Activating prior knowledge is critical to teaching and learning (Slavin, 2003; Marzano, et al. 2001; Jensen, 2005; Wolfe, 2001; Joyce, et al., 2000). On their own, young learners do not connect new learning to what they already know. It is up to teachers to activate these existing schemas (networks or patterns) and help students make these important connections. It is up to the teacher to make the brain ready for new learning and show students how to use what they already know to build more knowledge.

So if you do not want your data discarded from your student’s brain, you must recognize that quality teaching is in part a matter of helping them instantly make sense of, and therefore assign meaning to, the right information (Jensen, 2005; Wolfe, 2001). Activating prior knowledge is high-quality teaching.

Main Ideas – Supporting Details – Organizational Patterns
Another leverage point is helping students approach comprehension by identifying main ideas, supporting details, and organizational patterns. Not only is this getting right to the heart of purpose and meaning in the text, Ideas and Organization are also two writing traits students must have to begin articulating their ideas.

Students struggle to comprehend and articulate ideas because we do not practice these skills often enough.  Teach students to comprehend (read) and articulate (write) clear ideas, and a few supporting details - they will learn your content while becoming readers and writers more prepared to pass AIMS. All classrooms can easily do this.

Objectives (Focus/Meaning/Purpose)
Too often we assume students are making connections between their learning activities and the learning goals: Very often they don’t.  We need to help them.

Providing a clear connection between learning objectives and reading materials focuses students’ limited attention and energy on what is important.  Students use this focus to discard unimportant data and clarify critical ideas.  They will spend more time making sense of and assigning meaning to what is important. When our brain is spending less time on unimportant data, less time trying to figure out why we are reading something, it has more time for higher-order thinking.

Please make sure the objectives are displayed in the room or on materials - make sure they are crystal clear to the student so they are not wasting time figuring out why they are learning.