Build Background Knowledge To Help Students Unlock Complex Text
I have a challenge for you.
Read the passage below and see what ideas you can generate about its historical significance.
Unless you have a wealth of knowledge pertaining to US History, my guess is that you may have an idea of the passage's meaning, but would struggle to answer sophisticated questions about it. This is certainly the case for many of my 11th graders, for whom the words "apostacy" and "encroachments" would likely be unfamiliar and intimidating to them.
But here is the thing. They do not need to figure out the precise meaning of those words; they need to activate their prior knowledge.
Take a look at this section of the Unit 3 Knowledge Organizer that I print on colored paper for all of my AP US History students.
Note all of the background knowledge housed in approximately 10 square inches. Let me show you how these facts help my students decipher this passage and its significance.
First, you'll notice that the date 1787 is highlighted in bold. This means that 1787 is one of the 20 dates that students must memorize throughout the year in order to create a "mental timeline" of US History. If you know the 20 key dates, you can look at any passage from 1492-2001 and immediately know the most important historical developments of the time period that are likely relevant to grasping the passage and its significance. In this case, students should notice right away that this document was written during the same year as the Constitutional Convention.
Once students identify the historical situation in which the passage was written, they need to activate prior knowledge about the most important debates that occurred at the Convention. These debates are summarized by two key terms on their knowledge organizer - "Federalists" and "Anti-Federalists".
Note in particular that the definition of Anti-Federalists - which I teach, review, and quiz my students on repeatedly throughout the year using the knowledge building cycle - indicates that Anti-Federalists tended to come from the South and promoted the Bill of Rights to limit the power of the federal government.
Armed with this background knowledge, students have two ways to diagnose that this document was likely written by an Anti-Federalist. First, the document was published in Georgia, a state located in the South. Second, take a look at the last sentence of the passage, "Guard against all encroachments upon your liberties so dearly purchased with the costly expense of blood and treasure." If a student knows that this passage is about the Constitution and debates about the scope of the federal government, they are much more likely to take an educated guess that "encroachments" means something like "intrusions" or "violations."
Now, let's take a look at one of the questions that is paired with this passage.
Students must substitute "the views expressed in the excerpt" with their understanding of what those views are. In their minds, they should replace those words with something like "Anti-Federalists who supported liberty and limited government." (I teach them to think of this process like solving equations with two variables: first solve for X, then substitute the value of X in order to solve for Y.)
Then the key word "contributed" shows students that they need to determine which answer choice resulted from the views of Anti-Federalists.
Fortunately for my students, the definition of "Anti-Federalists" on their knowledge organizer includes that they promoted the Bill of Rights. The connection between Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights is not something we reviewed in class once; it is a piece of critical knowledge that has been explicitly taught, reviewed, and assessed.
This example shows how background knowledge helps my students decode complex texts and think historically. I'd be happy to help you design knowledge organizers and apply the knowledge building cycle, so that you can help your students do the same.
Sincerely,
Ben Katcher
