Background Knowledge

The author of Classroom Instruction That Works discusses teaching methods that can help overcome the deficiencies in background knowledge that hamper many students' progress in school.

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.

TEACH YOUR STUDENTS TO READ WITH PRECISION AND INSIGHT The world we are preparing our students to succeed in is one bound together by words and phrases. Our students learn their literature, history, math, science, or art via a firm foundation of strong reading skills. When we teach students to read with precision, rigor, and insight, we are truly handing over the key to the kingdom. Of all the subjects we teach reading is first among equals. Grounded in advice from effective classrooms nationwide, enhanced with more than 40 video clips, Reading Reconsidered takes you into the trenches with actionable guidance from real-life educators and instructional champions. The authors address the anxiety-inducing world of Common Core State Standards, distilling from those standards four key ideas that help hone teaching practices both generally and in preparation for assessments. This 'Core of the Core' comprises the first half of the book and instructs educators on how to teach students to: read harder texts, 'closely read' texts rigorously and intentionally, read nonfiction more effectively, and write more effectively in direct response to texts. The second half of Reading Reconsidered reinforces these principles, coupling them with the 'fundamentals' of reading instruction—a host of techniques and subject specific tools to reconsider how teachers approach such essential topics as vocabulary, interactive reading, and student autonomy. Reading Reconsidered breaks an overly broad issue into clear, easy-to-implement approaches. Filled with practical tools, including: 44 video clips of exemplar teachers demonstrating the techniques and principles in their classrooms (note: for online access of this content, please visit my.teachlikeachampion.com) Recommended book lists Downloadable tips and templates on key topics like reading nonfiction, vocabulary instruction, and literary terms and definitions. Reading Reconsidered provides the framework necessary for teachers to ensure that students forge futures as lifelong readers.

" ... A practical guide designed to help early childhood teachers take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the common core state standards. It offers strategies for planning and presenting vocabulary instruction and for monitoring children's word learning progress, along with helpful appendices that provide specific guidance on which words to teach"--Cover, page [4].

The healthcare industry produces a constant flow of data, creating a need for deep analysis of databases through data mining tools and techniques resulting in expanded medical research, diagnosis, and treatment. Data Mining and Medical Knowledge Management: Cases and Applications presents case studies on applications of various modern data mining methods in several important areas of medicine, covering classical data mining methods, elaborated approaches related to mining in electroencephalogram and electrocardiogram data, and methods related to mining in genetic data. A premier resource for those involved in data mining and medical knowledge management, this book tackles ethical issues related to cost-sensitive learning in medicine and produces theoretical contributions concerning general problems of data, information, knowledge, and ontologies.

The LNCS volume LNCS 9714 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Data Mining and Big Data, DMBD 2016, held in Bali, Indonesia, in June 2016. The 57 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 115 submissions. The theme of DMBD 2016 is "Serving Life with Data Science". Data mining refers to the activity of going through big data sets to look for relevant or pertinent information.The papers are organized in 10 cohesive sections covering all major topics of the research and development of data mining and big data and one Workshop on Computational Aspects of Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision.

All the tools that educators need to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps. Although it's easy to connect out-of-school factors such as poverty or the pandemic to achievement gaps in schools today, education leaders need to focus on what's within their school or district’s control to ensure equitable learning outcomes for their students. In this practical guide for K–12 instructional leaders, superintendent Teresa D. Hill outlines five keys to effectively close achievement gaps: meaningful assessment, language and literacy, experience and exposure, consolidation of knowledge, and perfect practice. She walks readers through a step-by-step process so that they can * Develop a deep understanding of the achievement gaps in their school or district, including the sources and perpetuators of those gaps. * Prepare their team for the capacity-building work ahead. * Closely examine the five most meaningful and effective strategies for improving outcomes that fall within their school's sphere of influence. * Develop and implement a real-world action plan, including short-, moderate-, and long-term steps for closing gaps. Written by a colleague who knows firsthand what it takes to increase student achievement, the targeted advice and tools in The Instructional Leader's Guide to Closing Achievement Gaps will help educators confront the gaps in their school or district and make progress right away.