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1. Short, teacher-developed text, with guiding and supplementary questions.
2. Web link (in English or home language)
3. Brief video clips or visuals
4. Home language support (Written text, web link, or video)

*Adapted from Unlocking English Learners' Potential by Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder

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Power Previewing teaches students to skim a text strategically. The teacher guides the previewing process by pointing out useful things to look for, such as recurring themes. There are many questions a teacher can include in an advance organizer, and one of them is, “Does anything look familiar or relate to something you’ve seen, read, learned about, or experienced?” Students become more proficient readers when memory is activated as part of the process of acquiring new knowledge.

While none of us wants schools to be curiosity-free drill-and-kill zones ever again, we have to acknowledge the importance of background knowledge and develop skill in helping students acquire it. Background knowledge plus curiosity is the most powerful formula of all.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are the best ways to activate and build students' background knowledge, and why is it important?
Our students have a great deal of background knowledge that teachers need to activate so that they can learn new content. And students need to be provided with additional background knowledge so that they can access even more content!

This two-part series will look at what we mean by the term "background knowledge," why it's important, and how we teachers can best identify and develop it both in the physical classroom and during remote teaching.

Today, Adam Fachler, Jeffrey Wilhelm, Rachel Bear, Cheryl Abla, Elizabeth Villanueva, Jenny Vo, and Sarah Said share their commentaries. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Jeffrey, Rachel, Cheryl, and Elizabeth on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
"Priming" students for success
Jeffery D. Wilhelm, Adam Fachler, and Rachel Bear are the authors of the book Planning Powerful Instruction: 7 Must-Make Moves to Transform How We Teach--and How Students Learn":

In our book, Planning Powerful Instruction (Corwin), we argue that a central move of teaching is priming to prepare students for success. (This is much more efficient and fun than remediating learners once they have begun to struggle.) The only resources that learners have for approaching a new challenge is what they already know and are already interested in. The only way to build new interests and capacities is by activating and building on students' prior interests and background knowledge before instruction. This process honors what students bring to the classroom and provides them with necessary context and connection to the purpose and payoff of what is to be learned. It is essential to culturally relevant pedagogy.

But the biggest reason we begin new learning experiences with activities that "prime" students for the learning ahead is this:

There is no alternative! All new learning builds on prior learning.

When we activate and build students' background knowledge:

Students see the connection between previous and current learning.

We establish a set of conceptual "hooks" on which students can "hang" new learning.

Students get on the same page with us.

We receive formative-assessment data we can use throughout the learning experience.

Not only does this practice provide myriad benefits and accord with how the brain functions, it also describes how experts in every field develop expertise. Everyone from engineers to entrepreneurs ask themselves, " What is already known and how do we know it-and how might we extend and build on it?" before undertaking a new project.

If the best instruction mirrors or approximates how individuals in the real world learn, then it stands to reason that we should do what they do.

So, what are the best ways to get it done? Here is a short list of our favorite techniques:

Solving a "junior," mini, or scaled-back version of the problem you will teach students to solve.

Unpacking images or art related to the targeted learning (e.g., see-think-wonder protocols that mirror the process of inquiry: establishing the facts, interpreting facts and inference chains, asking questions to drive further learning).

Providing autobiographical prompts related to the learning ahead (e.g., make students face a moral dilemma the character will face, putting them in the thematic driver's seat).

Asking questions that address problematic or controversial aspects of the content.

Facilitating a simulation.

Ranking products or concepts (which requires making value judgments and applying reasoning).

Conducting surveys or opinionaires.

Remember: The best priming activities are accessible, focused, relevant, and revealing of students' knowledge and abilities. If your priming activity leaves a good taste in your students' mouths and creates energy and interest in future learning, then that positive spillover can affect the vibe of the whole unit. So, while we know time is of the essence in every classroom, it's a necessary investment to make priming student learning a mainstay of yours.

