Scaffolding Background
Knowledge for ELLs
July 2014
Michelle Mangan, PCG
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Purpose of this Session
• Participants will be able to…
 identify when and how to provide
additional background knowledge
instruction for ELLs.
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Agenda
 Introductory article and discussion
 Background knowledge and ELLs
 Background knowledge instruction: key
decisions
 Module practice
 Types of background knowledge instruction
 Closing
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Introductory Article and Discussion
• What do we mean when we say
“scaffolding” background knowledge?
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Teaching background knowledge
Activating background knowledge (or prior
knowledge)
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Introductory Article and Discussion
• At your tables, find the excerpt from Timothy
Shanahan, Letting the Text Take Center Stage.
• Individually,
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Read and annotate the text:
? for questions
! for statements that resonate with you
* for statements you want to explore more
• Guiding question: What factors does Shanahan identify
as important in distinguishing between effective
background knowledge instruction and excessive or
ineffective instruction?
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Introductory Article and Discussion
• With a partner, discuss:
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At least one annotation you made
Your thoughts on the guiding question:
• What factors does Shanahan identify as important
in distinguishing between effective background
knowledge instruction and excessive or ineffective
instruction?
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Introductory Article and Discussion
• Group discussion:
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What factors does Shanahan identify as
important in distinguishing between effective
background knowledge instruction and
excessive or ineffective instruction?
Did you agree with Shanahan’s distinction
between effective and ineffective background
knowledge instruction? Why or why not?
Does this reflect the practices you see at your
school? How?
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Background Knowledge Instruction
and ELLs
“How much background information is
appropriate depends on the text….” (9)
and the students you serve!
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Background Knowledge Instruction
and ELLs
Why might background knowledge instruction be
especially important for ELLs?
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Different cultural backgrounds/frameworks
Limited English vocabulary (they may not know
the English words for concepts)
Experience with different elementary/secondary
education systems
Note that these experiences may be different
depending on students’ home country, years in
the U.S., and level of English language
development.
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Background Knowledge Instruction:
Key Decisions
Identify major ideas and
concepts in the text (or
presupposed knowledge)
(i.e. historical, cultural,
chronological, spatial)
1. Is the idea or concept
important for understanding
the text or lesson?
Yes: Continue
Provide supplemental
support for ELLs around
this concept.
Yes: Continue
2. Is the idea or concept
something that most native
English speakers or
students who grew up in the
U.S. likely already know?
No/Maybe:
Provide some background
knowledge support on this
concept to all students,
and possibly more for
ELLs
No: Stop
Do not spend significant
time directly teaching
concept.
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Background Knowledge Instruction:
Example
Text: Excerpt from The Voice that Challenged a Nation:
Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights,
Russell Freedman.
Summary: The excerpt describes the moment when
Marian Anderson stood to sing before a crowd gathered at
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. She had been
denied to sing in other venues because she was an African
American.
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Background Knowledge Example:
The Voice that Challenged a Nation
Identify major ideas
and concepts in the
text:
Marian Anderson
(her biography, life
history)
1. Is the idea or
concept important for
understanding the text
or lesson?
Yes: Continue
No: Stop
While her heritage is important, it is not
important to understand her
background to understand the major
themes in this excerpt. Students may
explore her life later in the book or
through other study, but not necessarily
before reading.
Do not spend significant time directly
teaching concept before reading.
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Background Knowledge Instruction:
The Voice that Challenged a Nation
Identify major ideas and
concepts in the text:
History of civil rights in the
United States (especially
climate in the 1960’s)
1. Is the idea or concept
important for understanding
the text or lesson?
Yes: Continue
It is important for
students to understand
why this event was so
important.
2. Is the idea or concept
something that most native
English speakers or
students who grew up in
the U.S. likely already
know?
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Yes: Continue
Most native English
speakers would have at
least a rudimentary
understanding of the
history of segregation
and civil rights in the
U.S.
Provide supplemental
support for ELLs around
this concept.
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Background Knowledge Instruction:
Example
Text: Excerpt from “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by
Wolves”, Karen Russell (Featured in Grade 9 Module 1)
“At first, our back was all hair and snarl and floor-thumping joy.
We forgot the barked cautions of our mothers and fathers, all the
promises we’d made to be civilized and lady-like, couth and
kempt. We tore through the austere rooms, overturning dresser
drawers, pawing through the neat piles of the stage 3 girls’
starched underwear, smashing lightbulbs with our bare fists… we
jumped from bunk to bunk spraying. We nosed each other midair,
our bodies buckling in kinetic laughter…”
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Background Knowledge Instruction:
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls…”
Identify major ideas and
concepts in the text:
Animal behavior (and the
vocab that goes with it)
1. Is the idea or concept
important for understanding
the text or lesson?
Yes: Continue
It is important for
students to understand
how the girls are different
from other girls and to
contrast their pre and
post Lucy’s behavior.
2. Is the idea or concept
something that most native
English speakers or
students who grew up in
the U.S. likely already
know?
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Yes: Continue
Provide supplemental
support for ELLs around
this concept.
No/Maybe:
Provide some
background knowledge
support on this concept
to all students, and
possibly more for ELLs
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Module Practice
• Find the 10.3.1 Lesson 3 Introduction and an excerpt
from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (pages 63
– 66) at your table.
• With a table partner,
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Read and annotate the lesson overview and text
Guiding question:
• What background knowledge do you think ELLs in your
class might need for this text?
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Module Practice
• Group Discussion:
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What background knowledge do you think ELLs
in your class would need for this text?
What influenced your decision?
Did you and your partner agree?
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
• Group discussion:
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What instructional strategies have you used to
scaffold background knowledge to ELLs in the
past?
What structures do you have in place to provide
this instruction? (push-in/pull-out ESL teachers,
etc.)
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
•
•
•
•
•
Teacher-led small group instruction
Additional short text with questions
Video with questions
Website link with questions
Vocabulary instruction around a particular
concept
• Additional work with the text itself, additional
guiding questions
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
• Teachers should choose what type of
background knowledge instruction to provide
based on students’ home language and English
language development levels.
• They may also choose to support students in
students’ home language to provide background
knowledge support.
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
• Example: Teacher-led vocabulary instruction around a
concept
• Text: “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”
• Small-group lesson:
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Teacher provides information on pack animals (wolves, dogs, etc.)
and elicits student response for types of movements and behaviors
these animals often make (teacher may choose to ask students to
act out these behaviors)
Teacher provides important animal verbs with visuals to introduce
students to important words from the text.
to spray; to nose; to paw; to pounce/jump; to bark
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
•
•
•
•
Example: Additional text with guiding questions and glossary
Text: The Voice that Challenged a Nation
Concept: Segregation, civil rights movement in the U.S.
Lesson: Provide a short text that summarizes the concept of
segregation in the U.S. (could be teacher generated)
Text Excerpt
Glossary
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Guiding Questions:
1.
2.
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Types of Background Knowledge
Instruction
• Individually or with a partner, revisit the excerpt from Henrietta
Lacks
• Complete the background knowledge planning chart for your
students.
Background Knowledge Planning Chart
Concept or idea
How I would provide instruction for ELLs
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Closing: Discussion and Reflection
• Takeaways from this session:
Letting the Text
Take Center Stage
Deciding what
background
knowledge to
provide for ELLs
Background
knowledge
instruction and
ELLs
Deciding how to
provide
background
knowledge for
ELLs
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Q&A
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Online Parking Lot
Please go to
https://www.engageny.org/resource/network-teaminstitute-materials-july-7-11-2014
and select “Online Parking Lot” for any NYSED
related questions.
Thank You!