The document discusses principles for building academic background knowledge through indirect approaches. It outlines six principles: 1) Students store knowledge in "memory records" of events they are involved in. 2) Students need multiple exposures to new content spaced several days apart with elaborations. 3) Instruction must target content-specific information while allowing personalization. 4) Teachers must provide basic terminology and concepts before "more" knowledge. 5) Vocabulary acquisition builds background knowledge through labeling memories. 6) Virtual experiences like reading and conversation enhance background knowledge. The document also discusses effective vocabulary instruction, noting dictionary definitions should not be the first exposure and there must be multiple exposures and discussions of new words.

1. Building Academic Vocabulary

2. Building Academic Content Knowledge The strongest increase in both innate intelligence and learned intelligence is effective schooling. Effective schooling can provide the most direct approach to building academic content knowledge through a variety and depth of experiences like field trips and out-of-class experiences. However, an indirect approach to building background knowledge can also lead to remarkable results.

3. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #1 1) Students store background knowledge in “memory records” based on eight “propositions” related to an event in which the student is directly involved. The student stores knowledge associated with the following “I” questions: what I did; how I felt; what I did to something; where I did something; what I did for or gave to someone; what happened to me during the event; what someone else did for me ; how I felt at the end of the event.

4. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #2 2) Helping students store their experiences in permanent memory can be enhanced. Students need minimally four exposures to new content, no more than two days apart. The four exposures cannot be mere repetition. The four exposures must provide a variety of elaborations of the new content without requiring students to access another knowledge set.

5. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #3 3) The target for instruction must be content-specific information. A student’s background knowledge outside the target content area can be a valuable tool as the student personalizes the new information.

6. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #4 4) Teachers must build opportunities for students to build academic knowledge through multiple exposures to the surface-level or basic terminology or concepts for a content area. Teachers cannot build “more” background knowledge until their students have acquired the basic information.

7. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #5 5) Vocabulary acquisition builds background knowledge. Words are labels students store in their memory packets for single objects and for groups or families of objects. Only if the student has a memory packet can that student apply background knowledge to new experiences through words. A store becomes a grocery store, a convenience store, a department store, etc., only for the student with an expanded memory packet.

8. Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach: #6 6) Virtual experiences enhance background knowledge. A student’s ability to read allows one type of virtual experience. Equally important is the use of spoken language for virtual experience. Conversation is an important instructional tool that should be used in the required repetitive process to allow students to build background information.

9. Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction “ High frequency” word lists, used my many, have inherent problems. These lists do not address the difficulty, appropriateness, or relevance of a word to a concept. Effective vocabulary instruction begins with this most important declaration: Dictionary definitions should not be the first exposure for students to new words.

10. Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction (cont’d) Students must have multiple exposures to words and word meanings. Teaching word parts supports student learning. Students must be provided the opportunity to discuss the words they are learning. Content-specific terms are most helpful in building academic vocabulary.

11. Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction Marzano’s six steps emphasize that while content-specific teachers address content-specific vocabulary, all teachers should use the six-step process.