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As I teach a class that requires the use of Microsoft Office tools I have to be familiar with what my students have used. Or more likely for my ELs- what tools they've not used. I have to try to connect the vocabulary with experiences they have had with hosted solutions (free software often by companies like Google) I think that vocabulary in general can be challenging but technical vocabulary that may contain few cognates may be worse.

I have started using specifically designed graphic organizers to help students keep track of new terminology. I'll run down the most recent changes. I think that making these changes systematically is likely very important in helping students adjust and offer consistence in expectations.
1. Charts- for vocabulary tracking, definitions and to allow them to write or draw something that helps them recall the terms.
2. Cornell Note Templates that have pre-configured spaces for terminology.
3. Allowing students to discuss terms with peers in mixed EL level groups.
4. The implementation of some call and response and jazz chants since "Baby Shark.." song is so darn popular with high school students (who would have thunk)

I'm not saying that these will work for everyone, but these work for my students that are of mostly level 3s, some 2s and 2 level 1s. I think that for lessons to be effective they must be culturally informed. I think that we should talk to our students, get to know them, their circumstance and what makes them, unique or driven for success.

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Building background knowledge is crucial to construct meaning from a text.  Sometimes words have multiple meanings and have to decipher the definition.  For example, operation could can a medical procedure or it could mean a mathematical process.  Making inferences from text also relies heavily on background knowledge.

I participated in a professional development session recently about accessing complex texts.  We were given an advanced science text and told to read it and decipher the meaning.  Most principal were unable to do so and those that could, had a background in science.  Then, we were provided additional materials such as a chart and a couple other more simplified articles.  After, we read the complex text again and were asked to answer the same questions from the first exposure to the text.  It became evident we understood the text much more once provided other materials to build our background knowledge.

There are multiple ways to build background knowledge in the classroom.  New content vocabulary can be categorized to develop concepts and identify relationships.  Using an analogy (such as, cake is to dessert as banana is to fruit) can bridge the gap between something new to something the student already knows.  Multimedia is always a consistent option for building background knowledge.  There are videos, pictures, Google Earth, supporting leveled texts, podcasts, and more on various topics.

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This year I have been working with Skill Groups. These groups are defined initially through IRLs and  MAP scores and then further defined through screening tools on student Chromebooks, and through an assessment of foundational reading skills.  We have been working almost exclusively on decoding skills for second grade students.  These skill groups are in a state of flux - rarely lasting more than a week.

As we are not working with content, background knowledge doesn't help students connect their experience with what we are learning per se. In the course of decoding words, we always look at the graphical and phonological aspects first. As students begin to develop skill in decoding a particular letter combination, we have been practicing that in word families. This is where we move into vocabulary development. As we are working, I encourage students to demonstrate, illustrate or explain words that we encounter. Frequently, some ESL students have difficulty with abstract words that express ideas. In these instances, I solicit other ESL students to share in their native language (if known) or employ google translate.

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As a tutor I work with students in very short blocks of time, typically 20 minutes or less.  My work typically builds on or reinforces what the classroom teacher has already presented in class.  Because my time is short, I have found that visuals I can bring up quickly on my ipad are the most effective way for me to support my students understanding or help to build background knowledge.  Sometimes if I know what language a child speaks I will try to use Google translate to find a term in their language.
If I am working on a guided reading lesson with ELLs I will often complete a more thorough picture walk of the book and again provide extra visuals with my iPad as needed.

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Science 4ESS.1: Earth surface has specific characteristics and landforms that can be identified.

ELA RI4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

To build background for 2 Swahili students and to assess what students may already know about landforms. I gave the SIOP activity Pretest with a Partner. This activity is a pencil/paper test but I adapted the format to match the picture to the landform name. The science teacher has asked that I focus my interventions on key vocabulary L1 Swahili students will need to use in Landforms and Processes Unit. We are beginning with 4 landforms, mountain, valley, hill and plains. Working with a partner students cut then glued the pictures to the vocabulary words.

