During the holidays so far I have had to baby sit nephews and nieces. In retrospect I think its my families' way of saving sitter fees(Only joking here).They have been a handful ALL the time. I have however found that there is power in setting a mood to engage their interest outside of carrying them to a park or pool an letting them run/play free. Take for instance I want to keep them quite I make up a game . I say we will play the silent game. Then I ask a question like if they know a mouse. I ask them to be as quite as a mouse and state that who ever does this the best will win the game. Boom! They all get quite. Beside the one time the youngest in the set asked D(this is what she calls me) What's a mouse? Thus my thoughts today on previous knowledge.
Readers think about the topic before reading and call up relevant information and related vocabulary use while reading. The more Background knowledge and prior experiences readers have about a topic the more likely they are to successfully comprehend what they are reading (Zimmermann and Hutchins 2003).
After reading this I asked myself the question How many times do I really activate children's previous knowledge before they actually start to read a passage? I thought and in truth answered not many. The usual excuse being the time alloted to get all the work for all the curriculum areas. Excuses! Excuses! Excuses! What are your thoughts on this??? By the way I did explain what a mouse was to my niece...
Thank you for your encouraging words for me on the creation of my reading blog. I'm still working on getting all these wikis and blogs clear in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI want to support the statement you posted from Zimmermann and Hutchins 2003, that the more background knowledge and experience readers have about a topic the more likely they are to comprehend successfully.
Vacca &Vacca 2008, states that the more learners connect what they know to the vocabulary of a content area, the more familiar and confident they are likely to be with text being studied.
Last term I was a part of team teaching at a secondary school set in a rural area. The Form 3 class teacher wrote the topic ,'Iguanas' on the chalkboard. There was immediate chatter especially from the boys. The Teacher used the KWL Strategy and the teacher could barely keep up with writing what they knew on the topic. This topic piqued great interest since the students knew about hunting and catching iguanas. When it came to reading the text, students were eager to participate.There was some difficulty with the reading, but because they were so engaged they just worked at it. This lesson did not stop there but led to a wrting lesson and group work. One activity that had them excited was to imagine that they were a superhero iguana!
I agree that prior knowledge is a critical prelude to text comprehension. Vacca & Vacca (2011) state that this facilitates cognitive readiness or mental preparedness. They also believe that it is impossible to learn without prior knowledge. Three advantages they cited for prior knowledge are:
ReplyDelete1) It increases a student's self efficacy to perform a task
2)It raises the student's motivation level
3) It arouses curiosity in the task at hand.
As teachers too, we are always encouraged to take the student from the known to the unknown, hence the use of strategies such as KWL, Anticipation Guides etc.
Even if we also think in terms of the Stage Model Theory of Information Processing, we realise that a student will tend to pay more attention to a stimuli that activates some aspect of their prior knowledge because they are able to make linkages, which facilitates easier assimulation of the new information.
Avril Fox-Pooran
Hey, yes previous knowledge is important and teachers do make silly excuses. They never have time because of the overloaded curriculum so they delve straight into the lesson without activating prior knowledge. I remember clearly witnessing an infant teacher teaching a creative writing lesson based on Maracas Beach. Without activating the children’s previous knowledge she began to ask questions about activities on the beach, the scenery, the colours, smells etc. She then told the children to write five sentences about a visit to the beach. Two students wrote about animals in cages and orange trees. She was totally upset and started to shout at the children so during the lunch break I decided to ask the six year olds if they ever visited the beach……..well you can guess the answer.
ReplyDeletePrevious knowledge is extremely influential on students’ performances. Firstly, it can create interest by preparing students about a topic so they become eager to explore. Previous knowledge is vital to link old experiences with the new and most importantly it builds reading comprehension which eventually leads to high academic performance. I eventually spoke to the first year teacher and she welcomed the advice.
I am so glad that you shared this information because as reading specialists activating prior knowledge is a very important part of teaching and learning!!!
Many researchers agree that we can motivate students by activating their schemata, knowledge structures or prior knowledge. These are built up through experience and help children to make easier connections with texts. As you proved in the activity with your nieces and nephews, they knew immediately what you wanted them to do when you introduced the word ‘mouse’ in your instruction for the behavior you expected.
ReplyDeleteSchema theory (Tracey and Morrow, 2006) is based on the constructivist model of learning which views learning as child centered. Researchers who adhere to this method of instruction believe that students construct their own meaning through activities as teachers guide their work and scaffold their experiences to make the necessary connections with texts. So, as the other commenter demonstrated, the teacher who wanted her students to write about Maracas beach was unable to get optimum results in the desired objective, because the students were clueless about the sights, sounds etc. of the beach either from lack of experience or exposure to texts.
Reference:
Tracey D. H., & Morrow L. M. (2006) Lenses on Reading. New York: The Guilford Press.
Indeed when students know about something they are excited to talk about it. It's as if they want to let you know how much they know. It's like reading a story about cricket for my class of boys. "A bat or Vimal" was the name of the book. In that lesson I learnt about cricket. The positions, who could bat, who can't, what they thought about the sport, their primary school experiences. They almost predicted the whole story about Vimal getting the bat.
ReplyDeleteNote I said "I" learnt a lot. It showed me that my students are aware, smart, can make connections, can analyse and think critically when Miss connects with them.
Following that lesson I used an expository piece about the criciket bat - how it was made, the best wood, the tree from which it comes etc, the boys enjoyed it and there were no groans to complete the comprehension exercise.
Whoops! the name of the book is "A bat for Vimal".
ReplyDeleteCOmments posted by Angela Yatali
Hey guys, I am joining the ‘Schema discussion’. Hope, I am not monotonous. Everyone has an individualized schema which greatly influences their learning. This is to say that each student apart from bringing their individualized experience will view or approach a reading experience differently though it may be the same material. This is important to comprehension as differences in schema are related to differences in comprehension. Without sufficient schemas about a particular topic, comprehension will most likely, not occur.
ReplyDeleteIn this instance the teacher has to step in and provide experiences for students to build on these experiences to enhance their comprehension. According to the Scaffolding theory proposed by Lev Vygotsky , adults and children perceive the world differently this has two implications for learning. Firstly, teachers must be willing to see through their students’ eyes and provide experience s where they may be lacking. For example, the teacher with the ‘Maracas lesson’ could have shown the students a video clip, pictures or even bring in items that students would find or see at the beach. This takes us to the second point where teachers need provide structures to help children build on what they already know (scaffolding).
Reference:
Tracy, D.H. & Morrow, L.M. (2006). Lenses on reading: An introduction to theories and models. New York, NY: Guilford Press. (Online)
This MED programme really opened up my eyes to the importance of activating prior knowledge in my students before we begin a reading exercise. There must be a foundation on which knowledge must be constructed and sometimes we can wrongfully assume that our students have been exposed to certain concepts, and thus hamper their learning experience, by throwing them headfirst into unknown territory.
ReplyDeleteA favourite practice for me with my adolescent readers is prescribing movies to capture their attention of certain issues and concepts. Schindler’s List is a good movie to introduce the topic of World War 11. The movie Apocalypto is beneficial in introducing the topic of the First People/ Native Americans/ Amerindians and the movies Roots and Amistad are excellent in introducing the concept of slavery in the New World. One of my personal favourites is Mona Lisa Smile, which looks at gender issues and the stirrings of discontent among women before the advent of the women’s liberation movement. There are also numerous films that can motivate our students to follow their dreams and never give up in their pursuits. Prior knowledge is definitely of extreme importance in any learning exercise.