Use Prior Knowledge and Context Clues–Parent Pipeline

Like many of you, I start each day with a morning message to my students. It is a nice welcome and lets them know what the day has in store. Recently I started leaving some words out and replacing them with a blank line. My students then use their prior knowledge and the context of the message to predict what word is missing. They enjoy being detectives and are always excited when I am not able to "stump" them.

Using prior knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning helps readers gain understanding of unfamiliar words. This strategy should not only be taught and practiced at school, but should be encouraged and modeled at home. The Parent Pipeline will assist parents with how to review this strategy.