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I have decided to do something different for my SIOP assignment then previously posted. I have two Chinese Students who are at prefunctional level in reading, writing, and speaking. Recently I discovered that both of these students are able to read text silently and out loud, but they both have similar problems and that is that they cannot pronounce the words correctly, neither do they know what many of the words mean. For my Explain everything project and my final project I am going to research more about this situation. Currently I am working with both students on their front vowel sounds /i/ long e,(tense mid front) as in see, and short i, or high front unrounded vowels as in the word "hit." My Chinese students are struggling on two levels....1) how to say the difference between word pairs like hit and heat. (they say them the same way), and 2) to know the difference between them. In my explain everything I will share some information on this and some activities and in my SIOP lesson I hope to share a video demonstrating some strategies, interactions,

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R.L. 4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

To build background knowledge, I would begin by showing the Lion and Mouse folklore video.  We would discuss the moral of the story -  what did the author want us to learn?  (turn and talk). This links to 3rd grade content (morals and folklore).  Students would then discuss whether theme is similar to a moral.

5 key vocabulary words included in this unit would be theme, arrive, raise, summary, and local.  Arrive, local and raise would be practiced through the four corners activity.  Theme will be re-explained through a video then students would create a poster of what theme means, and the word summary will be reviewed in a pair-share activity.

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Tessa Lynch

Questions for Video: “Academic Language”

1.     Academic language differs from the English we use in everyday life in many ways.  Where language that we use in everyday life has repeated words and the use of slang, academic language uses a variety of high level vocabulary and does not use slang. Some misconceptions people might have about academic language development include that words can be taught easily in isolation. This is a misconception, as words cannot be learned without their context, therefor it is important that words are taught in context and that they are practiced. Another misconception some may have about academic language development is that

2.     Our school does not have an effective, comprehensive academic language curriculum in place. The curriculum we have put into place in my school consists of workshop-based instruction in both reading and writing. We do not have a science or social studies curriculum. Our math curriculum involves a lot of group work and some small group work. In most cases, vocabulary words are not explicitly taught or even noted. While I often teach academic language to my students, we do not have a comprehensive academic language curriculum in place.

3.     As a kindergarten teacher, I teach reading, writing, phonics, math, social studies, and science. For this question I will focus on teaching my students academic language from our science lesson. Students are expected to understand that sound is the result of vibration. In order to teach the word wave as it relates to sound, I presented the word to my students and asked them to think about what the word may mean or if they have heard that word before. I then introduced the topic with an engaging activity in which students were able to listen to a tuning fork that was then put into water. The students could then see the waves created. This visual representation and the fact that I presented the academic vocabulary in context allowed many of my students to understand the word wave and to actually make the connection that sound is made from waves.  This is just a beginning lesson that will lead my kindergarten class to know that sound is the result of vibration.

SIOP Component: Building Background HW

a)     Some ways in which I would build background knowledge for 6th grade ESL students would be by showing students an engaging video about animal adaptations like this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNqiclBUxdY. This would give students a bit of background knowledge about other animals that have made adaptations in order to survive. It would also provide visuals for students to rely on.

Another way that I would build students’ background knowledge on this topic would be by pre-teaching the vocabulary found in the passage. Some vocabulary words found in this passage that may be troublesome to intermediate ESL students that are not explicitly defined in the passage may be, physical features, regulate, behavioral, and adaptations. I would introduce these words to my students with visuals to accompany them. I would provide students with an opportunity to match the words with their corresponding definitions in a small group.

b)    Content Vocabulary

1.     Thermoregulation

2.     Hibernation

3.     Migration

General Academic Vocabulary

1.     Temperature

2.     Physical features

3.     Adaptations

4.     Behavioral

Word parts (roots/affixes)

1.     Structure+al

2.     Adapt+ation

3.     Small+er

4.     Fast+est

c)     In order to teach the word thermoregulation I would use the read aloud strategy described in our text book on page 81. Read Aloud includes using videos and other supplemental materials to increase a student’s background knowledge. I would use this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEBfl_LKno that gives several examples, visuals and fairly simple language to describe thermoregulation.

