However, we can provide it or activate it, and suggestions for both are described below. Meaningful contexts from a content-rich curriculum spanning a wide variety of content areas are ideal for providing the background knowledge that will scaffold future learning.
Many curricula are deliberately designed to provide an integrated sequence of rich, engaging, multicultural content spanning history, science, music, visual arts, mathematics, language arts, and more. Without such a curriculum, knowledge from each of these areas that is likely to appear in texts in subsequent grades can still be provided.
In the earliest grades, before students can read books independently, the content and concepts that build background knowledge are usually developed through teacher read-alouds of a wide variety of texts, such as nursery rhymes, rhyming poems, fairy tales and fables from a variety of cultures, and engaging nonfiction texts, to name a few.
Reading a number books or stories to students featuring similar themes or domains e. Davis recommends twenty to thirty read-alouds per domain e. Although read-alouds are typically done in the elementary grades, there is likely to be benefit in building background knowledge at the older grades as well. In addition to providing background knowledge, we can also activate existing background knowledge. Activation of background knowledge that students already possess is frequently a focus of comprehension instruction.
Teachers understand the value of activating background knowledge and as a result many tend to apply a series of strategies at the expense of providing knowledge. There is not a lot of research on teaching a multitude of comprehension strategies prior to third grade, primarily because beginning readers in the early grades are learning how to decode fluently.
Also, too much of an emphasis on teaching strategies for reading comprehension may not be effective Stahl , , particularly if the text is easy to understand. In later grades, simply applying comprehension strategies such as visualizing or predicting will not automatically enable students to understand science. If we want students to comprehend science texts, they must know something about science.
Students do better if they read and write about things they know about. While isolated facts are certainly important and necessary, they will not suffice to enable meaningful comprehension unless background knowledge is developed within meaningful contexts.
However, as Shanahan explains, avoiding discussion altogether of background knowledge will not serve to allow children to interpret and comprehend texts more equally, because it would be next to impossible for children who do possess background knowledge about a topic to avoid using it to construct meaning while they read. Those without the background knowledge will not have this advantage, and will be wrongly viewed as having poor comprehension, when in fact it is their lack of knowledge that is to blame.
Shanahan provides some practical instructional suggestions for activating background knowledge before and during reading. An abridged and modified list appears below:. Having just read about background knowledge, it is probably easy for you to imagine how vocabulary—the knowledge of the meaning of words in a text—adds significantly to the construction of the meaning of texts. Vocabulary knowledge is a prominent predictor of reading comprehension and is depicted as a central thread in the language comprehension component of the Simple View of Reading because of its connections to background knowledge and language structures Scarborough, By the age of two, children usually speak about to words and understand many more, and once in school, they learn approximately 3, words per year, and can comprehend many more than they can read Nagy, To accomplish this rate of word learning, it is critical to ensure that students are learning new words each day.
This disparity results in students from more affluent households knowing thousands more words upon entering school, which benefits their ability to understand, participate in, and profit from the language of instruction that is predominant in U. This seems obvious since not knowing the meaning of words in a text makes it quite difficult to comprehend it.
Upon hearing a word, we can say a we have never heard of it, b that we have heard of it but we do not know it, c that we know it, or d that we both know it and can use it Nagy, The more deeply we know a word, the more likely we will be to understand it when we hear it or read it, and the more likely we will be to use it when we speak or write. Ideally, instruction makes it so that students reach the level of knowing and using words when they converse, write, or read.
Vocabulary learning occurs either incidentally words are learned through exposure and experiences or intentionally words are deliberately and directly taught. The majority of words in our vocabularies are learned incidentally, through conversations or independent reading Adams, Children who have learned to read independently are at an advantage in terms of learning words incidentally because they are able to independently encounter new words and infer their meaning while reading.
Incidental vocabulary instruction is enhanced through rich and varied oral language dialogue and discourse experiences, and independent reading. Teachers should consciously fill their everyday classroom language with rich, unique words so that they can be learned incidentally. A classroom that is rich with words promotes awareness of new vocabulary and a curiosity for learning new words. What a ruckus! It terrifies me! While it is not a scientifically based intervention, it provides a multitude of listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities that adhere to a sequence of language development for students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.
