Chapter 2 Placing Background Knowledge in Daily Teaching

1. Chapter 2Placing Background Knowledge in Daily Teaching Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2009). Background Knowledge: The Missing Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

2. Today’s Purposes • Examine a structured approach to teaching • Discuss examples of how a gradual release of responsibility is used to activate and build background knowledge

3. Table Talk What are the biggest challenges for your students regarding background knowledge? What approaches do you use to overcome these?

4. 3 Practices Linked to Background Knowledge • Assess what students already know • Plan lessons and activities that build background knowledge • Design ways to activate students’ knowledge by having them interact with content

5. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it together” Collaborative Independent “You do it alone” STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY A Model for Success for All Students Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

6. Activating and Building Background Knowledge in One Classroom • 8th grade social studies • Core knowledge for the course is on growth and conflict • Major theme for the course: This period of U.S. history was marked with successes and failures brought about by the decisions of leaders and citizens.

7. Assessing Background Knowledge: Opinionnaire

8. Assessing Background Knowledge: Cloze Passage

9. Activating Background Knowledge: Role Play • “Loyalists” and “Patriots” use a list of reasons offered by each to produce a broadside (newspaper) • Posted the broadsides in the hallway • Read and debated

10. Building Background Knowledge: Think-aloud She says, “I’ve heard about Parliament before. That’s the name of the group of representatives in Britain that made laws. I learned about Parliament when I read about England taking over the colonies from the Dutch one hundred years earlier. I recall now that Parliament also came up with the plan to ship prisoners from English jails to the colonies. Hmmm…it seems like Parliament didn’t always have the colonies’ best interests in mind when they made decisions.” She reads,“The colonists objected to paying King George’s taxes without having a voice in Parliament. They called it taxation without representation. And while the tax on tea was a small one, just three cents a pound, it was regarded as a symbol of British tyranny” (p. 2).

11. Building Background Knowledge: Independent Reading • Teacher provides a range of reading materials • Differentiated texts reflect the range of readers in the room • Wide reading is effective for building background knowledge IF the text isn’t too difficult

12. Building Background Knowledge: Guided Instruction

13. Table Talk In what ways does a gradual release of responsibility model of instruction interact with background knowledge?

14. Assessing Your Practice

15. Building Your Own Background Knowledge • Learn more about a gradual release of responsibility model of instruction in Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Releasing responsibility. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 32—37. • Read an excellent summary of scaffolded instruction from the Ohio Department of Education at http://ims.ode.state.oh.us/ode/ims/rrt/research/Content/scaffolding_what_we_know.asp