Brainstorming Prior Knowledge

What do you know about Antarctica, earthworms, ultraviolet light, and Elizabeth I of England? Chances are, if you were going to read a passage about any of these topics, you would spend a few moments reconnoitering in your mind what you already know. You would take stock of your prior knowledge.

Suppose you are paging through a magazine and chance upon an article entitled “Lasers: The Promise of a 21st-Century Technology.” What do you anticipate this author will talk about? Laser tools? Laser surgery? Laser scanners and printers? Laser treatments? Laser light displays? Laser weapons? The principles behind a laser as a beam of light?

Like any proficient reader, you predict the article’s content by recalling your pertinent prior knowledge that might relate to new material in the article. In the classroom, teachers need to assess what students already know about a topic and help them access this useful knowledge as a necessary precursor to comprehension. Frontloading activities that help students connect to prior knowledge jump-start learning about a topic.

Brainstorming strategies provide a promising framework for eliciting students’ prior knowledge before learning. Several classroom variations may be used: LINK (list, inquire, note, and know), Knowledge Mapping, Knowledge Ladders, and Alphabet Brainstorming. With the ubiquity of handheld technology, a brief proviso about the use of these strategies needs to be mentioned: They are intended to engage students in brainstorming what they know and have learned, and should not devolve into “look it up” googling activities.

(Adapted from BUEHL, D. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2017)