Not long ago, teachers in a district I was working in were talking about how they’d love to teach a lesson, but they’re hesitant because of all the teaching time they’d need to spend building enough background knowledge.
Maybe you can relate? But consider this: what if the limited amount of background knowledge the kids have is okay? What if we QUICKLY get into the text, and let the text do its job? After all, it’s the job of the text to teach kids the stuff that they need to know!
So how are we going to do this? Ask yourself two things:
- What is the least amount of information I need to give to get my kids into the text?
- What information does the text give that I do not have to give background information on, because it’s already in the text we’re going to use?
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