Building Prior Knowledge in History

1. Building Prior Knowledge in History Teaching American History in Miami-Dade County September 21, 2012 Fran Macko, Ph.D. fmacko@aihe.info

2. Why are history texts often difficult for students to comprehend? What skills do students need to become expert readers of history? What strategies can history teachers use to help their students make meaning of history texts? Framing the Session

3. What factors affect the readability of history texts? • What are the challenges that your students face when asked to read history texts? • Make a list of 3 challenges. • Turn and talk with a colleague.

4. Lack of prior knowledge Unfamiliar text structure or schema Difficulty identifying important material from less important material Academic vocabulary and abstract concepts (“isms”) Level of analysis and synthesis Role of visuals, such as maps, graphs and charts, as sources of information What factors affect the readability of history texts?

5. Our Focus: Activating Prior Knowledge Middle School • I had but a few hours warning of what was intended to be done… To prevent discovery we agreed to wear ragged clothes and disfigure ourselves, dressing to resemble Indians… At the appointed hour, we met in an old building at… the wharf, and fell in one after another, as if by accident, as not to excite suspicion. We placed a sentry at the end of the wharf, another in the middle, and one on the bow of each ship as we took possession. We boarded the ship moored by the wharf, and ordered the captain and crew to open the hatchways, and hand us the hoisting tackle and rope, assuring them that no harm was intended them. Some of our numbers then jumped into the hold, and passed the chests to the tackle. As they were hauled on deck others knocked them open with axes, and others raised them to the railings and discharged their contents overboard.

6. Our Focus: Activating Prior Knowledge High School • We are convinced that the political values of reprisal require a continuous operation. Episodic responses geared on a one-for-one basis to "spectacular" outrages would lack the persuasive force of sustained pressure. More important still, they would leave it open to the Communists to avoid reprisals entirely by giving up only a small element of their own program. The Gulf of Tonkin affair produced a sharp upturn in morale in the South. When it remained an isolated episode, however, there was a severe relapse. It is the great merit of the proposed scheme that to stop it the Communists would have to stop enough of their activity in the South to permit the probable success of a determined pacification effort....

7. What event does this passage describe? How did you know? How did you acquire this knowledge? Based on this passage, what questions might you have about this event? How does what we know about a topic generate further questions?

8. How does prior knowledge support learning? • What is the role of prior knowledge in the learning process? • What is one reason why teachers activate prior knowledge? • What is one strategy you use to activate prior knowledge? • Turn and talk with a colleague.

9. How does prior knowledge support learning? • Prior knowledge: • supports students in making connections to the text or the content. • creates a foundation for new facts, ideas and concepts. • activates student interest and curiosity, and creates a purpose for learning. • A discussion of prior knowledge alerts the teacher to gaps in the students' knowledge and/or misconceptions the students have.

10. How do teachers activate prior knowledge? • Popular strategies for activating prior knowledge are: • Brainstorming • Anticipation Guides • Semantic Maps/ Webs • KWL Charts • What are the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies?

11. All four strategies depend upon students’ having knowledge about an historical event or individual. • The KWL strategy also depends upon students’ having questions about the event or individual. • To what extent do our students have prior knowledge about history? • What can we do as teachers when students lack prior knowledge or have inaccurate information?

12. Janet Allen on the KWL Strategy • Janet Allen in Reading History: “In my classroom, I often tried using a KWL approach at the beginning of a unit or the study of an historical event. I usually met with an amazing lack of success. I would ask my students what they knew about a topic and they would say, ‘Nothing.’ When I asked them what they wanted to know, they would say ‘Nothing.’ I finally realized that KWL was going to work with my students only if I did something to build background and create an emotional connection to the topic that we were going to study”.

13. BKWLQ or Writing to Learn is a variation of the KWL instructional strategy that helps students build prior knowledge, make meaningful connections and ask questions. B= building background KWL= know, want to know and learned Q= questions So…how can teachers build prior knowledge and engage students?

14. What are the strengths of the BKWLQ strategy? • BKWLQ: • takes 40-45 minutes or one class period. • can be used to introduce a unit, a topic, or an individual person or event. • creates background for and interest in the unit of study. • provides a visual structure for learning. • provides a springboard for inquiry and project-based learning. • can be referred to and built upon throughout the unit.

15. In BKWLQ, teachers choose three different sources on the same topic. They choose and order the sources so that each new one builds on the previous one by adding more information and emotional content. What are the steps in the strategy?

16. The selection of sources supports students in understanding multiple perspectives on the same event in history. • Why is an understanding of multiple perspectives important in history?