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Amelia's Show and Tell is a story that our Journeys reading series has us read and we often do a comprehension pre and post test each quarter. This book is our pre-test book. Before reading, we discuss show and tell, the times that we have had show and tell, why we have show and tell, why they bring the things they bring, etc. The little girl is new to America and so we talk about moving to new places, what it feels like, and some of my ELL friends that are new to America shared their kindergarten version of their experience. Most of my ELs were born here so they didn't have much to share.  Some of my other friends relate moving from their "old school" which is preschool/daycare to coming here and I take it haha. Then we read the story and they draw a picture of their favorite part while I ask them individually their comprehension questions. I really like introducing this book because we generally have a strong conversation/discussion each year!

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Tammy Catanza- Building Background- math

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Tammy Catanza- Building Background- math

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Our fifth grade math class started Standard 5NBT.A.7, which is adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. The lesson on multiplying decimals is the one I decided to link to this building background post. I started the lesson with a large hundredths grid as a visual to review what one whole, one tenth and one hundredth would represent. It happened to be one of my students birthday so I pretended it was his birthday cake and then discussed cutting the cake in 10 equal pieces or 100 equal pieces. This was linked to our previous lesson reading and writing decimals and adding and subtracting decimals. I also love to reference money because that is something we all love and know about. Multiplication is repeated addition so I was able to visually show the students how it would look on grids and create a final product. Vocabulary used in this lesson was decimal, product, tenths, hundredths, and place value.

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List the ways concepts will be linked to students’ background experiences:

Visuals- show students familiar pictures to get them to see different letters in their environment

Videos- show students popular YouTube videos they love to watch and point out different print in video.

Ways links will be made between past learning & new concepts:

Have discussion with students about places they have seen different letters- through symbols like M-McDonalds, W-Wendy’s. This will get them to see letters in their environment and they will be able to point them out and name the letters.

Key vocabulary emphasized:

Consonants, vowels, alphabet, sounds, examples, letter recognition

Activities that will be used to teach these words and ways for student to practice them:

Word sort- students will be given a list of words to cut out, then they will place words in groups according to the first letter the word begins with. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students.

Word wall- as a whole group, students will make a list of words that begin with our letter of the week (with help from teacher). The words will then be place under the correct letter on the class word wall. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students.

Word study book- students will be given a list of words to cut out and then glue the words with the same beginning letter in their word book under the specific first letter of the word. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students.

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As a Reading Intervention Specialists working mostly with third graders, I like to make books come "alive" to build background knowledge. For example, if we are reading a book where the setting is at the beach, then I will bring in a beach bag filled with sunglasses, towels, sunscreen, bathing suits, etc. The students first predict what is in the bag and then we will pull everything our together. This is great way to physically build background knowledge and can be done with pretty much any book! I also like to do picture walks during my small-group reading interventions. This includes: allowing students to make predictions, asking higher order thinking questions and pointing out unusual vocabulary or words.

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Hannah Archer- building background- language arts

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Hannah Archer- building background- language arts

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One  of the third grade language arts standards emphasizes students understanding character motivation.  Most third graders (not just ELL's) have a difficult time understanding this concept.  Many kids can answer the question, "What motivated the character to sell lemonade?"  However, most kids struggle to answer a question such as, "How did Evan's motivation to win effect the sequence of events in the story?"

In order to assist students in understanding the basic idea of "motivation" I pull from their real life scenarios.  I may say, "How many of you play soccer?"  Followed by, "How many of you who play a sport work hard?  Why do you work hard?"  Kids will often come to the conclusion that they work hard because they want to win.  After using a few more examples from their lives, I point out that they are motivated by the factors they suggested.  Sometimes simple conversation brings vocabulary words to life.

