Activating Prior Knowledge According to Into the Book (2015), "Readers activate what they currently understand or misunderstand about the topic and use this knowledge before, during, and after reading to clarify misconceptions and understand the text." Comprehension is when students make connections between what they already know and what they don't know, so students use their background knowledge to make deeper understandings to help with comprehension of what they read (Gunning, 2013). "Background knowledge is made up of a person's experiences with the world (including what he or she has read), along with his or her concepts for how written text works, including word identification, print concepts, word meaning, and how text is organized" (Reading Rockets, 2015). Connections students make as they read include: "text to self, text to world, and text to text" (Activating Prior Knowledge, 2015).
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While reading, good readers think about the text and consider how it fits in with what they have already learned (their schema). Therefore, they continuously build upon their currently developed schema. As students grow, they are exposed and make connections to new information. "For example, a very young child's schema for dog might contain only her or his understanding of the family pet — something white, furry, and fun to play with" (Reading Rockets, 2015). As this child is exposed to various dogs, his or her schema for dogs may change. "It may connect to other schema - types of dogs; colors of dogs; foods dogs eat; places where dogs stay when the family is on vacation; dangerous dogs; who veterinarians are; and locations of important dog shows" (Reading Rockets, 2015).
Research pertaining to the schema theory shows, "good readers constantly connect their background knowledge to the new knowledge they encounter in a text" (Reading Rockets, 2015).
Research pertaining to the schema theory shows, "good readers constantly connect their background knowledge to the new knowledge they encounter in a text" (Reading Rockets, 2015).
These images show how students activate their prior knowledge while reading. Students can make connections to text. For example, a book that they have read before. Students can make connections to self, by relating to past experiences in their lives. Finally, students can make connections to the world. For example, they can connect to what they see in the news.
In this video (click link to the right), a fourth grade teacher teaches her class the strategy of activating prior knowledge. She begins the lesson by asking her students to give examples and explain how to activate prior knowledge. After activating students' prior knowledge, they begin to read a book about immigration.
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Content Area Examples:
Type of Learners:
All learners benefit from the activation of their prior knowledge. Through activating prior knowledge, students can make text to self, text to text and text to world connections. With these connections being made, students begin to gain better comprehension skills.
Content Area Examples:
- During a math lesson, the teacher could ask her students to think about what they learned last year related to fact families. By asking this question, students are activating their prior knowledge to think about what they have learned. Students' responses give the teacher informal feedback about what students know and could use more instruction on in future lessons.
- In a science lesson, the teacher could activate students' prior knowledge by having students look at various images of animal tracks. The students could be asked to look at the images and explain what connections they made to them. This activity is an example of activating prior knowledge because students may have different experiences or connections that come to mind.
- Before reading aloud, the teacher can activate students' prior knowledge by looking at the illustrations on the cover of the book. Students' responses give the teacher a better understanding of what students already know about the book's topic. Also, it gets the students to be actively engaged, and anticipating what the story will be about.
- Prior to a unit test, the teacher could informally review what students learned in social studies by asking them questions. The questions would help activate their prior knowledge, as well as, be a review for what they should study for the upcoming test.
Type of Learners:
All learners benefit from the activation of their prior knowledge. Through activating prior knowledge, students can make text to self, text to text and text to world connections. With these connections being made, students begin to gain better comprehension skills.
Anticipation Guide
According to Reading Rockets (2015), "An anticipation guide is a comprehension strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic." Prior to reading, students read a list of statements about a given topic and begin to make connections with a text they will soon read. Anticipation guides are typically set up as a list of statements where students decide whether to agree or disagree with what is being stated. "Doing this in advance sets students' assumptions in place. As they read, they will be looking to confirm those assumptions -- or to "have their eyes open" to learning new information that refutes them" (Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension, 2015). The anticipation guide strategy is useful for students because it stimulates their interest, teaches them to make and verify predictions, and make connections to their prior knowledge. The guides, "engage all students in the exploration of new information by challenging them to critically think about what they know or think they know about a topic" (All About Adolescent Literacy, 2015). Therefore, they help set a purpose for reading. Another benefit of anticipation guides is that they "can be revisited after reading to evaluate how well students understood the material and to correct any misconceptions" (All About Adolescent Literacy, 2015).
How to use the Anticipation Guide Strategy (All About Adolescent Literacy, 2015):
How to use the Anticipation Guide Strategy (All About Adolescent Literacy, 2015):
- Have students complete the anticipation guide before reading. They may work by themselves, in pairs or small groups. Remind students that they should be prepared to discuss and debate their reactions to the statements on the anticipation guide after they have completed it.
- After students have finished the guide, encourage a class discussion of students' reactions to the statements. Remember, you want to activate their critical thinking about the topic, so dig deeper than students' answers and get to their justifications.
