Activating and Connecting Background Knowledge
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)
The Semantic Feature Analysis strategy activates students’ prior knowledge by requiring
them to make a hypotheses about relationships between ideas in the text, and then read to
confirm, modify or disconfirm their guesses.
Step-by-Step
1. Teacher pre-reads text and lists the major ideas in the top columns of the SFA
Matrix.
2. Next, the teacher identifies examples of the major ideas and lists those down the
first column of the matrix.
3. Teacher inserts a legend (+ for positive relationship, - for negative relationship, ?
for uncertain)
4. Teacher photocopies and distributes a SFA matrix to every student.
5. Students read the examples in the matrix and make hypotheses about the
relationships between each example and each big idea before reading.
6. After students complete the matrix, they read the passage to confirm hypotheses,
clarify relationships that were unknown, and modify relationships that were
disconfirmed by the text.
Adapted from: The Master Teacher Series by John Schacter, Ph.D., 2006
Activating and Connecting Background Knowledge
Activating and Connecting Background Knowledge
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)
Read each statement and predict if it applies to the House of Representative, Senate or
both branches of American government. Use the key below to record your hypotheses.
If you are not sure of the relationship, use a “?”.
+ positive relationship
- negative relationship
?
not sure
American Government - Congress
House of
Representatives
Senate
1. Members elected every two years
2. Thirty-five year age limit
3. Members elected every six years
4. Representatives determined based on state’s
population
5. Representative must be inhabitants of state
6. Twenty-five year age limit
7. Power to remove president from office
8. Two representatives per state
9. Has the sole power of impeachment
10. Vice president presides
After you make all your predictions, read Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution and make
corrections to any inaccurate predictions. Clarify any inaccurate predictions and share
what you learned.
#4 and #8 – Senate has only two members per state and House members are based on
state’s population.
#7 – House impeaches, but it takes 2/3rds of the Senate to remove the president.
#10 – I learned the VP sits in the Senate and can cast the deciding vote if it’s 50/50
Adapted from: The Master Teacher Series by John Schacter, Ph.D., 2006
Activating and Connecting Background Knowledge
LINK
List – Inquire – Note – Know
L-I-N-K (Vaughn and Estes, 1986) is a brainstorming strategy that prompts
students to anticipate what they will encounter in a reading. An additional feature
of the strategy involves students in directing their own discussion about what they
know about a topic.
Step 1: Determine a key word or concept related to the material that will trigger
responses from your students. Write the “cue” word for all to see. Allow about three
minutes for students to list on a piece of paper the associations they have for this “cue”
word.
Step 2: LIST---Solicit associations from students and write them around the cue word.
Limit responses to one per student. It may be desirable to start with less active students
to increase their involvement and to assure that all students will be able to contribute.
When everyone has offered an association, allow for students to respond with further
ideas. During this stage, student contributions are listed without comment from either the
teacher or students, including the individuals responding.
Step 3: INQUIRE---Encourage students to inquire about the items listed. Students may
ask for clarification or elaboration of some of the items, or they may ask for examples or
a definition. Students may even challenge some of the items. Inquires are directed to
their fellow student, not the teacher. During the inquiry step, student interact both to
share and to extend their understandings of the due word / concept. To help students take
on this responsibility, some classroom ground rules might be beneficial.
Step 4: NOTE---When students have completed their inquiries and comments about the
items, remove the cue word and associations from view. Instruct students to turn their
paper over and note what they now know about the cue word. What they write can be
based on both their prior experience and the class discussion during the inquiry
Step 5: KNOW---Students are now ready to read the passage. After reading, they may
be asked to write what they now know after they’ve encountered new material.
Activating and Connecting Background Knowledge