It makes perfect sense to me that intentionally helping students build their background knowledge (including frontloading key vocab) will help them understand and remember content better. I noticed during the tea party activity (which I will probably call Mingler, or Block Party, or something content-related), how the sentences on the strips jumped out at me and clicked into context when I read them in the passage. Simply having read/heard them already once made the passage more memorable. Also, doing Rate Your Knowledge ahead of time primed me to keep an eye out for Araminta Ross, which I will now remember much better! 🙂 I love experiencing these tools in action and imagining how my future students might respond to them.
I was thinking about how to make sure 4th or 5th graders would actually keep moving around and talk with everyone during that Tea Party. Setting up the rules and expectations ahead of time would help, but I also thought that if free/responsible movement was too much for them to handle (or for me to manage), I could switch to a formation that ensures each student shares with every other student. One idea is to put the students in two lines, facing each other. Each kid shares with the person across from them, then everyone moves to the right to get to the next person. In this situation, there will always be two people at the ends who do not face anyone (actually, they face each other, but are too far away to talk), so I can have these people write down any question or comment they have so far about what they’ve read/heard. This way, everyone shares with everyone else and also gets to contribute two questions for class discussion. Alternatively, if it is not critical that each student hears every other statement, we could use the donut formation (two concentric rings, moving in opposite directions).
I am still a little unsure of when it’s best to assess prior knowledge, given the need to be prepared ahead of time (don’t some districts require printed plans to be submitted up to a week in advance?), and the shortage of planning time during the week. It seems like it makes sense to briefly check in about the upcoming unit/topic just after finishing up the prior unit, but then there is little time to adjust plans according to students’ needs. But if I check in earlier so I have more time to adjust, it will seem disjointed and confusing. Do I just plan for zero background knowledge, and then remove or adjust activities as needed? And then do I also plan for the other end of the spectrum? Or are all these variations just part of the differentiation plan? I want to be sure I’m prepared to meet kids where they are and then take them through each unit in a challenging, interesting and appropriate way…but what does that actually look like in terms of lesson planning, and how can I manage it logistically?
Lisa,
First, I love your suggestions for renaming the Tea Party strategy. Until you mentioned it, it never occurred to me the name might be a turn-off for some kids. (And I’ve used this strategy for several years!)
I’m glad that our modeling of the Rate Your Knowledge and Tea Party strategy made such an impact on your reading of the passage. I think this is powerful and shows the importance of frontloading instruction. I doubt you’ll forget who Araminta Ross is after this. The question is, would the name have been as memorable if we’d just handed you a passage to read?
I like that you are thinking about the management issues that might occur during the Tea Party strategy. Kids are actually pretty good at mingling. I sometimes do this as a silent tea party where kids exchange strips. Then I ask them to draw a representation of the sentences on a numbered page. I don’t worry about them seeing every student, but I do require them to see a specific number. If you split the class in half and give each half the same sentences, this is a bit easier to manage.
Lisa, I understand your concern about writing lesson plans ahead of time and then thinking you have to follow them. As a teacher, you will make strong educated guesses ahead of time regarding content taught and pacing and where it all best fits into a lesson plan format. In reality, most lesson plans require flexibility when actually carried out in the classroom. If you cannot stick to a specific plan due to circumstances beyond your control it is OK to make adjustments.
The activity to build or assess the background knowledge of your students does not have to conducted as an add-on to a lesson. It is done as part of the lesson…like the anticipatory set. If you think of it this way you do not have to worry about “when to fit it in.”
I like your idea of providing a bit more structure to the Tea Party strategy. You might try this at first but in subsequent opportunities release students to mingle on their own. The activity can get a bit loud but that does not mean it is not working.