Background knowledge and curiosity
Cheryl Abla is a former teacher who now, with McREL International, leads professional learning and coaching for K-12 educators on research-based strategies for effective instruction, use of classroom technology, English-language acquisition, and classroom culture and climate. She's a co-author of Tools for Classroom Instruction That Works, which provides easy-to-use tools and learning activities to help teachers get CITW strategies into the classroom on a daily basis:

At McREL, we're huge believers in the power of curiosity to propel lifelong learning, but we're not naïve about its limitations. Without background knowledge, what would students have to be curious about? You've got to start somewhere. Learning is about filling in the gaps between what is known and what isn't yet known.

The best way to leverage background knowledge is to give students cues, questions, and advance organizers about what they're about to learn. Sound familiar? Together, these tools form one of the nine classic research-based strategies from Classroom Instruction That Works. What cues, questions, and advance organizers have in common is that they're about beginnings. They all precede the delivery of new content and they all rely on the understanding that knowledge doesn't exist in a vacuum but builds upon prior knowledge and in turn gets built upon.

Vocabulary Knowledge Rating, which we adapted from Camille Blachowicz, introduces students to critical vocabulary terms before instruction begins. Students rate their understanding of each term before and after the lesson, to see if their knowledge has grown.

Anticipation Guide reverses the traditional model of learning enough about a subject to then be able to form an opinion about it. First, students are asked their opinion of a subject. Then the lesson is delivered. Was their background knowledge adequate to support their original position, or do they need to re-evaluate? Now they're not only learning new content, they're learning how additional evidence can influence their understanding.

Power Previewing teaches students to skim a text strategically. The teacher guides the previewing process by pointing out useful things to look for, such as recurring themes. There are many questions a teacher can include in an advance organizer, and one of them is, "Does anything look familiar or relate to something you've seen, read, learned about, or experienced?" Students become more proficient readers when memory is activated as part of the process of acquiring new knowledge.

While none of us wants schools to be curiosity-free drill-and-kill zones ever again, we have to acknowledge the importance of background knowledge and develop skill in helping students acquire it. Background knowledge plus curiosity is the most powerful formula of all.

"Funds of knowledge" Elizabeth Villanueva is a Spanish teacher and world-language department chair at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif. She has been recognized as the 2018 National Education Association Social Justice Activist Award Finalist; 2018 California Teachers Association, César Chávez "Sí Se Puede Human Rights Award"; and Sacramento City Unified school district, Teacher of the Year 2015-16. Elizabeth is an Ed.D. candidate at the University of San Francisco in the Learning and Instruction Doctoral Program with an emphasis in heritage-language maintenance:
Academic learning success must be founded at the personal level of each learner and teacher. Its relevance brings meaningfulness and connectedness to each individual creating a learning atmosphere of interconnectedness that stimulates curiosity for the known and unknown. That bridges to a deeper level of understanding to explore and discover the purpose for academic access and success. Therefore, the power of disseminating the funds of knowledge of each learner to develop self-determination for personal growth and academic success is correlated with the teacher's willingness to share their own personal funds of knowledge that may trigger students' interest and motivation to thrive.

I come from a family that can be labeled as "dysfunctional," since there was domestic violence, lack of love, low economic status, and then at an early age, my parents separated. It was then my mother left my father and migrated illegally to Salinas, Callif., looking for better life opportunities. It was she who, after crossing the border, began telling me and my siblings to get an education to have more and better life opportunities because being uneducated, she was only able to work in the fields and then at a packing company. So five years after her arrival to Salinas, I came to Salinas knowing her expectations. Those were to finish high school, learn English, get some educational degree, and find a better job than she had. It was her insistence to apply myself to study that made me realize how important it is to go to school and most importantly the role that teachers play in a child's education.

As a language teacher and an English-language learner, I believe there is no language more powerful than the language of empathy, sensitivity, and kindness for one another. I know that if I take care of my students' educational well-being by valuing and integrating their funds of knowledge, it is transformed into meaningful and relevant instructional material that becomes students' academic success. Building that relatedness can enhance students' competence to develop their autonomy to continue thriving. Thus, learning from the funds of knowledge of my students is my motivation to strive and enhance meaningful relationships that empower a bigger community.

ELLs & prior knowledge Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has worked with English-learners during all of her 23 years in education and is currently an ESL ISST in Katy ISD in Katy, Texas:
Our English-learners come to us from many countries and bring with them different backgrounds and experiences. In order to successfully support their learning in the content areas, we need to make sure we find out what they already know and what gaps need to be filled. We can do this by activating the students' prior knowledge and then building their background knowledge.

