Original Post:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/prior-knowledge-tapping-into-often-classroom-rebecca-alber
Making learning a connection between what students know and how students learn new information is a necessity in the classroom. Whenever you as a teacher encounter a student who has difficulty learning new information, it's important to find out how much prior knowledge they have on a similar area so that the student build a relationship between new information and prior knowledge. I agree that the use of brainstorming techniques like concept mapping, KWL charts, and other brainstorming techniques help students gain visual understanding to new concepts. I would like to think that the use of technology also adds an extra dimension to the way students explore and discover new information.
Great post, Wallace - short and sweet and right on point. I love finding opportunities to connect prior knowledge to new content with my students. Sometimes, I find it to be the most valid and powerful way to have them understand the emotions of those experiencing the events of history. If they can recognize their own sentiments during monumental goings on in their own era, it is easier for them to grasp what occurred in the past and how it must have felt to those living then. I think I could do better, though, by taking some of your (and Eudtopia's) suggestions to use more methodology - the concept mapping, for example.
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