Knowledge+Rating+Scale


 * Summary **

The //Knowledge Rating Scale// (Lenski et al., 2011: 52) is a literacy strategy that is designed to introduce potentially new content words to students. The advantage to the knowledge rating scale is that begins to activate student’s prior knowledge and gets them to start thinking about connections that can be made between new material and material that they may already be comfortable with. The survey style of the knowledge rating scale is helpful because it indicates to the teacher, and student alike, just how much background they are bringing with them into a unit of study. Many students might discover that they have a more sophisticated understanding of the new content than they may have previously believed.


 * Directions **


 * 1) ** Identify ** a list of important vocabulary words from a new unit or chapter of text and develop a survey with three options next to each word for students to mark: //know it well, have heard/seen it,// and //no clue.//
 * 2) ** Divide ** the class into mixed ability groups so that each student can share their background knowledge. Then have each student consider each term and place an ‘X’ in the space for the response that reflects their familiarity with each term.
 * 3) After students are done, have them **Create** sentences that include the words that they indicated they “knew well.”
 * 4) ** Discuss ** the sentences the students have created. Then in the following days as you read the chapter, have students add definitions of words they did not know, or change sentences of words that they may have used incorrectly.


 * Example **

For a unit on the “Age of Affluence” during the 1950s that emphasizes the //History Alive:// //Pursuing American Ideals// text a teacher could create a K//nowledge Rating Scale// survey like the one below:

From this //Knowledge Rating Scale,// It becomes apparent that this particular student is very familiar with three of the major themes from this unit. This information allows the teacher to adapt he or she teaches vocabulary. If students are able to use suburbanization, Cold War, and baby boom correctly in sentences, it allows the teacher to spend more time developing students understanding of vocabulary words that they are less familiar with.
 * **Knowledge Rating Scale** || **Know It Well** || **Have Heard/Seen It** || **No Clue** ||
 * Consumer society ||  || X ||   ||
 * Planned Obsolescence ||  ||   || X ||
 * Levittown ||  || X ||   ||
 * Suburbanization || X ||  ||   ||
 * Cold War || X ||  ||   ||
 * Containment ||  || X ||   ||
 * Baby boom || X ||  ||   ||