Teacher background

Tapping Prior Knowledge
An explanation and several examples of activities you can use to help students activate their prior knowledge across the curriculum. From the Intel Education site.

KWHL Lesson
A sample science lesson that focuses on activating students prior knowledge using a variation on the KWL format. From the former North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL).

Connecting to Prior Knowledge
This site from the Ohio Resource Center for Mathematics, Science and Reading is designed for middle school, but many of the ideas could be adapted for younger students.

Activate and Build Schema
These resources on using prior knowledge are from the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Student Activity Sites

The Frog Beyond the Fairy Tale Character: Searching Informational Texts
In this interactive activity, students examine their prior knowledge, make predictions, and verify their predictions through research on the Internet. Students initially record their predictions about frogs on a worksheet with true and false columns.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

It Doesn't Have to End That Way: Using Prediction Strategies with Literature
After listening to a the beginning of a story, students use details in the text, personal experience, and prior knowledge to predict the way the story will end.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Using Snowflake Bentley as a Framing Text for Multigenre Writing
This link is a lesson plan on teaching kids about multigenre reading and writing. The lesson begins with activating prior knowledge. The theme is snow and there is even a link to make a virtual snowflake!
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Virtual Field Trips
One way to build students' prior knowledge before reading is to go on a field trip - or a virtual field trip. Exploring a topic through photographs and video clips on the Web can be a quick way to bring all of your students to a more equal level of prior knowledge before you read. This site shows a few examples. You can build your own virtual field trips using the "Scrapbook" function of Filamentality.