Building Context

Prior knowledge, the ability to make predictions, and having a purpose are the key ingredients to building context for students. I sometimes joke with my students and tell them “I want you to ‘p’ at least three times before you actually read!” By now I have almost everyone’s attention and few “Eww! He just said I should pee before I read,” faces staring back at me. I go on to explain to my students that what mean to say is that you should preview, predict, and set a purpose all before reading a single sentence.

The most important ingredient to this equation is setting a purpose – especially with secondary students. I’d be rich if I had a dime every time I heard a student ask, “why are we reading this?” Frustrated, I would quickly tell a student that it is going to be on a quiz or test, or that it is a classic and it is important that they read it. Unfortunately, I would often look at the clock and wouldn't take the necessary time to allow students to set their own purpose. I had to stop and ask some important questions.

Why should they read? What will they gain from the time it will take to complete this task? Is the time and effort the student invests really worth it? I knew I had to select a text for students because it is important. I want my students to understand big ideas and delve deep into a topic. Therefore if I expected my students to set a purpose for their assigned reading, I had better chosen a text for a purpose.

When a student has a reason to read, they will be engaged with the text. They will take notes, underline, highlight, and use post-its – if they were modeled for the student. But all the strategies I can demonstrate to students for interacting with the text won’t mean anything if the student has no reason to read. Purposes for reading will vary greatly depending on the structure of the unit. Wanting students to read a text “to appreciate it,” will not go over well especially with teenagers. It may be my ultimate long-term goal, but there needs to be something more concrete in the short-term.

To make the purpose more concrete, it pays to have the reading contained within a unit that is working towards a specific goal is the first step. Establishing what I want my students to understand and framing it in terms of an essential question also helps. This gives an overall purpose for the entire unit and allows students to see what they are working towards. It gives them a reason to work at something because they want to understand.

For example, in my secondary English, I may be working toward the goal of having students analyze the development of form (e.g., short stories, essays, speeches, poetry, plays, novels) and purpose in American literature and literature of other countries. After “unpacking” this standard, I realize that I want my students to understand that there a several types of literary forms and that each has traits that can be recognized when analyzed. To practice this, I would like my students to compare two literary forms while examining them for specific patterns that I previously taught. Students will be expected to name the form of each text and to support it with specific evidence from each text. Wow! Now my students have a reason to read the text.

Now that I have identified the reason my students will read the text, I can help build the context for my students. After offering the texts to my students, I can engage each student’s schema (prior knowledge) by asking him or her to preview each text – looking for patterns that will provide clues to the form. While students are doing this, they are activating their prior knowledge and predicting. I may reinforce this by asking my students to share either in a journal or with a partner what they think and why. Finally, the texts can be read and analyzed all because my students have “p-ed” three times before reading.