As we continue to explore the idea of character motivation, I then begin to pull from our prior discussions that were applicable to their lives and ask questions such as, "What would happen if you were not motivated to win? Would you still work hard? How would this effect the outcome of your soccer game?" When students are able to draw on their own experiences to understand a concept, they are more likely to experience success. We then transfer this way of thinking and questioning process over to the text we are exploring.

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This year I have my OTES evaluation FULL cycle! I decided to do a Social Studies lesson titled: "What is Culture?" I wanted to see what my students thought the word -Culture meant to them. I encouraged them to draw pictures, write their responses, make a poster, etc. Ironically, I had only 2 students out of 23 come up with something. As their teacher. This was a great way for me to assess and to prepare my lesson accordingly. I love giving my students choice in their learning. I think modeling and teaching them that it's not about getting the right answer, rather coming up with their own definition/words to express their thinking is so important! I have also incorporated a fun vocabulary activity that takes place daily called, "Mrs. Wordsmith." There is a visual with a cartoon word that explains a high level vocabulary word. I always pose the question about what they think the word means. I love their responses and their effort in sharing their responses!

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In fourth grade we really start to focusing on finding textual support for all answers.

RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

I focus on making inferences first as that is one of the hardest skills for students to understand. To activate students background knowledge I do a few activities to have student understand what an inference is. I show students inference equations (text clues + background knowledge =inference) We also do an activity where I bring in a bag a of trash and we guess what type of person it came from based on the trash i pull out. Then we look at some pictures and point out the evidence and students make inferences about what might be happening or about to happen.

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I begin each year by having students present 10 things about their summer or themselves to begin building community in class. As we progress through the year, I have students personalize new vocabulary by doing projects on their lives. For example, we will be studying family vocabulary in the next chapter, and students have the option to present on their families (I also allow students the option to create a fictional family because some students prefer to be private). It is very interesting to see how different the latino family we study in our textbook is from the families of my students. As we move towards the end of this unit, I have students compare and contrast their families with the family we study.

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Building Background:

In this lesson, we are counting emphasizing 1 to 1 correspondence using cupcake counters. To connect to the classes personal experiences, I will ask about a time they got to eat cake or cupcakes. If a student brings up a birthday, I can relate the conversation back to counting by asking about birthday candles. Birthdays are very important for most young children, even if they aren't celebrated in the traditional American way.

Connect to Prior Learning:

I will reference our daily calendar routine, in which each student takes a turn counting and pointing to the days on the calendar with 1 to 1 correspondence. We can also look for any student birthdays on the calendar.

Vocabulary:

I would explicitly teach the words count, more, less, and same. I often fall into the trap of using words like least, and fewer, but for this lesson, I will just compare two groups and use more and less. It would be confusing for any ELs to use those words interchangeably without explanation.

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Building Background:
Pair- Share/Pose the question – “Why is phonemic awareness important? (If more scaffolding needed: How does phonemic awareness help you as a reader and writer?) Students Turn & Talk to their sharing partners and teacher circulates to listen to responses. Teacher gathers students back to whole group sharing position and shares examples of good responses and calls for others to share their conversations. Teacher restates and emphasizes poignant statements and clarifies any misconceptions.

II. Link to past experiences: Teacher will display writing samples and discuss guided reading scenarios wherein students problem-solved through the process of working through difficult words to write (construct) and read (deconstruct). Emphasis will be placed on the importance of having knowledge of discrete sounds in words to strengthen their reading and writing skills.

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Rebekah Kearns -Building math background knowlege

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Rebekah Kearns -Building math background knowlege

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Since I teach 3rd grade math, building background is connected to number sense, math vocabulary and the scope and sequence of my students math experiences.  My Third grade math curriculum assumes students can skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s.  However, some of my ELL students can not do this. So we build this skill by practicing making groups of 2, then counting them by saying each even number and not saying the odd number between.  We discuss the attributes of an even number. We look at how all even numbers end. Then we use songs and repetition to count by twos and eventually multiply numbers by 2. Another way we use to build background knowledge is to talk about how multiplication is combining equal groups and how division is sharing equal groups. We talk about things being equal groups. I ask students to think of a situation at home where they are are either combining equal groups or sharing equal groups.  Then we write about itin a story problem.

