1. Regional System of District and School Support (RSDSS), Region 2
Focused Learning Through Direct Instruction Session Three: Instruction That Works: Activating Prior Knowledge and Checking for Understanding
Patty begins - Remember to discuss purpose (objective) of webinar. If Nancy forgets tell them the names of the presenters and which hubs they are representing.
Remind them to download the powerpoint, resources and organizer as they will be used during the presentation.
Presented by: Lorna Manuel, Patty Garrison, & Doreen Fuller
Moderated by: Nancy Silva, CTAP Region 2 - BCOE

2. Adobe Connect Interface (Pods)
Presentation & Internet Sharing Pod
Toggle view of the presentation between full screen and meeting room views to suit your preference. 2

3. Adobe Connect Interface (Pods)
Communication Pods
Attendee List Pod
Chat Room Pod 3

4. Adobe Connect Interface (Pods)
File Sharing Pod
Click on the file you want to download.
Click on “Save to My Computer”.
When “Save” window opens, select “Click to Download”.
Select where you want to download the file to i.e. “Desktop”.
After file downloads, click “Done”.
Repeat for each additional file you want to download. 4

5. Set Your Connection Speed
Please take a moment to select your Internet connection speed. If you are unsure, select the DSL option.
This will improve the presentation & audio for all participants. Thanks : )

6. Meeting Procedures Different meeting rooms… with different views
Use the Chat Room to ask questions as they arise.
Actively participate by sharing comments and feedback 6

7. Don’t Forget to Smile When You Chat…. ; )
This workshop will be recorded and archived. So……
Don’t Forget to Smile When You Chat…. ; ) 7

8. Regional System of District and School Support (RSDSS), Region 2
Focused Learning Through Direct Instruction Session Three: Instruction That Works: Activating Prior Knowledge and Checking for Understanding
Patty begins - Remember to discuss purpose (objective) of webinar. If Nancy forgets tell them the names of the presenters and which hubs they are representing.
Remind them to download the powerpoint, resources and organizer as they will be used during the presentation.
Presented by: Lorna Manuel, Patty Garrison, & Doreen Fuller
Moderated by: Nancy Silva, CTAP Region 2 - BCOE 8

9. Webinar Learning Objectives
Participants will become familiar with the importance of Activating Prior Knowledge in lesson delivery.
Participants will be able to differentiate between examples and non-examples of appropriate questioning techniques for use in Activating Prior Knowledge.
Participants will be able to recognize Activating Prior Knowledge strategies and how to apply them to their own lessons.

10. DI – Lesson Design Components
Learning Objective
Activate Prior Knowledge
Concept Development
Lesson Importance
Skill Development
Guided Practice
Lesson Closure
Independent Practice
Review different DI components

11. Activating Prior Knowledge (APK)
Defined
Is helping students to retrieve pertinent prior knowledge so that new content is easier to learn.
Is connecting existing knowledge to new knowledge.

12. Why is APK Important?
In How the Brain Learns, David Sousa (2001) notes that “Past experiences always influence new learning. What we know acts as a filter, helping us attend to those things that have meaning and discard those that don’t”.
When we learn something new, we are much more likely to understand it if we see connections that make it relevant. When these connections are unseen, understanding gets cloudy.

13. What are the Benefits?
Learning experiences that draw on students’ prior knowledge act to
 assist students in relating new information (or skills) to what they already know and can do
 allow for the surfacing of misconceptions or naïve conceptions that may impede learning
Audience Participation:
What is an additional benefit of APK?
Please type in your response.
Before going to the next lesson, specifically state that this helps to form a connection to this new lesson

14. What are the Benefits?
Learning experiences that draw on students’ prior knowledge act to:
 assist students in relating new information (or skills) to what they already know and can do
 allow for the surfacing of misconceptions or naïve conceptions that may impede learning
 allow teachers to make decisions to augment and strength students’ knowledge before new information is engaged
 identify gaps in knowledge or skills that may exist
 creates a scaffold for new learning
 stimulate interest, curiosity and motivation, or initiate an inquiry process that can provide a more personalized learning experience
Before going to the next lesson, specifically state that this helps to form a connection to this new lesson

15. Prior Knowledge can be activated through preexisting pathways.
Through Attitudes:
Beliefs about ourselves as learners/readers
Awareness of our individual interests and strength
Motivation and our desire to read

16. Everyday activities and skills
Through Experiences:
Everyday activities and skills
Events in our lives that provide background understanding
Family and community experiences that they bring to school with them

17. Through Knowledge: Of content
Of topics (fables, photosynthesis, fractions)
Of concepts
Of academic and personal goals

18. Selecting Knowledge to Activate
The Learning Objective contains the knowledge to activate.
It is related to either the objective’s concept or skill
Sample learning objective: Students will compare and contrast the setting from two stories.
Activation can be of the skill “compare and contrast” or of the concepts of setting.

