Building Background Knowledge

As educators we know the importance of building background  knowledge. This is especially important when teaching ELLs.  Today I made the mistake of assuming my middle school students had prior knowledge of what a monument was. The narrative text was about an experience The author had when visiting his grandparents. Not being familiar with what a monument was made the text hard for my student to understand. Too often ELL students struggle with vocabulary and as educators we can help by building background knowledge and discussing vocabulary. During the same small group lesson this same student was not familiar with the word windy such as...The windy road. We can't assume they know even what appears to us as the  simplest words.