Why Activate?

Debbie Cargill
Aug 03, 2009

The purpose of the Acquisition Lesson plan (Essential Question, Activating Strategy, Teaching Strategies, Summarizing Strategy - EATS) is to connect the content with research-based learning strategies.  The goal is to provide students with opportunities and strategies that will help them to make the connections and learn the content better and keep it long term.

Activating thinking is based on the research that the human brain searches for patterns when learning.  According to Pat Wolfe, "Every encounter with something new requires the brain to fit it into an existing memory category (network of neurons)."   So, how do we get students' brains engaged?  An essential piece of the Acquisition Lesson plan is the Activating Strategy.  In this phase of the lesson, your goal is to activate students' thinking by helping them to make a connection to prior knowledge or by providing experiences to build knowledge if they lack adequate background knowledge.  The Activating Strategy, done effectively, connects prior knowledge and experiences to make new learning more meaningful and ultimately leads to greater student success.  By providing these opportunities to make some sense of the new learning, teachers set the stage and purpose for the learning.
When planning a lesson, ask yourself whether or not students already know something about the topic.  If they do, the Activating Strategy will serve to link to prior knowledge through recalling information, details, terms or phrases, and concepts.  It is at this point that you are helping students to connect what they already know to new learning.  If you determine that students have no background knowledge, then the Activating Strategy will help to build knowledge by providing experiences on which to build new learning, providing opportunities for prediction, and/or piquing student interest.  Have you ever thought of taking a field trip at the beginning of a unit or lesson to link to prior knowledge or build background knowledge?

Activating Strategies not only "hook ‘n link", but also preview key vocabulary and/or organizers.  This preview, like a movie preview, gives students a "taste" of what is to come plus explicitly teaches new vocabulary and builds skills with the organizer. When students then encounter the key vocabulary or concepts in the content, they are familiar and help students to have a better understanding of the new learning.

Many times teachers will say they do not have time to activate, but it is important!  The Learning-Focused recommendation is for teachers to allocate approximately 10% of the total time for the lesson for the Activating Strategy.  Remember!  An Acquisition Lesson is planned by the concept or skill - not by the day or period!

Ideas for Activating Strategies are numerous.  One high school teacher used old radio classics to spark students' interest in literature.  Many teachers use short video clips from United Streaming, or other sources, as Activating Strategies.  There are many other examples in the book Learning-Focused Strategies: Connecting Exemplary Practices in Acquisition Lessons.  One important key to remember:  the Activating Strategy must connect to the lesson, so we recommend planning how to activate after you have planned the Teaching Strategies part of the lesson.  Be creative, look for activities that will grab students' attention and help them to "learn it faster and keep it longer"!