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As a

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Working as an ELL Tutor with K-6 I generally use pictures, short videos and “Thinking Map” graphic organizers to build background knowledge before reading the text. When working with beginner proficiency level students who speak Swahili I have been fortunate to have an interpreter who works with me to build background for students and assists in linking students background experiences.

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Building Background to teach 2nd Grade Reading Lesson-Describe the structure of a story

List the way’s concepts will be linked to student’s background experiences-I will explain the concept of beginning, middle, and end by using student’s daily life as examples.  I will visually chart examples of their days and then label beginning, middle, and end

·  Beginning, middle, end of our school day

·    Beginning, middle, end of lunchtime

·    Beginning, middle, end of silent reading time

Links between past learning and new concepts

I will relate to story order First, Then, Next, Last used in first grade. I will also build on students understanding of characters and setting from first grade.  The last thing I will do is explicitly teach that the beginning, middle, end is the plot using parts of a story song

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BB-Kindergarten Reading Lesson on sequencing using the story "The Three Little Pigs"

To build background of these little kiddos on what sequencing is, I will have story sequencing picture cards. They will have to arrange the pictures in a logical order to create the "story" from beginning to end.

I would also show a video of something being done in sequential order and then ask the kids what did this person did first, next, then, last. OR/AND I would have the kids explain to to the class how they get ready for bed in order, or how to make a sandwich, etc.

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6th grade writing lesson-Creating a thesis

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6th grade writing lesson-Creating a thesis

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In order to activate background knowledge, I will ask students what they know about opinions and what their opinions are about various topics, such as types of food, music, and activities.

I would also show a video of  how to design an argumentative essay's thesis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lzGy5gizKg) and have the students discuss in small groups what their opinion is about any of the two arguments in the videos and share out why they feel they way that they do.

Some vocabulary that I would pre-teach: Thesis, Argument(ative), opinion, essay, facts.

In order to teach this vocabulary, I would have students do a digital four square for each word. They can look up the words' definitions, either draw or find a picture to illustrate the words, create their own definition, and use it in a sentence.

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How to Write an Argumentative Essay by Shmoop

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My activity will have students comparing two texts written by the same author. Before doing this activity, I will partner them up and have them do a comparison activity looking at the similariMy ties and differences between themselves. They will create a chart showing things that are the same between them, and things that are different.  We would be using the words compare and contrast so that they could become familiar with this academic language before having to apply it to the texts we will be reading.

The stories we will be comparing are Lilly's big day, and Lilly's purple plastic purse.  both offer great opportunities for students to make personal connections to the story line.  In Lilly's purple plastic purse, she gets in trouble for playing with her toys in class, and then she makes a bad choice.  Students can share a time of when they got in trouble, and how they felt.  In Lilly's big day, Lillly wants to be a flower girl in her teacher's wedding.  This gives the students a chance to share what they know about weddings, if they have ever been in one, and for us to discuss what a flower girl is.

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Building Background- Primary Science Lesson

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Building Background- Primary Science Lesson

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With a primary science lesson to teach the parts of a plant, I will use these two things to build background knowledge:
1. While seated on the carpet, I will ask students what they know about the parts of a plant? What words have they heard? What did they learn in lessons 1 and 2 (this is lesson 3)? We will list what they remember and what they think they know.
2. While standing in a circle, we will watch and listen to a song about the parts of a plant. This will be to the tune of head, shoulders, knees, and toes and students will do the motions while singing the parts of the plant.
Next, we will transition to the lesson components.