19. Ways to Activate Knowledge
Universal Experience
Sub-skill Review
Example: Asking the class, “When reading a story, what are some words that might give you clues about the setting?”
Universal experience is from prior life experience.
Subskill review is a review of something previously taught that is pertinent to the new lesson.

20. Connect to Familiar Content/Concept
Connect information to what students are familiar with and what they are going to be taught.
Do not use new vocabulary in making these connections

21. Connect to Familiar Content/Concept
Connect information to what students are familiar with and what they are going to be taught.
Do not use new vocabulary in making these connections
Example
Non-example
When you are trying to convince your mother to give you some money, what do you do?
Who knows what persuasive means?
Your own example
Your own non-example
Have participants type in example and non-example

22. Steps in Activating Prior Knowledge
Step 1: Provide students with a universal experience or sub-skill review
Step 2: Facilitate student interaction
Step 3: Connect the prior knowledge to the new lesson
Step 2: think –pair-share….write on your white boards
Step 3: we just did this third step with you when we asked you what the
A Five Minute Process

23. Activating Prior Knowledge Strategies
Now we will discuss the third webinar objective: Participants will be able to recognize Activating Prior Knowledge strategies and how to apply them in their own lessons.

24. Metacognition is Thinking About Thinking
Think Pair Share
Metacognition is Thinking About Thinking
To invoke the process used to arrive at a response rather than soliciting a correct answer based on the student’s memory of the material
Think–Pair Share –strategies engage students in thinking about their response first, and then allow students to discuss their ideas with a partner before sharing their ideas with the whole class.
The power of Think Pair Share; the strategy is more powerful than simply collaboration- it’s thinking about thinking. It encourages awareness of the process of learning- versus pulling a correct answer from memory 24

25. Visual and Performing Arts Content Standard 3rd grade
1.2 Describe how artists use tints and shades in painting.
Learning Objective:
When shown different color colors, students will be able to recognize tint from shade.
What is the difference? Shade-add black Tint- add white Provide a context where students can add their own knowledge to new concepts. Allow to share with classmates while applying new knowledge – Example- Think-Pair Share 25

26. Tint/Light Color Shade/Dark
Which are light, which are dark? White cup – light, black cup – dark
Think Pair Share – or Journal – two more colors. What happens if you add white? Black? Think about it- discuss with partners- Use white board and share out! 26

27. 6TH Grade Physical Science Thermal Energy: So hot in here!!
Students discover heat is conducted in a variety of ways. In this physical science lesson, students investigate various conductors of heat.
Students explain their findings, and discover how energy is exchanged between objects through radiation.
To conclude the lesson, students write predictions to questions prompted by the teacher.
Think Pair Share can be used at the beginning of the lesson to Activate Knowledge or at the end of a lesson to apply new knowledge to practical situations 27

28. After experimenting with conductors of heat, make predictions about the following materials as heat conductors. Think. Write you responses in your journal and discuss with a partner. Pair. Be prepared to then share with the class. Share. 28

29. Linking Real or Personal Experiences
This technique allows students from varying academic levels and personal backgrounds to participate and share their experience to build a classroom experience.
This technique also helps the teacher to assess "where the class is at or check for understanding."

30. Real Experience
Before reading a short story where the main character experienced something frightening, ask students to free write about a time when he/she experienced something fearful.
Then have students share vocabulary they used to describe their experiences. Make the link between students experiences with fear and the characters in the story.
Here's a reading High School example providing students with an opportunity to connect a real life experience with their reading. This example also includes building vocabulary while checking for common links from the story 30

31. Real Experience
Elementary Social Studies: Topic of unit is Westward Movement. Teacher might ask the students, For those who have moved or had friends/family move: What steps must one go through to prepare to move? Why did you move? What were you sad about and happy about when you moved?
This 4th grade example helps students gain understanding of those in history as well as provides a foundation of knowledge to connect new information to. 31

32. Anticipation/Reaction Guide Science Content Standard (8th grade): Students know that compounds are formed by combining two or more different elements and that compounds have properties that are different from their constituent elements. Learning Objective: Given examples, students will be able to identify whether a substance is a mixture or a compound.

