What is building background?
Building background is a strategy used to describe what students already know about a given topic. Building background an essential strategy for all students, especially ELL students. According to Echevarria, Vogt & Short (2014), "English learners, particularly recent immigrants, are frequently disadvantaged because their school experiences (whether they have had little schooling or excellent schooling) may be considerably different from U.S. educational contexts" (p. 65). Therefore it is very important that teachers teach ELL students any missing gaps in knowledge they might have, and to do this is by building background for that student. There are many other strategies that fall under building background for ELLs, and here are some ideas:
1. Linking concepts to student's background experiences
Building background is a strategy used to describe what students already know about a given topic. Building background an essential strategy for all students, especially ELL students. According to Echevarria, Vogt & Short (2014), "English learners, particularly recent immigrants, are frequently disadvantaged because their school experiences (whether they have had little schooling or excellent schooling) may be considerably different from U.S. educational contexts" (p. 65). Therefore it is very important that teachers teach ELL students any missing gaps in knowledge they might have, and to do this is by building background for that student. There are many other strategies that fall under building background for ELLs, and here are some ideas:
- Pretest with partners- this can help ELLs preview material that they might be learning in a given chapter
- Word wall- can help ELLs develop vocabulary
- Questioning- see what ELL students already know, and based on the questions asked this can also help students preview information they will be learning
1. Linking concepts to student's background experiences
- "It is a widely accepted notion among experts that a learner's "schemata"-- knowledge of the world-- provides a basis for understanding, learning, and remembering facts found in texts" (p.66)
- Anticipation guides
- "The teacher must bust build a bridge between previous lessons and concepts and the material in the current lesson. Many students do not automatically make such connections, and they benefit from having the teacher explicitly point out how past learning is related to the information at hand" (Echevarria et al, p. 68).
- Ask students, "who remembers what we learned about yesterday?" "who can tell me about ___"
- "Vocabulary development, critical for English Learners, is strongly related to academic achievement (Echevarria et al, p. 69)
- SIOP teachers choose vocabulary words that are essential for students to understand
- Academic vocabulary, content vocabulary, word parts (roots and affixes) are important vocabulary components
Visual Representations
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Above is a video created by Person in 2012. One of the authors of the SIOP textbooks is featured in this video, MaryEllen Vogt. She talks about the three very important components about building background. Also throughout the video there are various teachers that show hoe to use the three components.
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In this video, a teacher uses real life objects to help her students build background knowledge when they were learning about tortillas. By bringing in the real objects that are used to make the tortillas, this also gives more meaning to the lesson. This helped students learn new vocabulary words, they linked knowledge to their experiences, and they also connected their new knowledge about making tortillas to what they already knew about them.
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Here is an anchor chart that could be made and put into a classroom about building background. Linking information to students experiences, bridging new knowledge to old knowledge an learning key vocabulary are all important features in a SIOP classroom.
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Content Area Examples
Math- For a math lesson, the teacher could bridge old learning to new learning by starting the class with some review math problems. Then the teacher would connect how their review math problems are important in that day's lesson. This would be helpful in building background for all learners, not just ELL. Also, by using real-word math problems, this could link concepts to the student's background knowledge. Vocabulary in math is also very important so completing activities were students have to learn vocabulary will help them learn background knowledge of the math vocabulary.
History- For a history lesson is very important to link student's prior learning to new learning. Typically with history lessons, they tend to build on each other because it is usually relates to time. For example, it is important to know what happened at Pearl Harbor in 1941and then what happened in Japan in 1945 because these two topics are linked together. By connecting lessons students are more likely to have a better understanding of the concept.
Music- For a music lesson, a teacher could pay close attention to key vocabulary. For example, if a teacher is teaching about forte and piano dynamics, he or she would have to be explicit with what those to vocabulary words means. Explaining the differences and listening to some examples would give more meaning to the lesson for all students including ELLs.
Science- Similar to other content areas, building background can also be done in a science lesson. One way a teacher can do this is to emphasize key vocabulary of the science lesson. If the students are learning about the anatomy of a plant, for example, the students can write and label the parts of the plant. Later students would have to define the parts of the plant in their own words. This is helping students build background knowledge of key vocabulary.
Math- For a math lesson, the teacher could bridge old learning to new learning by starting the class with some review math problems. Then the teacher would connect how their review math problems are important in that day's lesson. This would be helpful in building background for all learners, not just ELL. Also, by using real-word math problems, this could link concepts to the student's background knowledge. Vocabulary in math is also very important so completing activities were students have to learn vocabulary will help them learn background knowledge of the math vocabulary.
History- For a history lesson is very important to link student's prior learning to new learning. Typically with history lessons, they tend to build on each other because it is usually relates to time. For example, it is important to know what happened at Pearl Harbor in 1941and then what happened in Japan in 1945 because these two topics are linked together. By connecting lessons students are more likely to have a better understanding of the concept.
Music- For a music lesson, a teacher could pay close attention to key vocabulary. For example, if a teacher is teaching about forte and piano dynamics, he or she would have to be explicit with what those to vocabulary words means. Explaining the differences and listening to some examples would give more meaning to the lesson for all students including ELLs.
Science- Similar to other content areas, building background can also be done in a science lesson. One way a teacher can do this is to emphasize key vocabulary of the science lesson. If the students are learning about the anatomy of a plant, for example, the students can write and label the parts of the plant. Later students would have to define the parts of the plant in their own words. This is helping students build background knowledge of key vocabulary.
References
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. (2014). Making content comprehensible for Elementary English language learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Garza, J. (2013). SIOP: building background. Pinterest. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/388646642814455290/
PersonSIOPModel. (2012). Component 2:Building background. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytXeEFCTMbg&index=2&list=PLT7cPjUGeZeY3eY2477U2PTE8-VRTTTcf
ReadingRockets. (2014). Using realia to build background knowledge. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ebmpefeTM&list=PLLxDwKxHx1yI4BtE0BLZiGPW0yQpyQadU&index=2
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. (2014). Making content comprehensible for Elementary English language learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Garza, J. (2013). SIOP: building background. Pinterest. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/388646642814455290/
PersonSIOPModel. (2012). Component 2:Building background. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytXeEFCTMbg&index=2&list=PLT7cPjUGeZeY3eY2477U2PTE8-VRTTTcf
ReadingRockets. (2014). Using realia to build background knowledge. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ebmpefeTM&list=PLLxDwKxHx1yI4BtE0BLZiGPW0yQpyQadU&index=2
