Activating Prior Knowledge and Building Background
READY
What do I know?
It is important to use students’
prior knowledge to guide future
learning. They will understand
concepts better if they can
connect it to something they
already know. Most successful
lessons have some sort of
activity that gets students
thinking about their prior
knowledge before getting into
the meat of the lesson.
SET
What new information do I
think I will gather?
I expect to find out more about
why it is important to access
students’ prior knowledge. I
also expect to learn some new
strategies for bringing up
students’ prior knowledge and
the best way to connect prior
knowledge to the current
lesson.
GO
What new information do I
have?
We have to be careful when
accessing prior knowledge
because if we focus too much
on it, students may begin to
think they already know the
topic and ignore new
information. Also, assuming
students have prior knowledge
when they really do not could
disadvantage some students,
especially those that are
underachieving.
Students do need some
surface level knowledge to rely
on as they dive into deeper
learning.
Prior knowledge can be used
as a tool for motivation
because it helps students
relate the content back to their
own lives and understanding.
WHOA
What questions do I still have?
How do we access students’
prior knowledge if our students
all have different experiences?
Obviously, their prior
knowledge might not always
be the same.
What do we do if we assume a
student has prior knowledge of
a topic and find that they really
don’t or lack understanding?
How do we get students to
explore new perspectives and
not reject them because they
have prior assumptions about
a topic?