Chapter 2: Placing Background Knowledge in Daily Teaching

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Chapter 2Placing Background Knowledge in Daily
Teaching
Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2009). Background
Knowledge The Missing Piece of the Comprehension
Puzzle. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
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Todays Purposes

• Examine a structured approach to teaching
• Discuss examples of how a gradual release of
  responsibility is used to activate and build
  background knowledge

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Table Talk

• What are the biggest challenges for your
  students regarding background knowledge? What
  approaches do you use to overcome these?

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3 Practices Linked to Background Knowledge

• Assess what students already know
• Plan lessons and activities that build background
  knowledge
• Design ways to activate students knowledge by
  having them interact with content

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TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
We do it
You do it together
Collaborative
Independent
You do it alone
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
A Model for Success for All Students
Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2008). Better Learning
Through Structured Teaching A Framework for the
Gradual Release of Responsibility. Alexandria,
VA Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
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Activating and Building Background Knowledge in
One Classroom

• 8th grade social studies
• Core knowledge for the course is on growth and
  conflict
• Major theme for the course This period of U.S.
  history was marked with successes and failures
  brought about by the decisions of leaders and
  citizens.

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Assessing Background Knowledge Opinionnaire
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Assessing Background Knowledge Cloze Passage
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Activating Background Knowledge Role Play

• Loyalists and Patriots use a list of reasons
  offered by each to produce a broadside
  (newspaper)
• Posted the broadsides in the hallway
• Read and debated

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Building Background Knowledge Think-aloud

• She says, Ive heard about Parliament before.
  Thats the name of the group of representatives
  in Britain that made laws. I learned about
  Parliament when I read about England taking over
  the colonies from the Dutch one hundred years
  earlier. I recall now that Parliament also came
  up with the plan to ship prisoners from English
  jails to the colonies. Hmmmit seems like
  Parliament didnt always have the colonies best
  interests in mind when they made decisions.

She reads, The colonists objected to paying King
Georges taxes without having a voice in
Parliament. They called it taxation without
representation. And while the tax on tea was a
small one, just three cents a pound, it was
regarded as a symbol of British tyranny (p. 2).
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Building Background Knowledge Independent Reading

• Teacher provides a range of reading materials
• Differentiated texts reflect the range of readers
  in the room
• Wide reading is effective for building background
  knowledge IF the text isnt too difficult

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Building Background Knowledge Guided Instruction
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Table Talk

• In what ways does a gradual release of
  responsibility model of instruction interact with
  background knowledge?

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Assessing Your Practice
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Building Your Own Background Knowledge

• Learn more about a gradual release of
  responsibility model of instruction in Fisher,
  D., Frey, N. (2008). Releasing responsibility.
  Educational Leadership, 66(3), 3237.
• Read an excellent summary of scaffolded
  instruction from the Ohio Department of Education
  at http//ims.ode.state.oh.us/ode/ims/rrt/research
  /Content/scaffolding_what_we_know.asp