Building Background Knowledge Workshop

August 16th, 6:30 – 8:30pm at the SELS Campus

hosted by John LeCavalier, Northwest Regional Director, Expeditionary Learning Schools

Limited space available. You must RSVP (via the Evite) to attend this workshop.

Overview: This workshop demonstrates how quickly participants can become interested in a topic, build background knowledge, and use that background knowledge to become better and more informed readers of hard text. The workshop adapts easily to content in many disciplines and the design of the workshop ensures that all students read, think, and contribute. The workshop is particularly useful in introducing a topic because it fosters curiosity and builds in immediate feedback about learning. The workshop can also be used to help teachers build the necessary background knowledge to create a compelling topic for their expeditions. When conducted and debriefed for educators, the workshop heightens awareness of key instructional and grouping practices.

 

Choose a Topic (e.g., wetlands conservation; Chinese Immigration; Tuskegee Airmen) and find text as described below.

Grouping:  Assign participants to groups of four.  

Materials:  For each group, a set of 4 different colored markers, a piece of chart paper, texts, loose leaf paper

Mystery Text – First Reading:  Choose a relevant poem, political cartoon, photograph, or song.
Make overhead of the chosen text and read it out loud (remove the title if the title gives away the topic).
Have participants write down what they think the poem is about and draw a line after thoughts are jotted down.

Activating and Sharing Background Knowledge:
Ask participants to write what they know about the topic in their journals.
Ask participants, in their small groups, to share what they know about the topic.
Ask participants to create a web or visualization of their collective knowledge/understanding of the topic on a piece of chart paper using just one of the colored markers.

Provocative Text:  An article or essay on the topic.  This article needs to be interesting and, if possible, a rich narrative that offers multiple perspectives.  All participants read this article.
Ask participants to text code the article:  N for new information
Ask participants to add their new knowledge to their web using a different color of marker.

Expert text:  Hand out a different article on the topic to each member of the group.  Use a variety of formats or media here (e.g., timelines, photos, short biographies, editorial cartoons, letters to the editor, narratives, songs, portions of a novel).
Again, ask participants to text-code the article for new information
After everyone has read, each participant shares new knowledge on chart paper in yet a different colored marker.
Have on hand extra articles, drawings, maps or photos for those who finish early.

Mystery Text – Second Reading:  Read/show the initial text again.
Ask participants to go back to where they had initially written about the poem and then were asked to draw a line; have participants write about the poem again underneath the line.

Debrief the experience.
Contrast first and second reading/showing of the mystery text:  “What was it like to hear the poem the second time?”  “What made the experience so different?”
Ask a general question about what the process was like to read successive articles.  Did they know much about the topic before?  Had they been curious about the topic?  What inspired their curiosity?
If workshop is conducted for educators, ask them to generate the steps of the workshop.

Ask a general question about what the process was like to read successive articles. Did they know much about the topic before? Had they been curious about the topic? What inspired their curiosity?
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If workshop is conducted for educators, ask them to generate the steps of the workshop.