Why background knowledge?

• Because the Grapes of Wrath is dry reading if students don't know about the Dust Bowl.
• Because the Boston Tea Party is a non-event if students don't know loyalists from patriots.
• Because knowing a triangle has 180 degrees isn't the same as knowing why.

Because content-area comprehension depends on it, you and your students need Background Knowledge. 

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey help you develop lasting subject-area understanding with ideas for modeling, guided practice, productive group work, and independent work that effectively engage adolescents. You'll learn to:

• distinguish incidental knowledge from core background knowledge
• check students' understanding prior to a unit with tools such as opinionnaires, interest surveys, and anticipation guides
• model how to activate and apply prior knowledge so kids can wrestle with new content
• build up students' background knowledge through virtual fieldtrips, YouTube, guest experts, and more
• provide collaborative ways for students to develop expertise, show what they know, and own their learning.

Doug and Nancy also build your background knowledge with multimedia book-study resources at www.heinemann.com/backgroundknowledge.

"As teachersour job is not to simply fill students' heads with facts," write Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey. "We need to have students manipulate and apply information so that it becomes a permanent understanding." That's why the time is now for Background Knowledge.