33. Activating Prior Knowledge Preview
Science Example
Always give examples first
Q: How many different substances that you can separate make up this trail mix – separate them
How many different substances you can separate make up a carrot
How many different substances you can separate make up ranch dressing – misconception
How many different substance you can separate make up Table salt
Think Pair Share…what could you add to a carrot to give it a combination of more than one substance? Salt?
Mayonnaise buttermilk and dressing packet

34. Anticipation/Reaction Guide for Mixtures/Compounds
Directions: Read the statements below and decide if you AGREE or DISAGREE with each statement. Write your answer underneath the "Anticipation" column. At the end of your lesson, write your answer underneath the "Reaction" column. Compare your answers? What did you learn?
Anticipation Statement Reaction
_______________ ____Raisin Bran Cereal is an example of a mixture__ ____________
_______________ ____ Vinegar is a mixture ______________________ _____________
True
True
Return to reaction after lesson delivery = CFU
True
False

35. English/Language Arts Content Standard: Expository Critique (Grade 5) – Identify facts, inferences and opinions
Learning Objective:
Through different reading examples, students will identify examples of opinions being used in expository writing.

36. Anticipation/Reaction Guide
Title: The Book of the Pig Author: Jack Denton Scott Grade Level: 4-6 Summary: This book dispels many myths about pigs and provides much information about their activities, the variety of breeds, and the many ways they serve people.
Anticipation/Reaction Guide
Anticipation Reaction Statement
_________ ________ Pigs are dirty animals.
_________ ________ Pigs serve no useful purpose.
_________ ________ Pigs are affectionate animals.
_________ ________ Pigs are stupid animals.
_________ ________ Pigs can be trained to do tricks.
_________ ________ Pigs are fussy about what they eat.
In addition to indicating their agreement or disagreement with statements in an anticipation guide, students may be asked to write a brief comment in response to each statement. Completed anticipation guides may be saved for reconsideration after a selection has been read. The format of the anticipation guide can be easily changed to include a single column for anticipation responses in which students put a plus or minus symbol (or a smiling or frowning face) indicating agreement or disagreement, and a second column for reaction responses. Students complete this column after reading the selection. Asking students to take a stand on statements such as, "It's okay to disobey your parents," can generate lively discussion and allows students to explore and identify their own attitudes and beliefs as well as to listen to the ideas of peers prior to interacting with the author's or a character's attitudes on the issue.

37. Give One, Get One
ELA Standard: 3.3 Literary Response & Analysis (Grade 3) – Understand characters in literature
Lesson Objective:
Students will be able to list important characteristics about the main characters in a story. `
Write down a character you have read about from each of two different stories.
For Example: Freckle Juice Character: Andrew
Teacher introduces question or topic for discussion. Give students a few minutes to brainstorm as much as they can. Tell them that they have to keep on brainstorming until you tell them to stop so that none of them finish early. Students then get up, walk around the class and share with their classmates by reading the information directly off of their notes. Both students should be writing down notes on their partner’s ideas. After the sharing, begin the class discussion. Ask students to share the ideas they have heard from each other. The ideas can be listed on the board and assist teacher in moving to the next activity.

38. Give One, Get One
Math Standard: Computing (Grade 7) – Calculate percent increase/decrease
Lesson Objective:
Given a math percentage problem, students will be able to calculate the increase in percentage. `
Create and solve a word problem in which you must compute a percentage.
For Example: John wants to buy a DVD costing $ Today the store is having a 20% discount on all DVD’s. How much would John have to pay for the DVD?
$ x .20 = $ $ $2.00 = $8.00 John would pay $8.00 for the DVD
After students share their problems and write down other problems, they can share them as a whole class. The teacher can then use the examples to show increase in percentage and how it is calculated. If John comes back next week and the DVD is now only $6 – what is the % increase in the discount? Check for understanding by doing “Whip Around the Room” and/or random choosing of students to share and write on board (ball toss).