What is prior knowledge and why do we need to activate it? Prior knowledge is what the students bring with them that they have gained from previous schooling and their life experiences. It is important for teachers to activate their students' prior knowledge so they know what students already know about a certain topic and what gaps in learning they will need to fill in order for students to be successful. It helps them to understand the reason why the students are struggling. Is the poor comprehension or struggle with assignments due to lack of language, lack of experience, or lack of skills? Having a firm grasp on the reason or reasons will enable the teacher to know how to support the students.

I like using anticipation guides at the beginning of a unit to see what students know. Anticipation guides have statements that students answer at the beginning of a unit and then at the end. The responses can be in an Agree/Disagree or True/False format. KWL (Know-Want to Know-Learn) charts are also great for activating prior knowledge. Charts can be filled out as a class or by individual students. Another great strategy is the observation chart. This GLAD strategy has students walking around the room looking at pictures and writing observations, comments, and questions on them. I either give each student a different colored pen or have them write their name after their observation so I can track which student wrote what.

Once you have a grasp of your students' prior knowledge, your next step is to build their background knowledge to fill in the gaps. Building background knowledge allows you as the teacher to link the students' past learning and experiences to new learning. There are many ways to build background knowledge. Videos are great for this. Choose ones that are not too technical and easy to understand. Stop periodically to check for understanding. Virtual field trips are a great alternative to live field trips when you are unable to schedule them. I like virtual field trips because you can keep going back to them if needed. The most important way teachers can build background knowledge is to explicitly teach key academic vocabulary. Give students multiple opportunities to use and practice the vocabulary so that the words are internalized and permanently connected to the topic of study.

As you can see, it is essential for you to plan activities to activate your students' prior knowledge and to build background knowledge so that your students, especially your English-learners, can make that critical connection between their past learning and their new learning. With the info gained from the activities, you can better plan how to support your students so they are successful in their learning.

"Language dives" Sarah Said is the director of language and equity programs at an EL (Expeditionary Learning) Education School in the Chicago suburbs. In her role, she oversees support programs for multilingual learners, works with others to create a community that fosters success for students from the diverse communities her school serves, and helps strengthen school to community outreach. In the past, she has been a director of ELL, dean, and curriculum coordinator. In addition to her role in her building, she is a contributor for ELL Confianza and has written a variety of blog posts online. She is a member of the #ELLChat and #ELLchat_bkClub where she helps advocate for multilingual learners. Follow her on Twitter at @MrsSaid:
As I always say, "We don't eat something in a restaurant when we don't understand what it is on the menu"-at least I don't. Our minds are "picky eaters" when it comes to what we engage in and connect with. Be able to front-load information and support students with connecting to past knowledge is something we need to do to support them as educators. How do we do this? We engage students in activities that help us learn about them. This helps support us in being culturally responsive teachers in the classroom.

One strategy that I like to use at the beginning of the year is a project that I call the "cultural bag." I explain to students that their cultural bag is something that they always carry around with them that holds their values, norms, and experiences. What I like about this activity is that it can be done with any age level from K-12 and be effective. Simply, you give students a paper bag, explain what a "cultural bag " is with an age-appropriate explanation, then they can collage or draw the bag with effective images to emulate the "cultural bag." Depending on the age level of the students, you can have them then either write or explain what the images on the bag mean.

As you continue to get to know your students during the year, you can use ideas from what you know about them to scaffold conversations about new content. This helps students learn, and it makes the classroom more engaging for all.

When you are considering multilingual learners, you need to think about other ways to build background knowledge. You may need to utilize cognates in the native language to support students' understanding vocabulary in English. This can be supported in an interactive word wall. These word walls are not just word walls that sit on a wall; students actually create the word wall and utilize the word wall to actively support it.

Building background for students helps support them in really engaging with and grasping content and language. This is an essential part of teaching and learning. It is critical in supporting a culturally responsive classroom.

Thanks to Adam, Jeffrey, Rachel, Cheryl, Elizabeth, Jenny, and Sarah for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar.

