[LIT] building background knowledge

[write at att.net]

What does he do with the article?  This year about 1/3 of my students had tons of background knowledge, and the rest would just say, "I don't understand" about any outside information I brought in.  They did not seem to try to understand articles I supplied.

When I had students bring in their own articles to discuss (thinking that if they picked an article, they would be more interested), they read the article out loud to the class instead of discussing the content!


-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Bill IVEY" <bivey at sbschool.org>
>
> Hi!
> 
> In a free moment, I decided to click on a podcast by Kelly Gallagher at
> Stenhouse.
> http://www.stenhouse.com/gallagher.mp3
> It's short, just under four minutes long, and it's about him reflecting on
> the year, and how he wants to improve for next year. He wants to focus on
> getting his kids to do a lot more reading and writing in the real world -
> newspapers, magazines, speeches, etc. He also speaks of his students' lack
> of background knowledge and how that affects their comprehension. 
> 
> One thing he talks about is bringing in an article of the week. Does
> anyone do this?
> 
> What would be good ways of building background knowledge in our students?
> 
> Take care,
> Bill Ivey
> Stoneleigh-Burnham School
>