Building Background Knowledge and Vocabulary

1. Building Background Knowledge and Vocabulary

2. Essential Question… • How do I think about, plan, and deliver instruction so that students can learn it faster and keep it longer?

3. Robert Marzano • Learning new content is strongly correlated to students’ background knowledge about a subject. • Background knowledge is a predictor of success in school.

4. Know – Want to Know – Learn

5. Strategies to Build Background Knowledge • Picture Walks • Advanced Organizers • Using Picture Books • Tea Party Strategy • Word Webs • List, Group, Label • Rate Your Knowledge • Predicting ABCs • Wordsplash

6. Picture Walks • Scan picture books • Looking for patterns, features • Record notes • Unknown vocabulary • Discuss observations

7. Advanced Organizers • Graphic Organizers – perhaps the most common way to help students generate nonlinguistic representations • Combine linguistic mode in that they use words and phrases, and the nonlinguistic mode in that they use symbols and arrows to represent relationships

8. Using Picture Books • Particularly effective when the students do not have background knowledge • Gives base information • Visuals are engaging • Make predictions

9. Picture Books • Casey Over There – World War I • The Butter Battle Book – Cold War • Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot – Berlin Airlift • Pie Biter – Transcontinental Railroad • Seaman’s Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark – US Expansion • George Did It – Setting the Precedent for the Presidency • The Great Migration – Migration of African Americans from the South to the North, beginning around World War I

10. Tea Party Strategy • Engaging reading strategy – helps students activate background knowledge, anticipate what the will read, make predictions before they read, and make connections to information

11. Word Webs • Visual organizers to help students build background knowledge Clothing Shelter American Indians Transportation Food Miscellaneous Information

12. List, Group, Label • List essential words… • Categorize the words… • Defend categorize…

13. RateYour Knowledge • Graphic Organizer – used for prior knowledge to assess students’ familiarity with words and give them a purpose for reading • Builds confidence before reading because they recognize the words before beginning text

14. Predicting ABCs • Help students activate and build background knowledge and make predictions about the content of the material they will be reading. • Helps set a purpose for reading.

15. Wordsplash • Students make predictions about the text, make connections among the words, and generates interest. • Students examine words and predict how the words are related to one another and to the topic • Write statements showing relationships prior to reading. • Read the text and see if their predictions were accurate. • After reading, revise statements to include accurate information.