As teachers, one of the most prevalent themes weaving its way through our lesson planning and execution has to be the background knowledge of our students. We have to gain an understanding of what our children already know in order to either provide experiences and pre teaching opportunities for students to build upon their background knowledge to promote understanding or push further beyond the text or curriculum in order to promote a deeper level of comprehension and development. The background knowledge of our students can greatly change our lessons year-to-year or even day-to-day and one of the most difficult aspects to address is the fact that, quite obviously, most of the students have had completely different experiences and thus their background knowledge differs greatly. Scaffolding each student’s learning with this in mind can become quite a daunting task. Just like much of Montgomery County, I find my classes in Bethesda to be particularly interesting yet challenging as each year I have students who are themselves or have families from all over the country and even the world with typically 6-10 ESOL students usually each with different language backgrounds. While the general makeup of the student body remains fairly consistent, the specific makeup of each class can differ greatly.
The Hart and Risley article on the language gap present in different socioeconomic populations is relevant not only when considering our student’s background knowledge but also how our students learn and how they develop language. Students from different backgrounds are not only exposed to different amounts of vocabulary but also very different types including experiences with encouragements and discouragements. It is worrisome not only to read the staggering data related to language experiences but also that the authors showed early intervention programs to have little effect on the long term language development of children. It seems that change must come from the parents who are with and talking to the children day in and out. As the article discussed the strong tendency for children to speak and act very much like their parents, how then can the cycle be broken? Are there any truly effective programs or schools available to minimize the language gap?
Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. (2003). The early catastrophe. American Educator, 27(1), 110-118. Retrieved from http://cte.jhu.edu/ELC3/Uploads/Attachments/early_catastrophe.pdf
I could not agree with you more on the line you mentioned “the background knowledge of our students can greatly change our lessons year-to-year.” Thinking about what have they already known (prior knowledge) has always been an on-going challenge to me when I present a new lesson. Students are just enriched differently to begin with and influenced by the ideas that interest them. Combine with their own background experiences, no two students interpret and explain their thinking in the same way. For example, they may only remember the parts that touch them in a story and everyone has their own favorite parts. It is a challenge to teach a group of students coming from different backgrounds (and countries), yet it is also an opportunity to enrich their knowledge about different cultures. In my opinion, if we take an advantage of the diversity, we can actually add favors to our lesson and bring the world to them. Think about their difference as gifts to your class. Having them to share their perspective helps other to get a bigger picture of the topic we teach. Learning to appreciate and recognize difference is also a virtue we want to enhance in our instruction.
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