Working on a topic

What happens when we decide to introduce a new topic in class? The answer is that we do not know what is the previous knowledge students have on this subject. Perhaps there are students who know many things, but nevertheless, there will be others who won’t know anything  or just a  few aspects about the theme. But we do not spread panic!!

In this post, I am going to about three steps we should consider if we want to explain content meaningfully and step by step. These are the following: 1- Where are we now? (Which is the previous knowledge kids have about that topic?), 2- Where are we going? (What do we want children to learn?) and 3- How can we close the gap? (How can we get kids to learn it? and what activities can we do?). Then, I am going to explain these steps one by one and give my opinion about them.

1- Where are we now?  

One of the first things we need to do is asking students: “What do you know about …?”,  ” Have you ever hear this word before?” or “Do you know what it is?” to be aware of the notions that pupils have on a particular knowledge and find out from where can we start. To get that it can be very useful if we do a brainstorming with all the different ideas. Then, once we know their previous information and experiences about the subject matter what we can do is to stick the different notions in the blackboard, so the whole class can see it.

From my point of view, this is one of the most important parts when we try to teach any topic to children or even adults because if we do not discover what they know, we cannot help them, because some of them will understand us, but others do not. In addition, one advice I would like to add is that if children are young, as for example first grade, it is better if we do not force them to read. For that reason, we can make a drawing related to the words or sentences they have said and this will be easier for them. And of course, it is also very important that teachers lead children, asking them questions and helping with the answers if they do not remember some words.

                           

2- Where are we going? 

This second step refers to where we want to go and we can also call it “the outcomes”. So we need to think about twho questions: what we want children learn? and what is the purpose of that learning? We also need to consider a final product that represents all the things children have been assimilating throughout the process. For example, it can be a mural or a poster, a song made by students with the help of the teacher or a video, among others.

 As far as I’m concerned, this step is also influential because depending on what we decide here, we will organize activities in one way or another. Therefore, we must be aware of our aims and these have to be adapted to the age of our pupils. If we want to understand this concept better, we have to imagine it as a way and at this point, we have to decide where we want to  arrive because depending on how far we want to go, we will take a route or another (do some activities or others).

                                      

3- How can we close the gap?

We can answer this question with a single word, activities!! But the main objective of these has to be going from the previous knowledge to the outcomes, as these have to be sequenced from easiest to hardest. In my opinion, it is very important that we choose motivating activities and that we model the tasks, depending on the age of children. We can use different resources to get their attention as for example a story book, a video, a role-playing, through songs or pictures, among others and get them to learn in a meaningful way.

In addition, from my point of view, we cannot forget the evaluation of the final activities and the process. For this reason, it is recommended that teachers going around with a grid and assess by observation.

In my next post, we will see a practical example related to what I have explained today. I hope you like it!!