- Have students read the text with their anticipation guide responses fresh in their minds so they can react to the text as they read. Encourage students to mark or write down where the text supports their initial reaction to statements, or causes them to rethink those reactions.
- Have a class discussion after reading. Ask students if any of them changed their position on any of the statements. Encourage students to share how they reacted to the text, given their initial responses captured in the anticipation guide. Make sure students share examples from the text where their initial responses were either supported or challenged.
This is an example of how an anticipation guide could be used in a classroom as an anchor chart. The teacher would lead the class in completing the guide to anticipate whether the statements are true or false. By using this strategy, students make connections to prior knowledge and prepare for the upcoming lesson.
This image shows a student using the strategy of an anticipation guide to set the purpose for what will be read next in the classroom. It helps students connect prior knowledge to new information as well as builds student's curiosity for the next read.
This video shows us how a second grade teacher in Illinois uses the anticipation guide strategy in her classroom. The teacher asks the students questions to activate their prior knowledge, as well as make predictions about what they think could happen within the story. This strategy is helpful in building student's comprehension skills in addition to making them curious about what they are going to read.
Content Area Examples:
Type of Learner:
This strategy is a good strategy for emergent learners. An anticipation guide allows students to use their background knowledge as well as their reading and comprehension skill to make predictions about a story or text. This is a higher level Bloom's Taxonomy strategy that builds student's critical thinking skills.
Content Area Examples:
- Prior to a science experiment, students could use an anticipation guide to predict the results. For example, students will anticipate how many days it will take until their seeds germinate. Using the guide, students will choose to agree or disagree with the statements provided about germination periods.
- An anticipation guide could be used during a read-aloud for a language arts lesson. Prior to the read-aloud, the students could be shown the front cover of the book, and based off of what they see they would complete the guide. After reading the book, students could re-visit what they filled out on their guide to see if it was similar to what actually happened in the book.
- During a history lesson, students could use the anticipation guide strategy to predict what the new unit on the Civil War will be about. By have students agree or disagree with the statements, allows the teacher to informally assess what the class already knows or doesn't know about the upcoming unit.
- Before introducing a health lesson on the body, students could complete an anticipation guide pertaining to the unit. Students could check whether they thought the statements were true or false. Then, after the lesson, the class could go back to their anticipation guides to see if what they had originally thought was actually true.
Type of Learner:
This strategy is a good strategy for emergent learners. An anticipation guide allows students to use their background knowledge as well as their reading and comprehension skill to make predictions about a story or text. This is a higher level Bloom's Taxonomy strategy that builds student's critical thinking skills.
References for Activating Prior Knowledge:
Activating Prior Knowledge. (2015). Retrieved October 21, 2015, from https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/reading- comprehension/48540.html
Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children in Grades Pre-K to 4. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
Into the Book: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies. (2015). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from http://reading.ecb.org/
Reading Rockets. (2015). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/
Images/Videos:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8oZDHLywDIo/TtUN_gZOY8I/AAAAAAAAAPU/or4ujlXdo3g/s1600/texttoself.png
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yxaLlXKjcUs/TtUN_yCsRsI/AAAAAAAAAPc/4Ro5x0oqdUk/s1600/texttext.png
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-auIXRrP_34I/TtUN_UeZo1I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/7zSt1KhhWJ4/s1600/textworld.png
http://reading.ecb.org/professionallearning/priorknowledge.html
References for Anticipation Guide:
All About Adolescent Literacy. (2015). Retrieved October 22, 2015, from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19712/
Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension. (2015). Retrieved October 22, 2015, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp067.shtml
Reading Rockets. (2015). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/
Images/Videos:
http://www.thecreativeappleteaching.com/2012/08/anticipation-guides.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/strategy_anticipationguide.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQCKXQUquTc
Activating Prior Knowledge. (2015). Retrieved October 21, 2015, from https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/reading- comprehension/48540.html
Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children in Grades Pre-K to 4. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
Into the Book: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies. (2015). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from http://reading.ecb.org/
Reading Rockets. (2015). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/
Images/Videos:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8oZDHLywDIo/TtUN_gZOY8I/AAAAAAAAAPU/or4ujlXdo3g/s1600/texttoself.png
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yxaLlXKjcUs/TtUN_yCsRsI/AAAAAAAAAPc/4Ro5x0oqdUk/s1600/texttext.png
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-auIXRrP_34I/TtUN_UeZo1I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/7zSt1KhhWJ4/s1600/textworld.png
http://reading.ecb.org/professionallearning/priorknowledge.html
References for Anticipation Guide:
All About Adolescent Literacy. (2015). Retrieved October 22, 2015, from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19712/
Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension. (2015). Retrieved October 22, 2015, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp067.shtml
Reading Rockets. (2015). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/
Images/Videos:
http://www.thecreativeappleteaching.com/2012/08/anticipation-guides.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/strategy_anticipationguide.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQCKXQUquTc