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Activating Prior Knowledge

Tags

Science Social Studies Mathematics ELA: Reading ^21st Century Skills All Ages Strategy

Skills

Flexible Thinking Verbal Reasoning Abstract Reasoning

Activating Prior Knowledge

If your student struggles to understand new or unfamiliar concepts or easily forgets core foundational knowledge

Instruction And Practice

  1. Objective: Explain the relationship between new content with previously learned material so students build on prior understanding by noticing similarities and differences.
  2. Present similarities and differences between new material and already-learned material to deepen understanding, give more purpose to the new content, and help with retention.
  3. Implement this instructional strategy at the beginning of a unit to prime students to make connections. As the unit progresses, continue to support students in connecting new information with what they already know.
  4. Formatively assess students' prior knowledge to help you construct your lessons and build on that knowledge.
  5. Use a daily warm up. Give problems you believe students understand that are relevant as core knowledge for understanding the new topic you will be teaching. If needed, review the previously learned content. As you teach the new material, tie in the relevant connections to the warm up.
  6. Provide optional reading or homework problems in advance of lessons. Encourage students to complete the assignment if they feel they forgot the content because you will be referencing it in the next day's lesson.

Use It In Your Instructional Practice

  1. Explain why: Thinking about how new information connects or is relevant to what you already know helps you understand the new material because it will feel more familiar or similar to what you have done in the past.
  2. Model how to make a chart to brainstorm the similarities and differences between the new topic and the comparison topic.
  3. Provide a template or teach students how to use Venn Diagrams or a 2x2 matrix to organize their ideas.

Understand Why It Is Important

  1. Activating background knowledge before being introduced to new information strengthens a student's understanding. Identifying similarities and differences enables students to differentiate the content and how and when you would use the new information in relation to what they have known and done in the past.
  2. Activation will be important for all students but particularly those with weaker abstract or verbal reasoning who might not naturally make connections, or students with weaker memory skills who might have forgotten previously taught content.