I pride myself on my flexibility and creativity in the classroom, so while knowing about all aspects of the class is a definite plus, I am still capable of facilitating a meaingful lesson without knowing ALL the details. Essential infomation I DO need to know while planning a lesson is what the students know about the content and where they are coming from. I want to know what knowledge my students possess as a stable foundation. If houses have foundations, then comprehension and mastery have background information. The stability of the foundation is what determines the structural integrity of the whole house, just as the support of background information is what can form a sturdy mental platform for new concepts to be built upon. Background information is the stable surface upon which we build our understanding. Building upon or from background information is essential to learning new information. How does the lesson relate to the student and the world around them? How are they going to be looking at the new material based upon the skills and knowledge they already have? These are the questions that I ask myself while preparing for a class. Background information is the answer to this question and a great place to bring students into the lesson.
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