Teaching children in the primary grades presents two humongous challenges: close the background knowledge gaps that children bring to their school-based learning and create a foundation for life-long learning. These two goals do not have to be competitive or counter-productive, but often they are made so. Our challenge is to do the right work at the right time to help all children by accomplishing both of these goals.
In any new academic learning that children face in 4K through second grade, the greatest instructional hurdle is creating the framework of background knowledge that allows the new learning to make sense. Once children possess the language and experiences from which new learning emerges, it is very likely that they will be able to learn the new information and skills they are taught. The reality is that children who enroll in 4K and Kindergarten bring with them a wide range of intellectual information and experiences. Children whose parents talk with and read to them using real world words have the advantage of hearing and repeating words that are beyond their age. Like clothing that is oversized for a young child, they will grow into those words. The same is true when children are “out in the world.” Parents who take their children to museums, zoos, national parks, libraries, and travel away from their neighborhoods and cities give their children intellectual experiences that grow larger over time. Conversely, children who are not exposed to language and “out in the world” experiences greater than their age are consistently disadvantaged in their school learning. That is, unless we back-build their vocabulary and provide them with indirect experiences from which to have the framework to understand new learning.
How do we know this? Two fields of evidence describe the problem. Children who have early language and experiential development are better prepared for later learning, and children who are not proficient readers by third grade and do not have a strong background knowledge are educationally at risk.
“Although it is true that the extent to which students will learn this new content is dependent on factors such as the skill of the teacher, the interest of the student, and the complexity of the content, the research literature supports one compelling fact: what students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content.
To interpret this average correlation, let’s consider one student, Jana, who is at the 50th percentile in terms of both her background knowledge and her academic achievement. Envision Jana’s achievement at the 50th percentile as shown in the middle of Figure 1.1. (For a more detailed explanation of this example, see Technical Note 2 on pp. 127–129.) If we increase her background knowledge by one standard deviation (that is, move her from the 50th to the 84th percentile), her academic achievement would be expected to increase from the 50th to the 75th percentile (see the bars on the right side of Figure 1.1). In contrast, if we decrease Jana’s academic background knowledge by one standard deviation (that is, move her from the 50th to the 16th percentile), her academic achievement would be expected to drop to the 25th percentile (see the bars on the left side of Figure 1.1). These three scenarios demonstrate the dramatic impact of academic background knowledge on success in school. Students who have a great deal of background knowledge in a given subject area are likely to learn new information readily and quite well. The converse is also true.”
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104017/chapters/The-Importance-of-Background-Knowledge.aspx“
A student who can’t read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.”
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/04/the_disquieting_side_effect_of.html
The right work is backfilling vocabulary and indirect experiences for children who do not have these while extending the vocabulary and school-based experiences for all children until the vocabulary and school-necessary background knowledge of all children is approximately the same. It would be easy and equally criminal to disregard the need of children who already possess a strong age-appropriate vocabulary and background knowledge in order to focus all the school’s efforts on those who do not. The right work is teaching all students their appropriate age level curricula while taking the time to back-teach children who do not have enough language or experience to approach their new learning. Back-teaching is not a derogatory or discriminatory term. It is a word that is factual and temporary that describes an educational status and need.
Back-teaching requires
• a multi-year commitment to bring all children to an approximately similar place in their language and school-based experiences. It is not the responsibility of a single teacher; it is the school’s responsibility because the right work must be conducted throughout the primary years.
• a commitment to the goal of equalized vocabulary and educational experiences by the end of third grade. This commitment surrenders traditional demands placed upon daily assignments or homework to the larger goal of assuring more than a year’s vocabulary and experiential learning every year. These usual drivers of daily instruction are not completely ignored but they are secondary assessments of a child’s progress.
• strong curricular preparation. A teacher cannot conjure up back-teaching on a day by day basis. The school must possess a library of instructional strategies and materials for teaching vocabulary and for providing in-direct experiences (virtual field trips).
• strong instructional time management in the classroom. The classroom teacher is the lead instructor who prescribes both her own back-teaching activities and those of the Title 1 and ELL and any other instructional support professionals available. If the focus for these supports is blended into the big picture commitment, they will accomplish their specific programmatic objectives.
• parents and family must be incorporated into the big picture. Moms and dads must be informed of the multi-year goal and, if they do not have the materials at home, such as books and literature, be provided these things by the school. School liaisoning plays a significant role in helping working parents find the time in their adult commitments to talk to and read with their children.
And, the most significant requirement is a change in how educators view a child’s readiness for learning. Children no longer will be placed on a curve of learning readiness based upon home advantages that historically have led to a disparate curve of learning achievement. No matter where the child starts, all children must be prepared to achieve similar educational outcomes by the end of third grade.