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This blog post gives great great resources for teachers to use to fill instructional gaps related to identifying the main idea: ~ sample survey questions to gain knowledge of students main idea misconceptions ~ a list of student misconceptions ~ a great real world analogy to address students' misconceptions ~ At the very bottom of the blog, their are several additional resources related to the topic (podcast, sample lesson videos, etc.)

Prior knowledge, or background knowledge, is the information someone already knows about a topic. Sounds great, right? If you are teaching someone it has to be a good thing for that person to already know some things about the subject, right? Not always. Maybe that person's prior knowledge is biased, wrong, or full of misconceptions- that would leave that person at a disadvantage. Teachers, who know that proper prior knowledge help students make connections with the information, must ensure they use their student's prior knowledge appropriately. This essay explains how a student's prior knowledge can affect their learning and how teachers can use prior knowledge to their advantage in instruction.

Week 8: Partner: Cecile Droz This article discusses a new way to give student's warm-up exercises. Instead of having them complete them at the beginning of class, the students will complete the warm ups up to 3 days before they are due. The warm-ups will prepare the students for the upcoming week of assignments. The best type of warm-up assignments give the students a scenario that they are familiar with. It is important for the educator to determine if there are any misconceptions by looking at the warm-ups to determine what concepts need to be addressed again.

Although not everything described in this article applies necessarily to all subjects, the idea that teachers need to be more aware of the prior knowledge students have before they present new materials is very interesting. In second language, for example teachers use students' oral and written productions to assess their command of grammar but before any cultural or historical unit, it would make sense to address prior knowledge and rectify what needs to be rectified before introducing new ideas/material.

The use of warm-ups as a combination of extension, priming, and pre-assessment is novel. This gives students time and mental space to make a prediction and then bring it to class, prepared and ready to learn. I will definitely be employing this in a class I am designing next year.

There are normally a high number of learning gaps in many classrooms. Learning gaps are defined as the difference between where students are in their learning and where they should be. A gap is frequently caused by an obstacle (something that stands in the way of progress) or misconception (a mistaken thought, idea, or misunderstanding).

The article shows how you can encourage student dialogue. In this study, the class was given a cartoon showing characters discussing a new or current class topic that has common misconceptions associated with it. After viewing the cartoon, students are asked to take sides and either defend or refute one of the characters' opinions about what they are expressing. This helps students focus on the topic because they are not reading an article or passage that is asking for feedback, but rather they are taking part in a sort of 'debate' amongst these characters. It is a starting point for a student centered lesson and helps the students feel more at ease in defending or arguing a point; they are talking about ideas that the 'cartoon character' has instead of an idea or concept that 'they' came up with.

This article explores the use of mathematical discourse, or misconceptions, to promote student discussions and learning. It goes on to examine the process and best practices of using mathematical discourse to teach students content and practice mathematical vocabulary skills.