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Kelly Hartman-Building Background-Culture

Anonymous
3d
Kelly Hartman-Building Background-Culture
This year I have my OTES evaluation FULL cycle! I decided to do a Social Studies lesson titled: "What is Culture?" I wanted to see what my students thought the word -Culture meant to them. I encouraged them to draw pictures, write their responses, make a poster, etc. Ironically, I had only 2 students out of 23 come up with something. As their teacher. This was a great way for me to assess and to prepare my lesson accordingly. I love giving my students choice in their learning. I think modeling and teaching them that it's not about getting the right answer, rather coming up with their own definition/words to express their thinking is so important! I have also incorporated a fun vocabulary activity that takes place daily called, "Mrs. Wordsmith." There is a visual with a cartoon word that explains a high level vocabulary word. I always pose the question about what they think the word means. I love their responses and their effort in sharing their responses!
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Anonymous
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Jeff Deighton_Building Background knowledge Inference.

Anonymous
14d
Jeff Deighton_Building Background knowledge Inference.
In fourth grade we really start to focusing on finding textual support for all answers.  

 RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. 

I focus on making inferences first as that is one of the hardest skills for students to understand.  To activate students background knowledge I do a few activities to have student understand what an inference is.  I show students inference equations (text clues + background knowledge =inference)  We also do an activity where I bring in a bag a of trash and we guess what type of person it came from based on the trash i pull out.  Then we look at some pictures and point out the evidence and students make inferences about what might be happening or about to happen.  
1 comment

Anonymous 2m
I find my 4th graders have a hard time with inference. I love your idea with the bag of trash. I'm going to borrow that idea and try it with my students.
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Spanish

matt_heslep
14d
Spanish
I begin each year by having students present 10 things about their summer or themselves to begin building community in class.  As we progress through the year, I have students personalize new vocabulary by doing projects on their lives.  For example, we will be studying family vocabulary in the next chapter, and students have the option to present on their families (I also allow students the option to create a fictional family because some students prefer to be private).  It is very interesting to see how different the latino family we study in our textbook is from the families of my students.  As we move towards the end of this unit, I have students compare and contrast their families with the family we study.  
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Preschool Math

Anonymous
17d
Preschool Math

Building Background:

In this lesson, we are counting emphasizing 1 to 1 correspondence using cupcake counters. To connect to the classes personal experiences, I will ask about a time they got to eat cake or cupcakes. If a student brings up a birthday, I can relate the conversation back to counting by asking about birthday candles. Birthdays are very important for most young children, even if they aren't celebrated in the traditional American way. 

Connect to Prior Learning:

I will reference our daily calendar routine, in which each student takes a turn counting and pointing to the days on the calendar with 1 to 1 correspondence. We can also look for any student birthdays on the calendar. 

Vocabulary:

I would explicitly teach the words count, more, less, and same. I often fall into the trap of using words like least, and fewer, but for this lesson, I will just compare two groups and use more and less. It would be confusing for any ELs to use those words interchangeably without explanation. 
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Debra Gynn

Debra Gynn
17d
Debra Gynn
Building Background: 
Pair- Share/Pose the question – “Why is phonemic awareness important? (If more scaffolding needed: How does phonemic awareness help you as a reader and writer?) Students Turn & Talk to their sharing partners and teacher circulates to listen to responses. Teacher gathers students back to whole group sharing position and shares examples of good responses and calls for others to share their conversations. Teacher restates and emphasizes poignant statements and clarifies any misconceptions.  