17. Understanding multiple perspectives is critical for reading like an historian • Textbooks often present only one historical perspective • Primary and secondary sources reflect diverse and often opposing perspectives • Understanding multiple perspectives is critical for thinking like an historian • Historians don’t settle for one perspective on an historical issue; they piece together many, sometimes competing, versions of events to construct an accurate interpretation. • History is not a stagnant or closed-end subject. As new documents are analyzed and evaluated by historians, the interpretation of an event evolves

18. Step One • Students read or view the first source and identify and list 3facts about the event that they have identified from what they have read or viewed. • This step supports students in distinguishing between fact and opinion in history.

19. Step Two • Students then list one or more responses or connections to what they have read or viewed. These can be: • Text to text • Text to self • Text to world • Text to other events in history

20. Step Three • Finally, students list the questions that they have after reading or viewing the source. • How does questioning support learning?

21. Questioning improves comprehension in four ways: • by fostering interaction with the text • by creating motivation to read • by clarifying information in the text • by supporting inferring beyond the literal meaning • Students who ask questions when they read assume responsibility for their learning. • Effective readers ask questions when they learn something new or read something unfamiliar. • Asking questions facilitates the learning of new material and leads to more sophisticated questions.

22. BKWLQ is a flexible strategy that can be used with a variety of sources and with a variety of grade levels and student populations. Primary Sources Non-Fiction Fiction Interviews Artifacts Videos Periodicals Poetry Music Art What types of sources can be used for BKWLQ?

23. The first source should be the most objective and fact-filled. The second source should be more narrative and personal. The third source should be the most subjective and emotionally compelling. What are the criteria for selecting sources?

24. What types of sources lend themselves to each level of BKWLQ? • Refer back to the slide on the types of sources that can be used for the BKWLQ strategy. • Which sources would work best for each level (one, two, and three)? • Make a list and share with a colleague.

25. What is lifting text? • BKWLQ works best when the selections are “lifted” from longer texts. • Lifting text involves the selection of a specific piece or pieces of text from a larger selection to give students a “taste” of the content. • Lifting text for the BKWLQ strategy: • provides some, but not all of the information about the historical event • supports the 45 minute timeframe • generates student interest and questions

26. The BKWLQ Graphic Organizer

27. Modeling the Strategy to Build Prior Knowledge of an Historical Event

28. Middle SchoolThe Boston Tea Party • Form groups of 3-4. • Individually read each of the three sources and complete the graphic organizer for each source. • Discuss your responses as a group and create a master list of facts, connections and questions.

29. The Boston Tea Party Source #1 Overview of The Boston Tea Party http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/history.asp • Generic • Fact filled • Objective

30. The Boston Tea Party Source #2 Boston Gazette Account of The Boston Tea Party http://www.boston-tea-party.org/account-boston-gazette.html • Narrative • More personalized

31. The Boston Tea Party Source #3 Eyewitness Account of George Hewes http://ahp.gatech.edu/tea_party_account_1773.html • First person narrative • Highly descriptive • Emotionally charged

32. High SchoolThe Vietnam War • Form groups of 3-4. • Individually read each of the three sources and complete the graphic organizer for each source. • Discuss your responses as a group and create a master list of facts, connections and questions.

33. The Vietnam War Source #1 Overview of the Vietnam War • Generic • Fact filled • Objective

34. The Vietnam War Source #2 The My Lai Massacre Time Magazine, November 28, 1969 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840403-3,00.html • Narrative • More personalized

35. The Vietnam War Source #3 Pure Torture by Thomas Moe Notre Dame Magazine, Winter 1995-96 http://history1900s.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=history1900s&cdn=education&tm=31&gps=50_897_1003_527&f=10&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.pownetwork.org/bios/m/m114.htm • First person narrative • Highly descriptive • Emotionally charged

36. Adapting BKWLQ to Your Classroom • How might you use BKWLQ in your social studies classroom? • What is one adaptation to the strategy would you make for the students you teach? • What is one additional source you would use? • Talk in your grade level groups.

37. Adaptations include those: • To the selection of texts/ sources (consider adding a source that reflects local history) • To the template • To the method of use • To the length of the texts/ sources • To the level of vocabulary • To the timeframe • To the method of presentation

38. Next Steps for BKWLQ • Once students have generated a lists of facts, responses/ connections and questions about a topic, event or individual: • Organize the facts into categories using a brainstorm or concept map (SPEC is one organizational structure). • Add to the list of facts at the end of each lesson. • Review the questions at the end of each lesson and have students identify those that were answered. Then have students write a response to these questions.

39. Add new questions that were generated as a result of the lesson. • At the end of the unit, have students research questions that remain unanswered. • Add new connections/ responses at the end of each lesson. • What other “next steps” can you think of? • Turn and talk with a colleague.