Many words, phrases, and sayings require intentional instruction. Tier 2 words are sophisticated, occur frequently in conversation and print, and are used across multiple domains and contexts. Examples of Tier 2 words are unique, convenient, remarkable, and misery See Beck et al. Tier 1 words are those that are basic and, for speakers of English, do not require instruction in school e.
During a read-aloud that is done in Text Talk fashion, open-ended comprehension questions are asked. Open-ended questions require a meaningful interactive response rather than a one-word reply.
After the read-aloud or during a second reading of the story, the preselected Tier 2 vocabulary words are defined by the teacher using simple, child-friendly definitions e. The meanings of the words are discussed within the context of the story e. Additionally, during the read-aloud, it is beneficial to read the text before showing the pictures so that the illustrations do not interfere with attention or comprehension.
Modifying read-alouds a bit to include the suggestions here fosters rich Tier 2 vocabulary and language comprehension through open-ended questions and by drawing attention to the vocabulary and meaning in texts.
The final element contributing to language comprehension is language structure—the relationships between the words and sentences in a text. Looking back at the model of skilled reading in Figure 1, it is evident there are many facets to language structures, including knowledge of grammar, being able to make inferences, and having knowledge of literacy concepts, such as what reading strategies to use for different types of texts e. The act of constructing meaning while reading is complex, so it is not surprising that morphology and syntax also contribute to reading comprehension.
Morphology is the study of morphemes in a language. Words contain one or more morphemes, or units of meaning. Another aspect of language form, syntax, is commonly referred to as grammar. It is the combining and ordering of words in sentences and phrases that enables comprehension of a text. Syntax includes sentence construction elements like statements, commands, and combined sentences as well as particular sentence components such as nouns, adjectives, and prepositional phrases.
These are important for future teachers to know, because effective use of these will allow students to comprehend text more successfully, and they will also allow students to demonstrate command of the conventions of the language in their writing pieces. Typically, rules of morphology and syntax are taught directly. For example, morphology instruction includes root words, prefixes, and suffixes along with derivations of Greek and Latin roots e.
Morphology charts of root words, prefixes, and suffixes can be compiled over time and displayed on a wall so that students can refer to them while reading or writing. Charts could feature a list of suffixes that indicate people nouns e. Incidental exposure to such morphology elements enhances word awareness the act of noticing and attending to features of words , vocabulary, and, of course, language comprehension.
Language content that is comprised of the meaning of the relationships that exist between words, phrases, and sentences is known as semantics. Semantics is different from vocabulary because it extends beyond the individual meaning of words. Understanding the semantics of language enables comprehension because it clarifies the content—the network of events and relationships that exists in texts.
For example, reading a sentence about a jug breaking and glass being scattered all over the floor might cause confusion, since jugs are typically not thought of as being made of glass. Just as important is background knowledge in order to form correct judgments about the context being read. Part of this knowledge includes the meaning of humor, slang, idioms i. Languages have thousands of common and often subtle semantic attributes that involve analogy, exaggeration, sarcasm, puns, and parables to convey world knowledge.
Teachers can explicitly teach these attributes so that they are recognized more readily, explicitly define particular sayings and expressions, and demonstrate examples and nonexamples.
Like vocabulary, the majority of semantic knowledge is derived from previous experiences and background knowledge. Teaching students phrases through exposure to discussions, reading, and other venues like television, movies, and online videos does a lot to promote this language comprehension element. Language use is termed pragmatics. Pragmatics are the rules of language that lead to appropriate use in assorted settings and contexts.
Each setting e. To communicate appropriately, students must learn patterns of conversation and dialogue that occur in assorted settings. Understanding the nuances of pragmatics contributes to language comprehension, which in turn enables a reader to recognize its uses in written text, leading to more successful reading comprehension. The pragmatics of language use in school requires students to comprehend academic language. