Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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By guiding students through developing their own understanding of core concepts, teachers ensure that the whole class is starting on a strong foundation.

In Frederick, Maryland, third-grade teacher Karen Wills is beginning a lesson on claims with her class at Sugarloaf Elementary School . “Yesterday we read the text Edison's Best Invention, and then today they had to identify the claim within that text,” she explains. “But I knew that prior to them identifying a claim, we really needed to see what they knew about a claim.” So Wills planned an activity to help her students tap into their prior knowledge.

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