New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 11
You'll C-E-R a difference in classroom achievement after using a helpful lesson plan. Designed for economics, civics, government, and US history classes, participants practice using the CER model to craft arguments about primary and...
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
Edutopia
Edutopia: Are You Tapping Into Prior Knowledge Often Enough in Your Classroom?
Learning progresses primarily from prior knowledge, and only secondarily from the materials we present to students, studies show. This article offers some research behind why we need to stop hurrying through lessons and take the time to...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Pumpkins and Apples, Oh My!
Students will be able to compare and contrast two non-fiction books with a similar theme - in this case, plant life cycles. Extensive resources included such as worksheets, samples of student work, assessment ideas, extension activities,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Comparing and Contrasting Our Stories With a Double Bubble Map
Students will identify the similarities and differences between different versions of fictional stories by completing a double bubble map. Included in this lesson are teacher questions, a bubble map printable, a video of a class...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Monitor for Understand: Background Knowledge [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which students preview a text and complete a graphic organizer to activate prior knowledge. Materials are included.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: What the Heck Is That? Inferring the Purpose of an Object
In this instructional activity, 5th graders use their prior knowledge and inference skills to determine uses of unfamiliar objects. They participate in group discussions and analyze the key information they have in order to reach...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Discovering Functions of External Plant Parts
Using data and prior knowledge, 4th graders explain their observations, measurements and understanding of various plant's external parts and how they help the plant survive in its environment.
Read Works
Read Works: Predicting 2nd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to use textual clues and prior knowledge to make predictions and revise incorrect predictions. Lessons are based on the books The Stories Huey...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Acquiring New Vocabulary
This lesson teaches elementary students new vocabulary terms through book discussion groups. Students use context clues, prior knowledge, and print and online resources for vocabulary understanding in their discussion.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Monitor for Understanding: Background Check [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which young scholars browse a text and complete a graphic organizer to show prior knowledge. Materials are included.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Monitor for Understanding: What Do You Know? [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which young scholars browse a text and complete graphic organizers to help them activate prior knowledge. Materials are included.
Lumen Learning
Lumen: Rhetorical Reading: Strategies for Active Reading
This lesson focuses on strategies for active reading such as annotating your texts, reading multiple times, and using your prior knowledge.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Agree to Disagree [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which students read statements and then use prior knowledge to agree or disagree with each statement. Materials are included.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Monitor for Understanding: Strategic
A lesson plan in which students complete a graphic organizer to record prior knowledge before reading, ask questions while reading, and summarize a text after reading. Materials are included. [PDF]
Shodor Education Foundation
Shodor Interactivate: Lesson: Finding Patterns in Fractals
Students will find patterns in fractals through this lesson plan and describe them mathematically. Students will use their prior knowledge of arithmetic with rational numbers in this lesson plan.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: 6th Grade Pretest
Assess students' prior knowledge of 6th grade math topics.
Other
Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]
In this reading comprehension lesson unit, learners are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Lesson Plans: Using Personal Connections to Understand Emotions
A lesson plan in which younger students draw on prior experiences that made them happy or sad, build two-sided masks, work with Venn diagrams, and connect personally with the emotions conveyed by poems in The Way I Feel by Janan Cain...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Life in the Sahara (Lesson Plan)
A lesson in which students share prior knowledge and conduct research about the location, people, and animals of the Sahara region of Africa. Involves the creation of a project about the geography of the Sahara and how desertification...
A to Z Teacher Stuff
Ato Zteacherstuff: Report Writing in Primary Grades
This is a fun, hands-on lesson from AtoZteacherstuff! Students go through a study of frogs while learning how to interpret and restate factual information.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Family Ties Making Connections to Improve Reading Comprehension
Contains plans for five lessons that teach students to make authentic connections to reading selections. Lessons use books such as "Bigmama?s" by Donald Crews, "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats, and "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia...
Read Works
Read Works: Compare/contrast Kindergarten Unit: Similarities/differences in Text
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lesson using the book Long Ago and Today by Rozanne Lanczak Williamsin in which students learn to recognize similarities and differences within a text. Ideas for teaching, guided practice, and...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Poetry to Teach Reading & Writing
Lesson plan makes use of weekly poems for students to read, discuss, and study. Students compile a poetry portfolio to use for further learning in reading and writing, as well as engaging in interactive activities such as creative poetry...