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The Whys & Hows of Activating Students' Background Knowledge (Opinion)

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Seven educators explain the importance of tapping students' background knowledge in order to learn new content, and they describe ways to do just that, including through the use of surveys and anticipation guides.

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What is it? Carousel Brainstorming is a cooperative learning activity focused around movement, conversation, and reflection that can be...

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Rationale: students gain access to text through academic, text-based dialogue and collaboration. It helps students to synthesise their understandings in a visual form with close reference to the text.

Students are given time to think individually about how to represent on a collaborative poster the spirit of a text read by the team.

In small groups the students share their ideas and reach a consensus. They are given a time limit (20-30 minutes) to work collaboratively on a poster to represent the big ideas of the text.

They must:

1. Decide on an image that represents the big idea of the text.

2. Decide on a quote from the text that is critical to the understanding of the text.

3. Decide on an original phrase that highlights the main idea of the text.

4. Each student uses a different marker, and all students sign the poster.

Alternatively students may reach consensus on ONE main idea, and then an image for each significant supporting detail of the text.

Students then share their posters and self-assess them using a rubric.

Watch this video to see students making a collaborative poster in a year 10 social studies class
Teaching and learning sequence planning example:
Secondary level:

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Rationale: students gain access to text through academic, text-based dialogue and collaboration. It helps students to synthesise their understandings in a visual form with close reference to the text. Students are given time to think individually about how to represent on a collaborative poster the spirit of a text read by the team.

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The Three-Level Guide is a reading strategy which supports students to read the text closely by providing a clear purpose and direction for reading. It is used to develop comprehension skills. The guide is a series of statements written by the teacher about a text, some are true and some false.

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Process to Introduce a New Vocabulary Word

This can be used not only in English but can be used in other subject areas to teach academic language that the students will need. Word walls, personal glossaries, and word banks are scaffolds that you can use throughout the year to support students. Word walls can include images to support ENL's and other students who may need the extra support.

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Format to Introduce a New Vocabulary Word (1)

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A structured overview is a graphic organiser used to arrange the key words and concepts on a topic. They may be completed individually or collaboratively. The words are organised in a hierarchical structure, beginning with the topic heading. Lines connect the words or subtopics showing their relationship to the central idea and to each other.

The conceptual map is like a tree diagram with the most general terms at the top moving down to the details or examples at the bottom. Once completed they are shared with their partner or with the class.

Students using structured overviews: link new information to existing knowledge; think about relationships between ideas; learn to categorise ideas; clarify their thoughts and learn key vocabulary. See also Graphic organisers.

Watch this video to see a structured overview being used in a year 13 economics class

Please note that in order to view this video you either need a web browser that supports HTML5 video or to ensure both JavaScript and Flash are enabled for your browser. Alternatively you can use the download link below to view the video in your player of choice
Teaching and learning sequence planning example:
Primary level:

Secondary level:

Measurement: Maths and ESOL, curriculum level 4-5

Marine mammals: Writing information texts, ESOL Unit Standards level 2 (US17144.)

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Mind mirror activities enable language teachers to integrate target language objectives with the development of critical thinking skills and critical reading skills. The cognitive skills of interpretation, inference, and self-regulation are developed the most. Mind mirror helps students to draw generalisations from text detail and to synthesise their understandings in a visual form with close reference to the text.

Students work in groups to create a poster, based on a text they are reading, that illustrates the key elements on an outline of the character's head. Groups then present their posters to the class. Students depict how this character was feeling and thinking at a specific time and what questions the character was considering. To illustrate all these ideas students use (two) relevant quotes from the text and create (two) symbols and (two) drawings that are important in explaining the character's perspective. This activity provides a good opportunity to clarify the difference between a drawing and a symbol.

Variation: Each student in the group may use a different coloured marker to illustrate their items and to sign their names on the poster. In addition to enabling the teacher to view each student's work, this color-coded method promotes equal participation and accountability among all group members.

Watch this video to see mind mirror activities being used in a year 12 English classroom

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Mind mirror activities enable language teachers to integrate target language objectives with the development of critical thinking skills and critical reading skills. The cognitive skills of interpretation, inference, and self-regulation are developed the most. Mind mirror helps students to draw generalisations from text detail and to synthesise their understandings in a visual form with close reference to the text.

