Activating Prior Knowledge and Building Background
READY
What do I know?
I know that it is crucial for
teachers to connect students’
prior knowledge to lessons in
the classroom so that they can
stay motivated to learn and be
engaged throughout.
SET
What new information do I
think I will gather?
I think I will gather good tools
for helping students build
knowledge that will help them
bridge the new information
learned in our lessons to the
things that they know or are
relevant to their lives.
GO
What new information do I
have?
I now have the information to
be able to implement how to
build background knowledge
for students by having them
reflect on what they already
know or by encouraging them
to think about its relevance.
WHOA
What questions do I still have?
- How can we relate our
lessons to student lives
in the beginning of the
year before we know
the things that interest
them individually?
- How do we check
students’ prior
knowledge from
previous school years
instead of just
assuming that they are
all on the same playing
field?