Many say that we should focus on background knowledge before a lesson begins. Of course, this creates buy-in and gets students excited to learn the content. However, we must continue to build knowledge throughout a lesson especially with vocabulary. For example, it is no secret that Jews’ human rights were defiled and abused during the Holocaust. This could open up areas of discussion in other areas of human rights’ violations to make connections to past learning or personal experiences. Remember, we are trying to enhance background knowledge to create new learning as well as to enrich the learning experience.
The work that we do as teachers to augment our curriculum with many multicultural perspectives will create deep connections for our students and especially our ELL’s. This will serendipitously develop an admiration of other cultures and others’ experiences. Hopefully we can find more connections in our classrooms to bring us all closer together and thus cement the learning.
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References
Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement: Research on
what works in schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
More About Dr. Knight:
Dr. Stephanie Knight is an experienced 7th and 8th grade English language arts educator. She taught in Title One schools for eight years—helping them grow from underperforming to excelling—and then in an independent school for four years. Knight is now is part of Grand Canyon University’s adjunct faculty where she teaches graduate level education and reading courses.