II. Link to past experiences: Teacher will display writing samples and discuss guided reading scenarios wherein students problem-solved through the process of working through difficult words to write (construct) and read (deconstruct). Emphasis will be placed on the importance of having knowledge of discrete sounds in words to strengthen their reading and writing skills.  
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Rebekah Kearns

Anonymous
17d
Rebekah Kearns
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Rebekah Kearns

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17d
Rebekah Kearns
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Rebekah Kearns -Building math background knowlege

Anonymous
17d
Rebekah Kearns -Building math background knowlege
Since I teach 3rd grade math, building background is connected to number sense, math vocabulary and the scope and sequence of my students math experiences.  My Third grade math curriculum assumes students can skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s.  However, some of my ELL students can not do this. So we build this skill by practicing making groups of 2, then counting them by saying each even number and not saying the odd number between.  We discuss the attributes of an even number. We look at how all even numbers end. Then we use songs and repetition to count by twos and eventually multiply numbers by 2. Another way we use to build background knowledge is to talk about how multiplication is combining equal groups and how division is sharing equal groups. We talk about things being equal groups. I ask students to think of a situation at home where they are are either combining equal groups or sharing equal groups.  Then we write about  itin a story problem. 
2 comments

Debra Gynn 17d
Debra Gynn-

Debra Gynn 17d
It is still me, Debra :-) I really appreciate how you brought to light the assumptions the core math curriculum makes and how you will work to fill in the missing links. So often, we are told to use the curriculum with "fidelity". However, when major concepts are lacking in depth, it is critical we find ways to teach the essentials.
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Lora Avens

Anonymous
17d
Lora Avens 
Working as an ELL Tutor with K-6 I generally use pictures, short videos and “Thinking Map” graphic organizers to build background knowledge before reading the text. When working with beginner proficiency level students who speak Swahili I have been fortunate to have an interpreter who works with me to build background for students and assists in linking students background experiences.

1 comment

Karen Smearsoll 17d
It is very fortunate that you have access to the interpreters to help with building background. That is one of the most difficult challenges to have for non English speakers.
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Marybeth Wampleman 2nd Grade Reading

Anonymous
17d
Marybeth Wampleman 2nd Grade Reading
Building Background to teach 2nd Grade Reading Lesson-Describe the structure of a story

List the way’s concepts will be linked to student’s background experiences-I will explain the concept of beginning, middle, and end by using student’s daily life as examples.  I will visually chart examples of their days and then label beginning, middle, and end  

·  Beginning, middle, end of our school day
·    Beginning, middle, end of lunchtime
·    Beginning, middle, end of silent reading time

 Links between past learning and new concepts

I will relate to story order First, Then, Next, Last used in first grade. I will also build on students understanding of characters and setting from first grade.  The last thing I will do is explicitly teach that the beginning, middle, end is the plot using parts of a story song

1 comment

Anonymous 17d
Elaine Mullally - Great activity. That is a great way to make a personal connection. It is also a relatable to all students because they all experience the same daily schedule while at school. Good idea!
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Christina Lam

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1mo
Christina Lam
BB-Kindergarten Reading Lesson on sequencing using the story "The Three Little Pigs"

To build background of these little kiddos on what sequencing is, I will have story sequencing picture cards. They will have to arrange the pictures in a logical order to create the "story" from beginning to end. 

I would also show a video of something being done in sequential order and then ask the kids what did this person did first, next, then, last.  OR/AND I would have the kids explain to to the class how they get ready for bed in order, or how to make a sandwich, etc. 
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Anonymous 18d
Rachel Meyrose- I think these sound like great ideas. I like how you have a visual with the picture cards, and how you will be having them pick something they are personally familiar with when working with sequential order (making a sandwich, or how they get ready for bed). This allows them to focus all attention on the concept of sequential order instead of trying to connect to an idea they are unfamiliar with. One time I had students do an activity where they had to put the steps of making a jack-o-lantern in sequential order. Some students had never carved a pumpkin before. I quickly realized these students were at a disadvantage because they didn't have the prior experience to refer to. In later years we carved a jack-o-lantern together and then talked about the steps we did first, second, third.... Sounds like you have great ideas and that it will be a great lesson
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6th grade writing lesson-Creating a thesis

Karen Smearsoll
17d
6th grade writing lesson-Creating a thesis
In order to activate background knowledge, I will ask students what they know about opinions and what their opinions are about various topics, such as types of food, music, and activities. 

