Activating Prior Knowledge

1. Activating Prior Knowledge APK is used to provide a connection between something students already know and the new content they are going to learn

2. Activating Prior Knowledge APK explicitly retrieves pertinent information from long-term memory and places it into working memory so students are now consciously thinking about it.

3. Activating Prior Knowledge The teacher then shows the students how the existing knowledge is related to the new content. Now the new content is easier to learn because there is relevant existing knowledge available on which to connect the new knowledge.

4. Activating Prior Knowledge When you APK you make sure that you are eliciting students’ existing knowledge, not test students to see if they already know new content.

5. Activating Prior Knowledge Example: If you are preparing a lesson on the effects of the major battles in WWII, don’t start the lesson by having the students write on their whiteboards all the battles they know from WWII. This won’t APK. Instead, ask students to write down something general about war. This will “ready” their minds to receive new information about WWII.

6. Why Activating Prior Knowledge? When students’ prior knowledge is explicitly taught, it’s easier for them to learn new content because the brain wants to integrate new information with what it already knows. When you APK, you are preparing the mind to accept and retain new information.

7. How do you select the knowledge to APK? Look at the LO. The LO already contains the knowledge to activate. You activate students’ prior knowledge relating to either the LO’s concept or the LO’s skill.

8. So if the APK is… Compare and contrast, pick one and you can activate students’ prior knowledge of either compare or contrast. You should try to APK the concept rather than the skill (i.e. analyze, identify, and evaluate).

9. 2 ways to APK Universal experience: you activate something from the students’ prior life experiences that is related to the new learning.

10. 2 ways to APK Sub-skill review: you re-teach a sub-skill that is needed for the new lesson.

11. What does APKing a sub-skill look like? You must first identify pertinent sub-skills needed in the new lesson. You then review these sub-skills

12. Why APK sub-kills? For students that are weak in the sub-skills, you will teach them the sub-skill. Even though these students are not proficient in the sub-skills, they now have the methodology in their working memories. Then during the lesson, they will apply the sub-skill many times in context with the new learning.

13. APK’ing a sub-skill Most often in mathematics. For example: Teacher is going to teach the Pythagorean theorem. The theorem only applies to right triangles, triangles with 90-degree right angle. The theorem states that the sum of the squares of the legs is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. Teacher remembers that last year some students misapplied the theorem. She will start by emphasizing that a right triangle always has a 90-degree angle. She will explain that the hypotenuse has the longest side on a triangle and that the legs are the two shortest sides. Teacher has a labeled copy of a right triangle on the wall for students to refer to during the lesson. She will reinforce the right triangle components many times over in context during the lesson while applying the Pythagorean theorem.

14. How to Activating Prior Knowledge Step 1: APK of skill or concept using a universal experience or a sub-skill review. Below is a table to show how you can do it. There are four different ways. APK

15. Activating Prior Knowledge Always give an example then ask then to TPS. When APK’ing a sub-skill, work out one problem with them and then have them “whiteboard” a second.

16. Activating Prior Knowledge Step 2: Facilitate student interaction. You faciliate students in describing their own relevant experiences. Having students write on their whiteboard is a good way of doing this. During a sub-skill review, students interact during CFU by answering questions or solving problems about a pertinent sub-skill you just re-taught.

17. Activating Prior Knowledge Step 3: Explain the connection to the new lesson. You conclude the APK by explicity explaining to your students the connection between what they already know and what they are going to learn next.

18. How long should APK take? No more than 5 minutes. You should spend the bulk of the lesson on the new grade level content.

19. Using APK to start an EDI lesson can be effective for student learning EDI lessons don’t always have to start with the LO. Sometimes lessons flow better if you start with APK instead and then slide into the LO after the students’ brains have been activated.

20. Let’s look at some examples of APK Step 1:Activate prior experiences: Describe the effects of changes in supply and demand on the price of products using supply and demand elasticity plots. “Students, take out your whiteboards and draw a vertical line down the middle. Before we start today’s class, I want you to think about the price of things you buy or want to buy. And I want you to think about what you do when the price of something gets too high. Let me give you an example.”

21. Let’s look at some examples of APK The teacher draws a vertical line on the overhead projector. On the left side he write high cost of gas. On the right side he writes looked at hybrid car that gets better gas mileage (teacher is providing first example).

22. Let’s look at some examples of APK Step 2: Facilitate student interaction: “Now I want all of you to write on the left side of your whiteboard something you think is getting too expensive. On the right side, write what you are going to do about it or are thinking of doing about it.” After some student discussion, he selects several to read from their whiteboards.

23. Let’s look at some examples of APK Step 3: Explain the connection to the new lesson. “Students, every single one of you has done something in response to high prices. You modified your purchasing, didn’t you? Well, this certainly is going to make today’s lesson easier because you already have personal experiences with the prices of products, which is what today’s lesson is all about.

24. Activating Prior Knowledge In the previous example, the teacher did not mention the words “supply and demand elasticity plot.” Never use new vocabulary when APK’ing. An effective APK connects the new learning without using any of the new vocabulary words from the lesson.

25. APK’ing using a sub-skill Compare and contrast life in Athens and Sparta. Step 1: APK using a sub-skill review. “Students, how many of you have pets at home? Let’s quickly compare and contrast cats and dogs. Let’s identify characteristics that are the same and those that are different.”

26. APK’ing using a sub-skill Step 2: Facilitate student interaction. “Students, draw a vertical line up and down on your whiteboards to divide it in half. Label the left side same. Label the right side different. Now I want you to write something that is the same for both cats and dogs on the left side. Then write something that is different on the right side. I am going to write one first. For both, I am going to write four legs. For different, I am going to write that cats meow and dogs bark. Now you write something that is the same and something that is different. “ The teacher reads various student responses around the room quickly.

27. APK’ing using a sub-skill Step 3: Explain the connection: “Well, students, you already know how to compare and contrast, and that is what we are going to do today,. We will use graphic organizers but it won’t say cats and dogs. We will be reading a chapter from our history book and using that information to compare and contrast life in Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece. We will identify things that are the same and things that are different. Already knowing how to compare and contrast will help you in today’s lesson.

28. Activating Prior Knowledge You can read the remainder of the APK chapter to see 4 of the possible ways to presenting APK to your students.