Activating Prior Knowledge

Classroom Examples of Activating Prior Knowledge

Teachers prepare students for reading by activating their prior knowledge. To accomplish this objective, teachers may:
• Relate passage content to the students’ world experience
• Present key vocabulary prior to encountering it in text
• Note the organization of a passage so students can use it as a tool for understanding
• Introduce general ideas encountered in the text

Anticipation/Reaction Guides
An Anticipation/Reaction Guide presents students with a series of leading questions to be answered in writing before reading. Students then share their answers in a class discussion designed specifically to ”activate,” or better ”reactivate,” prior knowledge. This review of prior knowledge helps students to “connect” with the topic. When students read the text passage and evaluate their written answers (prior knowledge), they note when their answers agree or disagree with the text's content. Finally, students engage in a summarizing discussion, expressing how the reading selection reinforced or challenged their prior knowledge.
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/anticipate.htm

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)
The Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) centers on open-ended questions about the reading experience. This activity is designed to make students aware of their own interpretive actions during reading. The DRTA process helps students recognize predictions, judgments, and evidence verification.
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/drta.htm

Possible Sentences
“Possible Sentences” is a pre-reading strategy that focuses on vocabulary building and student prediction prior to reading. When using this strategy, teachers write key words and phrases of a selected text on the chalkboard. Students are asked to define all of the terms, group the terms in related pairs, and write sentences using these word pairs. These “possible sentences” introduce the important skill of pre-reading prediction. Students “check” their predictions by making a close, careful reading of the text selection.
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/possible.htm