Significance of Prior Knowledge Activation: A Close Look at Bilingual Kindergarten Student's Response to a Poem

This manuscript examines a kindergarten bilingual (Spanish/English) student’s responses to a poem during a two-day writer’s workshop. A detailed description of the student’s illustrated initial response to the poem is compared with the student’s later response after the vocabulary embedded in the poem was discussed. The importance of considering students’ sociocultural backgrounds and activating their prior knowledge as essential parts of instruction is stressed.