Guiding Question: Do artists, architects, carpenters, engineers, and educators blindly find success through luck?

As you introduce a unit or lesson, there is no need to be subtle or ambiguous with students about what you want them to learn. Use explicit cues to tell students what they are about to understand and identify and discuss what they already know about the topic.

Make it easy for students to access their prior knowledge by providing explicit cues in various formats, including questions that guide their listening, reading, or viewing of information about a topic.

The more students know about a topic, the more interested they will be in it. Asking questions or providing cues that help students access their prior knowledge about a topic brings that knowledge to the conscious level and increases the likelihood that students will pay attention to or engage with new information related to the topic.

It is sometimes difficult to think of good inferential or analytic questions "in the moment" while teaching. Plan for the use of inferential and analytical questions by creating a list of relevant and useful questions before you begin a lesson or unit.

Keep a list of possible inferential and analytical questions readily accessible (e.g., on your desk, near the board, in your lesson plan book) to remind you to use such questions regularly.

Use a variety of graphic organizers to help students access their prior knowledge, but keep in mind that graphic organizers' purpose is to clarify to students what they will be learning concerning a particular topic. Ensure that the connection between the graphic organizer and the focus of the lesson is clear.