"When they begin the beguine It brings back the sound of music so tender It brings back a night of tropical splendor It brings back a memory ever green I'm with you once more under the stars And down by the shore an orchestra's playing And even the palms seem to be swaying When they begin the beguine"- Cole Porter, "When They Begin the Beguine" (1936)
Our brains – they can so capture the physical and emotional nuances of a moment that it is almost possible to relive pieces of our pasts. Whether it’s the comfort of your grandma’s perfume or the romantic longings that surge when hearing “that song,” we all have sense memories.
This clip of two tap legends dancing to Porter’s song is one for me. I see it and I’m five, sitting on grandma’s couch, studying every move, dreaming of broadway, waiting for grandpa to come around the corner and assure me for the one hundredth time that I am the world’s next Eleanor Powell.
Newsflash – I did not become the next Eleanor Powell (surprising I know), but I did excel at tap. The context of my family and my prior knowledge almost literally set the stage for my first “shuffle step.”
CEP810 has me thinking a lot about prior knowledge and knowledge construction this week. As I contemplate the marvelous nature of our brains, Porter’s song keeps popping into my mind and I realize that you never know what will be a “When they begin the beguine” kind of moment for someone. As a teacher, I want to play the “beguine” for each of my students – to tap into their prior knowledge in such a way that they are propelled toward deep understandings.
I’d love to hear your ideas. How do you “begin the beguine” for your students?
Check out my thinking on a teacher’s place in knowledge construction in this short essay.
The Ice-Cream Coffee Teacher 
I really enjoyed reading your essay this week on leaning and understanding based on our reading from How People Learn. As a teacher myself I really connected to a lot of the things mentioned in the chapter on how students can learn various topics and facts but that it does not equate to deep understanding. Your essay seemed to focus on the same.
One of the things I liked that you mentioned was, “Without knowing where students are beginning it is nearly impossible to chart an appropriate course for them to follow.” This is so incredibly true and I feel that a lot of educators forget this portion. A lot of teachers assume that when they receive a group of students this year that they are ALL on the same page and level with their prior knowledge since they are all in the same grade. This could not be further from the truth. Each year I get students whose reading levels and math level are all over the place and I constantly have to work with their previous knowledge to help them gain as much out of my teaching and my class as possible. Do you notice this about your students to (if you are currently teaching)?
Another thing your essay reminded me of was that not everyone knows how to “learn” or knows the strategies to learn and this also must be taught to students to help them be a successful learning and grasp what deep understanding even means. This to me is just like teaching basic test taking skills or study skills. Without knowing how to do things such as making flashcards or knowing what the phrase “process of elimination” is students are helpless. We as educators HAVE to do these things in order for learning to be successful Thanks again for sharing this week! I enjoyed the post and look forward to more! Also your photos you post are super cute!
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Thanks, Nikki! I’m currently teaching part-time for a blended school where kids are part online and part in person. I’m a part of our online team, but can still totally relate to the huge range of prior knowledge. Our students are middle and high schoolers, but it’s not uncommon for us to have students reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level. We also have students who are in our program because they want an accelerated pace, so the range is huge! We have the flexibility to embed a million scaffolds and then help students self-select which ones they really need in order to complete their work, so in someways that makes the job a little easier.
Differentiating within a classroom is hard, grueling but super fulfilling work, and it’s awesome to hear you spend so much time toward that end. Are you in an elementary classroom (since you mentioned teaching math and reading)? Any tricks you use that help you get at that prior knowledge quickly? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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