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Hi teacher! Getting ready to start a new lesson or unit? Want to pique students' interest in the topic and get them thinking critically? If so, anticipation guides can be a great way to kick-off learning and build background knowledge! If you're not familiar with them yet, sometimes seeing an example of anticipation guide use in the classroom can be helpful.

So stay tuned! I'm here with all the tips for using anticipation guides at the start of any lesson!

What is an Anticipation Guide?

An anticipation guide is a chart that will introduce a new topic to students in an engaging way. It's important to introduce the anticipation guide at the beginning of your new unit or lesson. You'll start with a basic template. Most include three basic elements:

1. A column on the left for statements pre-written by the teacher.

The statements should be related to the content in the upcoming lesson/unit. Additionally, they should be thought-provoking. Students will be asked to mark if they agree or disagree, so good statements to include are those that may evoke a variety of responses. The responses will be based on students' prior knowledge, opinion, or assumptions about the topic.

Example of anticipation guide statement for a unit on weather: Hurricanes can form over oceans that are cold or warm.
Example for a unit on geometry: An angle that is greater than 90 degrees is called an acute angle. Example for a unit on the discovery of the Americas: Christopher Columbus was the very first explorer to come to North America.
2. A column where students indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statement.

This encourages activation of prior knowledge, piques students' interest in the topic, and sparks critical thinking. Of course, you should encourage students to be authentic in choosing their response. They shouldn't worry if it's "right or wrong" or different from their peers.

3. A column for students to complete AFTER learning, as they revisit the anticipation guide.

They will again mark if they agree or disagree with each statement, now having fresh understandings and/or opinions of the subject matter. Also, this is a wonderful self-assessment and reflection activity for students.

In addition to these basic elements, you have the option of including a column for students to explain their thinking (i.e. "I'll tell you why!" or "Maybe, if..."), or to provide evidence to support their thinking. You could expand this element to include recording responses as audio files or on Flipgrid. Or you could have students indicate a page number of a text that lends support to their thinking.

Encouraging Academic Discourse

And now...my favorite part of using anticipation guides! They're great for sparking classroom conversation and encouraging academic discourse! Use the anticipation guides to prompt small groups of students to share and discuss their chosen responses.
Giving some lesson time to this activity will:

increase opportunities to practice and use new content vocabulary

guide interaction, questioning, and reasoning

give students authentic opportunities to practice oral persuasion and defense of their conclusions

allow English learners some time to build background knowledge before learning

give the lesson a greater sense of context and purpose

To help you out, below is a page from an anticipation guide resource I created. (More info at the end of this post!) This offers some sentence starters to prompt student discussion:
To clarify what this might look like in the classroom, here are some images of anticipation guide examples. I believe it's possible to design an anticipation guide to accompany any subject matter. All it takes is a little thought about what would make for intriguing statements to include. You could assign a digital version, or print for students.

Finally, if you're itching to try this strategy in your classroom, but need an anticipation guide template to start with, I'm here for ya! I've created a set of multiple variations, and made them digital and printable. Also, to support English learners, I also included audio read aloud features, so that students understand the directions and cues.

For more learning about anticipation guides, check out these resources:
https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/anticipation_guide http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/anticipation-guide
And for more about activating students' prior knowledge:

My blog post on Activating Students' Prior Knowledge
Digital Resources for Building Background Knowledge
So those are some ideas for you...hopefully this helped you get some fresh ideas you can use in your All-Access Classroom. 🙂 I can't wait to see what awesome anticipation guides you create! Find me on Instagram @TheAllAccessClassroom and shoot me a photo of yours! I'd love to see!

Always here for you,

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Need an example of anticipation guide use for easy student engagement? - The All-Access Classroom

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Want to see an example of anticipation guide templates in action? This post shows you how to use them in any subject area!

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Close-Read Steps, Purposes and Supports for ELLs/MLLs

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Close-Read Steps, Purposes and Supports for ELLs/MLLs

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/learning/how-to-teach-with-whats-going-on-in-this-picture.html

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What's Going On in This Picture? Tutorial