building background

I liked reading "Links Explicitly Made between Past Learning and New Concepts" and "Key Vocabulary Emphasized..." because when I am teaching new concepts I know that it is important to link the past learning to what I am teaching. The book says that it is important for the teachers to make explicit connections between new learning and the material, vocabulary, and concepts previousy covered in class. In order for learning to happen, new information has to be integrated with what students have previously learned.
I am teaching the names of coins and for example, "how many nickels is equal to a quarter?" So, before I teach that, we discuss the past learning we did on, greater than, less than and equal to, and I ask the students something like what the book says. "Who remembers what we learned about equal to?" "Who remembers what equal to means?"
It says vocabulary development is critical for English learners and that it is strongly related to academic achievement.