I would also show a video of  how to design an argumentative essay's thesis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lzGy5gizKg) and have the students discuss in small groups what their opinion is about any of the two arguments in the videos and share out why they feel they way that they do. 

Some vocabulary that I would pre-teach: Thesis, Argument(ative), opinion, essay, facts.

In order to teach this vocabulary, I would have students do a digital four square for each word. They can look up the words' definitions, either draw or find a picture to illustrate the words, create their own definition, and use it in a sentence. 
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Anonymous 18d
Rachel Meyrose- Sounds like a great idea. You are having students get comfortable with the idea of opinions by having them discuss their opinion on things they are familiar with. Showing videos is always a great way for students to connect to concept, and I love that you will be having them work in small groups. Some students are more willing to share and participate in a smaller group than in front of the whole class. Sounds like a great plan.
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Rachel Meyrose3rd grade language arts

Anonymous
14d
Rachel Meyrose3rd grade language arts
My activity will have students comparing two texts written by the same author. Before doing this activity, I will partner them up and have them do a comparison activity looking at the similariMy ties and differences between themselves. They will create a chart showing things that are the same between them, and things that are different.  We would be using the words compare and contrast so that they could become familiar with this academic language before having to apply it to the texts we will be reading.

The stories we will be comparing are Lilly's big day, and Lilly's purple plastic purse.  both offer great opportunities for students to make personal connections to the story line.  In Lilly's purple plastic purse, she gets in trouble for playing with her toys in class, and then she makes a bad choice.  Students can share a time of when they got in trouble, and how they felt.  In Lilly's big day, Lillly wants to be a flower girl in her teacher's wedding.  This gives the students a chance to share what they know about weddings, if they have ever been in one, and for us to discuss what a flower girl is.  
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Anonymous 17d
Great job Rachel. Lessons like this make me want to teach language arts again. I like how they connected similarities and differences with themselves before actually attempting that skill. I'm sure we all have some great wedding stories to share that bring lots of smiles!

Anonymous 17d
This is Tammy, not sure why is stayed anonymous.

matt_heslep 14d
I like how specific you are in your activity. Having students present on what is similar and different helps link background knowledge to the story you are studying. You get to learn more about your students while at the same time assess their comprehension of the story. Matt Heslep
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Building Background- Primary Science Lesson

ajp43
6mo
Building Background- Primary Science Lesson
With a primary science lesson to teach the parts of a plant, I will use these two things to build background knowledge:
1. While seated on the carpet, I will ask students what they know about the parts of a plant? What words have they heard? What did they learn in lessons 1 and 2 (this is lesson 3)? We will list what they remember and what they think they know.
2. While standing in a circle, we will watch and listen to a song about the parts of a plant. This will be to the tune of head, shoulders, knees, and toes and students will do the motions while singing the parts of the plant. 
Next, we will transition to the lesson components.

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Alice Hartshorn 7mo
I like the song about the parts of a plant. Students tend to remember things more when they have a song to go with them.

Anonymous 17d
Marybeth Wampleman-I like how you plan on using questioning to activate their prior knowledge.
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Building Background

Alice Hartshorn
7mo
Building Background
Since I am doing a math lesson I will start off by asking what they know about division. I am going to explain that it relates to multiplication.  I will also use the 4 corner method to build the background of the vocabulary.  I will have the students focus on the words: quotient, divisor, dividend.  
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ajp43 7mo
The four corner activity is a great way to work on developing vocabulary. It would be interesting to see how students illustrate the math terms!
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I love the 4 corner activity.  I don't ever use it in math.  What a great idea.  I plan on trying this with my students.  Thank you for sharing.

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Since I am doing a math lesson I will start off by asking what they know about division. I am going to explain that it relates to multiplication. I will also use the 4 corner method to build the background of the vocabulary.  I will have the students focus on the words: quotient, divisor, dividend.