Background Knowledge - facts, concepts etc…
Students’ knowledge of words and the world.
Prior knowledge helps make connections to the text.
Explicit teaching of background knowledge - link to prior knowledge, explicitly teach new knowledge that you want everyone to have.
Knowledge organizer - you can add background knowledge you have acquired the day before!
1 text = 4 sessions
‘Stretch text’ - a text that is pitched to the higher end of your class.
The text needs to do the heavy lifting - critical thinking, content knowledge, vocab, engagement!
Cool facts!
Vocabulary
Knowledge of a word, not only it’s definition but how it fits in the world.
Which vocab to teach? Tier 1 = high frequency words, Tier 2 - High freq in text, low in spoken conversation, Tier 3 - Academic vocab. We want to select words from Tier 2 - academic vocabulary used across curriculum areas, language of learning.
Word families - eg. Gleam, gleaming, gleamed.
Opportunity to look at nuances. Eg. gleam = a cat’s eyes.
Word associations - I choose … because …
Language Structure
Turning words into a sentence, how words are put together to make the sentence.
Colourful semantics! Subject + predicate.
Do it orally in junior classes - eg “This workshop is beneficial because…” and “This workshop was beneficial but…”
Syntax activity - is it a fragment or a sentence? Follow up task - finish the fragment!
Activities using practise of conjunctions - eg. because, but, so.
Think about the main idea you want to get across, rather than pulling out a sentence.Anticipations are necessary!
Verbal Reasoning
How a person works with words to get the real meaning.
Verbal reasoning skills will depend on a student’s background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge.
Inference, idioms, similes.
Local inference - eg ability to link subject to pronoun + global inference. “Katy dropped the vase. Se ran for the broom.”
Figurative language - don’t teach in isolation.
Pause points - purposeful questions and prompts that will activate prior knowledge, build subject knowledge, and encourage deeper understanding. Select points in the text.
Literacy Knowledge
Includes print awareness and knowledge of genres.
Investigate text features of non-fiction texts.
“This is a non-fiction article. I know this because…”
