[LM_NET] HIT: gaps in background knowledge

[Katherine Soderman <katesoderman@YAHOO.COM>]

 Thanks so much to those of you who chimed in about helping with gaps in background 
knowledge.  The responses were very helpful.  Here's a reminder of my target, and 
the responses I've received.

TARGET: I have done some reading about the importance of students' background 
knowledge when acquiring new information, but I haven't found much literature that 
specifically addresses how the school media center or media specialist can be a 
part of filling in those gaps. 

So, I wonder what librarians are doing to help fill in the blanks in students' 
background knowledge in the content areas?

RESPONSES:

I try to supply any information necessary by purchasing materials if I
know in advance.  I also offer to find suitable articles online or in
databases so that teachers help students acquire the necessary
background information needed.  I gladly do this because some teachers don't feel 
they have the time to do that and it is so  important to lay the ground work for 
students.

********
This doesn't respond to your request directly, but the October 2007 issue of 
Education Digest had an article concerning how the rush to cram more AP courses 
into the high school curriculum is resulting in students whose basic knowledge 
background is deficient when they enter college. 

*******

Purchase good nonfiction at a low reading level
*******

I believe this qualifies.  I'm working with two multiage teachers on an animal unit 
right now.  It's a complex unit based on the Diary of a ... books by Doreen Cronin 
that we have taught successfully in the past.  This time, however, we're 
coordinating it with our study of regions of the U.S.  We believe that our students 
need the following geographic background knowledge and I am working with them to 
provide it:

The names and locations of the five regions of the U.S.
Which states are a part of each  region.
Where each region and then each state is located on the U.S. map.
How to spell each state name.
What the abbreviation is for each state name.

*******
I use the Encyclopedia Britannica to fill in all background knowledge  that could 
be missing.
________________
Kate Soderman
Student, Longwood University
Farmville, VA
katesoderman@yahoo.com



       
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