39. Expository Advance Organizer Narrative Advance Organizer
Advance Organizers
Expository Advance Organizer
Narrative Advance Organizer
Skimming as an Advance Organizer
Graphic Advance Organizer
Source:
Expository – describes in writing or verbal form the new content students will be exposed to. Before visiting a butterfly farm, the teacher describes to students what they will see.
Narrative – takes the form of a story. Tell a story that incorporates some of the key ideas. “I was trying to figure out how much carper to get for my living room, so I measured the room to get the length and width so I would know how much to buy. I came up with 10 feet by 10 feet or 100 square feet. When I got to the carper store, I found out they sell carpet by the yard. I had to do a conversion, but couldn’t figure it out. So I drew a grid and then made 3 feet squares.”
Skimming – Gives an opportunity to preview the materials. Look through the chapter and note the pictures, the headings, the subheadings
What Is It?
Call it schema, relevant background knowledge, prior knowledge, or just plain experience, when students make connections to the text they are reading, their comprehension increases. Good readers constantly try to make sense out of what they read by seeing how it fits with what they already know. When we help students make those connections before, during, and after they read, we are teaching them a critical comprehension strategy that the best readers use almost unconsciously.
Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman in Mosaic of Thought (1997), have identified three main types of connections students make as they read:
Text to self
Text to world
Text to text
Why Is It Important?
Explicitly teaching strategies that proficient readers use when trying to make sense out of text helps to deepen understanding and create independent readers. Activating prior knowledge, or schema, is the first of seven strategies that Keene and Zimmerman identify as key for reading comprehension success.
"Teaching children which thinking strategies are used by proficient readers and helping them use those strategies independently creates the core of teaching reading." (Keene and Zimmerman, 1997) These strategies, identified through research based on what good readers do when they are reading, help students become metacognitive. They learn to think about their thinking as they are reading.
When students learn to make connections from their experience to the text they are currently reading, they have a foundation, or scaffolding, upon which they can place new facts, ideas, and concepts. As good readers read, they think about what they are reading and consider how it fits with what they already know. In this way, they build upon the schema that they already have developed.
Read more on TeacherVision: 39

40. Graphic Organizer
Hierarchical organizers - main ideas and supporting details in ranking order
Comparative organizers - depict similarities among key concepts
Sequential organizers - illustrate a series of steps or place events in a chronological order
Diagrams - depict actual objects and systems in the real world (Marchand-Matella, et al., 1998),
Cyclical organizers - depict a series of events that have no beginning or end
Conceptual organizers - include a main concept with supporting facts, evidence, or characteristics (Bromley, et al., 1998). 40

41. Graphic Organizer If you want to show…….. Then use Series of items
Hierarchical organizers, present main ideas and supporting details in ranking order,
Comparative organizers, depict similarities among key concepts,
Sequential organizers, illustrate a series of steps or place events in a chronological order,
Diagrams, depict actual objects and systems in the real world of science and social studies (Marchand-Matella, et al., 1998),
Cyclical organizers, depict a series of events that have no beginning or end,
Conceptual organizers, include a main concept with supporting facts, evidence, or characteristics (Bromley, et al., 1998).
Graphic Organizer
If you want to show……..
Then use
Series of items
Lists or sequential framework, cycle diagram
A comparison
Parrell lists, Venn diagram, t-charts
Super ordinate/subordinate
Branching, web diagram
Classification
Web diagram, matrix, t-chart
Data reporting
Graphs/tables
Part to whole
Pictures, branching
Cause and effect
Fishbone, cycle diagram, flow charts, matrix
Source: cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/graphic 41

42. Math Graphic Organizer Math Content Standard (6th grade): 2
Math Graphic Organizer Math Content Standard (6th grade): 2.4 Determine the least common multiple and the greatest common divisor of whole numbers; use them to solve problems with fractions (e.g., to find a common denominator to add two fractions or to find the reduced form for a fraction). Learning Objective: Students will create a definition for Greatest Common Factor.

43. Math Graphic Organizer
Greatest Common Factor
Synonyms for the word Greatest
Synonyms for the word Common
Recall: Factors are numbers you multiply together to get another number. Any number can be divided by factors.
In your group: Using the synonyms you identified above, create a definition for greatest common factor.
Source: 43

44. ELA Content Standard (3rd grade): 2
ELA Content Standard (3rd grade): 2.5 Distinguish main idea and supporting details in expository text. Learning Objective: Students will read a story, list supporting details, and identify the main idea.

