-How important is accessing prior knowledge for students? (Baseball study) How do you immerse students in background knowledge or text sets to facilitate activation?
Accessing background knowledge is so much more than just introducing a text where the teacher gives information, not letting the students actively pull out what they already know. Beers' advice of less telling and more thinking stuck with me as I read. I have been guilty of this but also allowed my students to make predictions after giving a brief overview, look over vocabulary and have discussions about what they visualize with such words. I would however now incorporate a rating chart as mentioned in chapter 7. I use KWL charts with my students but not as effectively as I could have with the KWL 2.0.
As mentioned, prior knowledge will support new learning. If students already know about a topic, they will be the ones to seek help more than those who have had less experience with such topics. Low prior knowledge makes students less likely to reach out because they have so much more to learn. This made so much sense. They are already spent before they even start. Students need a chance to talk and ask questions and when they say that they don't know, I'm going to remind them that they do know something. I don't remember the specific section that offered that response but I'm going to start using it.
So many great techniques were mentioned to help students activate prior knowledge instead of feeding them info. before reading. I would love to incorporate anticipation guides to help students see how their prior thinking has changed. I would adjust my KWL charts to make them more like the KWL 2.0 where making connections between what students know and what they want to learn can enhance their learning. New knowledge needs to be connected to previous knowledge and when students learn that something is different from what they thought, that takes it to that next level. Oh and the "Tea Party"...we'll be having some of those!
-Multiple exposures are important for retention and independence. How will you offer these opportunities?
Having printed, digital and audio texts would be very beneficial. Incorporating scaffolds with audio texts could help dependent readers so they know what to do when something in the text is confusing. Introducing these scaffolds or charts as I model struggling through a text can help the students when they go on to reading their own. I would make sure that the students helped create these charts and have them make their own because what may work well for one may not be what someone else needs.
I would model multiple reads through a challenging text but show how each time through, I would interact differently with the text and rate my understating each time. I would model how I make sense of difficult reads, paying attention to unknown vocabulary, text boxes/side notes; noting strategies I use that are unseen. I would show how I would have to reread certain words or sections. While modeling, I would also make sure to have conversations about my struggles and ask students what strategies they may use.
-What strategies stuck out to you in this chapter and what ones and how will you bring them into your instruction?
All mentioned above and these "After Reading Scaffolds"
- Somebody Wanted But So when working on summarizing, character studies, problem/solution-I would introduce this in the beginning of the school year with our narrative unit. I'd have students share their statements and compare when working in small groups and in partnerships to encourage conversations. These conversations will help students build upon their connections through others' points of view.
- Retelling for setting, characters, main idea/detail, elaboration and/or sequence to help readers organize their thoughts. I would model a retelling, having students keep track of what I am including by using the retelling rubric until they are familiar enough with what's expected to try on their own with their own texts.
- The Three Big Questions for questioning a text to improve comprehension. I like using this by dividing up jobs much like we do for literature circles or book clubs. One student summarizes, one predicts, one clarifies-then the jobs rotate...all helping students focus on specific parts, later allowing them to share with others, possibly changing their thinking.