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Activating Prior Knowledge in the Classroom

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Lori is a 9th grade math teacher at a small middle school that serves a farming community. She has worked at the school for 5 years and has learned that it is a community that thrives on three things: family, farming, and football. Every boy growing up in town has aspirations of varsity football glory, but most will end up spending their lives working the family farm. Walking into her third period class on the first day of school, she finds herself faced by 15 rambunctious teenagers. Even scarier, 12 of them are boys. As she begins the year, Lori wants to grab her students' attention by providing an engaging introduction to the practical value of math. Her first unit of the year introduces the adding and subtracting of fractions and she wants to build on the knowledge her students already have acquired, both in and out of school.

1. Give an example of a specific strategy that Lori can use to activate the prior knowledge existing in her classroom and steps she can take to implement it.
2. What other resources might Lori use to gain a further understanding of the existing knowledge base of her students?
3. How might she combine what she knows about her students and the community with her unit focus (fractions) in a way that immediately engages the class?

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Solution Summary

The solution gives examples of teaching strategies that can be used to activate prior knowledge in the classroom and engage students.

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1.Give an example of a specific strategy that Lori can use to activate the prior knowledge existing in her classroom and steps she can take to implement it.

Lori must activate prior knowledge by engaging the students with protocol analysis as an ongoing cognitive lab that uses a qualitative approach enabling individual students to complete items through discussion while verbalizing their thoughts. In these discussions the teacher has the ability to deduce students' prior knowledge of test items and objective items by having the students disclose their ...

Solution provided by:
Raushaun Rigsby, MSc
Education
  • Associates of Arts , Lone Star Community College
  • Bachelor of Science , Sam Houston State University
  • Masters of Science, Kaplan University
  • Masters of Science , Kaplan University
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