45. ELA Graphic Organizer Key Idea: Supporting Points:
KEEP TRACK OF THE AUTHOR’S KEY IDEAS
Show the key ideas in a selection by filling in the chart below as you read. When you finish reading, draw conclusions about the main idea.
Key Idea:
Supporting Points:
The Main Idea:
Source:

46. KWL K What do you know? W What do you want to know? L
What have you learned?
Designed to teach students how to activate prior knowledge before they begin reading.
In 1992 Ogle added a column between the W and L…a H, for how will I find out
Others have suggested making that third column P=Prediction.
Some have added a fourth column. S = what do I still want to know
KWL can be used for a number of content standards across multiple disciplines.
Ogle, D.M. (1986, February). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading in expository texts. The Reading Teacher 39(8), 46

47. Activation Prior Knowledge and English Learners
Before teachers of English learners teach a lesson, it is important that they determine the extent to which students have prior knowledge about a certain topic. It's important that teachers also recognize that students' prior knowledge of a topic may be influenced by cultural practices from their home language and culture, and their prior knowledge may differ from the background experiences of the teacher.
English learners considerations before instruction 47

48. The Three Pillars of English Language Learning
Dr. Jim Cummins
of the University of Toronto where he works on language development and literacy development of learners of English as an additional language
No learner is a blank slate. Each person’s prior experience provides the foundation for interpreting new information.It is more important to activate students’ prior knowledge because students may not realize what they know about a particular topic or issue.
Their knowledge may not facilitate learning unless that knowledge is brought to consciousness. 48

49. Sample lesson
Students know rivers and streams are dynamic systems that erode, transport sediment, change course, and flood their banks in natural and recurring patterns.
Tell me what you know about rivers? Where have you seen a river? What did it look like? What did the land look like around the river? Have you been in a river before? What did the land look like around the river?
Let’s try it. Read the objective….Begin by showing visuals of the main topic to draw from possible prior knowledge. Engage students verbally with partners or whole class 49

50. 2. Write about what you see in the pictures
2. Write about what you see in the pictures . Do the pictures look like the river you have seen? What does it look like the river is doing to the land? Where do you think the water came from? Why do rivers bend through the land?
3. Let’s Brainstorm some questions that might help us answer questions we have about rivers and what they do to the land and how they might change the land.
From the picture & prior knowledge, have students write what the see, what they have experienced, how it might apply to the new learning…Brainstorm new questions that have arisen from the discussion and prompts. You can use a graphic organizer if you like as well. Go into research mode and follow up with possible resources to find information to support the objective. Pay particular attention to new vocabulary as it enters the discussion and you introduce the objective.
4. Let’s identify some resources that might help us answer our questions. 50

51. What did we do?
Start with classroom activities about riddles & answer question about the main topic
Engage interest using visuals which allow students to engage prior knowledge
Quick write (from the picture & prior knowledge)
Brainstorm - what other unexplained mysteries do you know?
Write research questions that will lead to new information
Introduce information to support learning objective
What did we do? We used visuals- questions about real experiences- engaged verbally and transferred to writing based on visuals and experience- brainstorm possible questions for experice and prompts- developed research questions and identified resources to support learning objective 51

52. Revisiting Our Learning Objectives
Participants will become familiar with the importance of Activating Prior Knowledge in lesson delivery.
Participants will be able to differentiate between examples and non-examples of appropriate questioning techniques for use in Activating Prior Knowledge.
Participants will be able to recognize Activating Prior Knowledge strategies and how to apply them in their own lessons.
Examples: video, type in responses, identifying examlpes and non-examples.

53. Questions?
Repeat the purpose of the webinar.

54. Next Webinar Focused Learning Through Direct Instruction Session Four:
Lesson Importance
and Checking for Understanding
May 11, 2011
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Register on the Region 2 RSDSS website:

55. Contact Information
Doreen Fuller (Shasta Hub Coordinator – serving Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta, and Trinity Counties):
Patty Garrison (Butte Hub Coordinator – serving Butte and Plumas Counties):
Lorna Manuel (Region 2, RSDSS Director and Tehama Hub Coordinator – serving Glenn and Tehama Counties):