When I was a classroom teacher one of my favorite things to do was engagement activities and accessing prior knowledge in my students. It’s kind of funny but you can often build these two things together when launching a lesson. There are several ways to do this, a few of my go-to’s are KWLs, entrance/exit tickets, and Venn diagrams. I mentioned in my other post how important it is to have visual aids for students, especially our ELL students, but it is also vital to have visual aids for every non-ELL student. In reviewing WIDA can do descriptors across all grade levels it's amazing what benefits ELL students really benefits all students within a classroom (Can Do Descriptors, n.d.) I like to use a KWL at the start of a new unit to understand my students’ level of understanding of the content before we actually start the unit. For the KWL, I draw out the chart and list about seven to ten bullet points on my whiteboard and ask my students to write five things that they know about the bullet points. I usually call the bullet points “key terms,” and I pull the terms from my standards. After students come up with five things that they know, I call on students around the classroom and add to my KWL on the board, I am sure to mention to students that they need to be adding to their ‘K’ section if a classmate says something that they didn’t already have on their KWL. Next, I ask students to come up with five questions that they have about the content - this is usually pretty easy for them, especially if they have minimum prior knowledge on the content. Lastly, I have them research the answers to their questions and we go around the classroom, again, adding to the KWL on the board. I really appreciate this strategy because it gets students talking in front of the class and interacting with ideas that could be put onto the chart. Randomly choosing students to contribute who don’t have their hand raised is called, “cold-calling.” Cold-calling is extremely beneficial and increases engagement when done correctly, and when students feel safe in your classroom (Rush, 2018). I also like that this visual aid provides an opportunity for students to conduct their own research on the topic before I begin actively teaching the unit the next day.
References:
Can Do Descriptors. (n.d.). WIDA Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://wida.wisc.edu/teach/can-do/descriptors
Rush, M. (2018, September 28). 'Cold-calling' - done right - is an effective way to build classroom participation. Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://martharush.org/2018/09/26/cold-calling-done-right-is-an-effective-way-to-build-classroom-participation/
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