Keep Calm, and Design Instruction: How Do I Use Prior Knowledge?

So, you have asked the questions, or used the checklist to gather information on the new player at your practice…

WHAT NOW????

Keep Calm, and Design Instruction

Conversational Tools

First, most of the time it will be more informal and organic. It will come up as general reminders or comments from your students.

Putting prior knowledge to use is one of the most fun things in the beginning.  It can create a cooperative learning environment and establish trust between the teacher and student.

Conversations might sound like:

“OK we are going to work on footwork first! I know you have some experience with ballet. As we work think about what foot positions this work is similar to and tell me what the names for these foot positions in ballet are.”

“You have done Tae Kwon Do? Great! Can you show me horse stance? This is the perfect place to start building a period fencing stance! You are already HALFWAY THERE!”

Any time you can help your student by:
A) Referencing prior knowledge “Hey this move in rapier is like x move in Lacrosse”

B) Building on the prior knowledge “This move will start like this move in soccer, but, we will end it like this instead.”

Knowing about prior injuries or disabilities allows you and the student to negotiate what will and will not work for their body, and create modifications (as necessary)to standard practice to allow them to safely participate. It also allows you to teach without trying to correct something that has already been modified for the needs of that student.

Knowing that a student already has an understanding of basic parries/guards will allow you to refresh, and move on, saving you both time and frustration.

By referencing prior knowledge, and allowing students to discuss, we are helping to scaffold from prior knowledge to the new knowledge.

Journaling
This is also where a fight journal is very useful.

You can activate prior knowledge through journaling in these ways:

Have the student create a KWL chart:

K= What do I know about fencing/that move/conventions .

W= What do I WANT to know or learn about this?

L= After practice or instruction what did I learn? 

Use Multimedia tools like Youtube. 

CREATE prior knowledge.(Yes you can!)

A) For yourself: by looking into their previous athletic experiences and finding what you can use to develop moves. Look for instructional videos on youtube, books, etc about the students' activities to teach yourself specific language that might help you make connections and communicate faster. Make notes for later use! 

B) For the student:, by assigning them videos to watch of the drill or move to be taught the next week. Also consider using print, give text, or photographs of the move you will focus on the next week ahead of time so that students have seen it, and possibly tried it before coming to class.

Terminology/Story Impressions

Give terminology and ask fighters to talk about what they think might happen at:
Queen’s
Gulf War
Pensic

For example The activity might look like this:

Queen's Story Impression

Vocabulary
Roses     Queen’s Champion     White Scarves
    MOD       BOM   LOI
Book of the Courtier   Swashbucklers Oath

     Queen’s Champion Song   

Prediction: (This is where the student journals a prediction, as response may look like what follows) 

We will submit a LOI, and go to an event called Queen’s champion, where the Roses, BOM, MOD, WhiteScarves will swear the Oath, and sing the Queen’s Champion Song. It is important to emulate the courtly graces as seen in the Book of the Courtier to add to the fun and magic of the event.