning. Because of the diversity in experiences and backgrounds that ELLs bring to the classroom, it is essential to prepare lessons that can address a wide range of needs. This broad sweep will also benefit all other students in your class.

Teacher preparation

Effective lesson planning requires a number of steps from initial preparation to the final review of material. This Lesson Plan Checklist for The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) offers a general roadmap for that process.

Once you get started, survey your target content to:

determine your standard or lesson objective

eliminate unnecessary information that does not meet your objective

select the concepts to teach

choose specific vocabulary to pre-teach

develop assessments to test that content

Lesson components

Once you have identifed your target objectives, concepts, and vocabulary, consider the following elements of your lesson plan.

Building background knowledge

As you prepare your lesson, determine what background knowledge students need in order to master the material. Teachers may find that their ELLs' background knowledge varies greatly from one student to another. It's also important not to assume that ELLs' background knowledge matches that of other students who were raised in this country.

For example, a student may not have learned much about geography in previous schooling or if he has had little or no schooling, so the concepts of a "city," "state," or "country" may be new to him. Also consider your students' different cultural backgrounds - in some countries, students learn that there are 5 or 6 continents rather than 7, so if they are expected to learn the 7 continents here that may be a bit confusing at first.

In order to build background knowledge, try the following:

Create interest in the subject by using pictures, real objects, maps, or personal experiences. Say the names of objects as often as you can so ELLs can remember them. Relate material to students' lives when possible.

Build text-specific knowledge by providing students with information from the text beforehand, particularly if the text is conceptually difficult or has an abundance of information that is important. For example, if there are six main topics on the animal kingdom, highlight them beforehand.
Also, develop concept background by explaining difficult concepts and labeling them with key words ELLs can remember. For example, "This is the Statue of Liberty. Liberty means freedom. Liberty means libertad. The people of France gave us the Statue of Liberty..."

Establish the purpose for reading (e.g., "Now we are going to read to find out about a country called France. What are some things we might learn about France as we read?")

Select a specific comprehension strategy for students to use. For example, decide to focus on the main idea, cause and effect, or comparing and contrasting.

Learn more about background knowledge in the following articles:

Pre-teaching vocabulary

Select tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 words from target content. Write an ELL-friendly definition for each and post them where students can see them throughout the lesson.

Choose different strategies to teach each word. If there are five words to be pre-taught, use different ways of engaging the students to hear and produce each word in context.

You might want to use your state or local English language acquisition standards as a guide for choosing words to highlight.

Read about vocabulary development in this article, and take a look at our Academic Language webcast to learn more about teaching academic vocabulary.

Peer review and cooperative learning strategies

Using peer review can be a powerful way to help students master content. Here are some ways to get students working together:

Use graphic organizers.

Have students work in collaborative groups and use a graphic organizer so together they can identify main ideas, relationships between information, etc. It gives a purpose while reading while interacting and using the language.

Assign reading partners.

Pair ELLs with friendly fluent readers. Ask partners to read aloud to each other, alternating sentences or pages. After partner reading, ask them to summarize what they read. For variety, use choral reading once in a while. Assign different sections to each team, ask them to rehearse, and then ask teams to read chorally.

Use Think-Pair-Share (TPS). TPS is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This technique requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates. Discussing an answer with a partner serves to maximize participation, focus attention and engage students in comprehending the reading material. Read more in the following articles:

1. Increase Student Interaction with "Think-Pair-Shares" and "Circle Chats"

2. AdLit.org Classroom Strategy: Think-Pair-Share

You can learn about other ways to effectively using cooperative learning strategies in these articles:

Writing

Writing is another way for ELLs to demonstrate and extend their understanding of content. You can ask teams to compose questions about the content and use those questions for their test. Throw in one of your questions as a 'surprise test question.' Or, ask students to practice writing short simple summaries of what they read.

You can also support ELLs' writing skills by modeling the kinds of writing used frequently in your particular content area, such as lab reports in chemistry class, or a persuasive essay in social studies. Help students understand what the purpose of different kinds of writing are, and review vocabulary that would be typically used in these kinds of assignments. Be sure to provide examples of the different kinds of writing to your students so they can learn and compare models.

Graphic organizers
Another writing option is to give students a graphic organizer to fill in. This will demonstrate that they understood the concepts and content, even if they only use a symbol or write one or two words for each category. Graphic organizers can also be used as a pre-teaching or post-teaching strategy for introducing or reinforcing key concepts and how they are related. The more connections ELLs make to the overall content and organization of the content before reading, the easier it will be to focus on and understand what is important. When teachers and/or students use graphic organizers at the end of a lesson, this helps to reinforce and synthesize lesson content.

For example:

Review and assessment

There are many ways to review and assess content following instruction. For some ideas, take a look at these articles:

Reading comprehension and using textbooks

Reading is an important part of learning new content in the classroom. Remember that ELLs (especially those students with limited educational experience) may also need some help with two areas in particular:

1. Reading comprehension

2. How to effectively use textbooks

There are a few ways to support these skills:

Explicitly teach reading comprehension skills. Learning skills such as summarizing and finding the main idea will help students apply these strategies to all subject matter.

Teach students how to make predictions. One method is the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA), which encourages students to be active readers.

Help students recognize the structure of expository text. Introduce the various parts of the text, such as the table of contents and the glossary. Show students how the text is organized, and teach them how to use these tools for informational reading:

Read an introductory portion of the textbook aloud. Model thinking aloud about what you are reading, how you figure out difficult words, and how to summarize what you read.

Develop study guides to guide ELLs through their content area textbook reading. Study guides will focus their attention on the major ideas presented, and can include graphic organizers as described above, key vocabulary, and guiding questions.

Assign reading partners. Pair ELLs with friendly fluent readers. Ask partners to read aloud to each other, alternating sentences or pages. After partner reading, ask them to summarize what they read. For variety, use choral reading once in a while. Assign different sections to each team, ask them to rehearse, and then ask teams to read chorally.

Encourage student engagement. One strategy is the "Say Something" activity. Students take turns reading aloud, and following the reading, each student 'says something,' such as asking question, making a comment, making a connection to something already read, or responding personally to the text. The exercise also engages students as readers and get them thinking about the text.

For more tips on supporing reading instruction in the ELL classroom, take a look at our reading tips for teachers.

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How to Develop a Lesson Plan that Includes ELLs

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In content-area courses, English language learners (ELLs) have a double challenge: they must learn language and content at the same time. ELLs may struggle in content-area courses such as literature, science, math, and social studies because they haven't acquired the literacy, language skills, or background knowledge necessary to master that new content knowledge.

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English Language Learners Lesson Plans & Activities

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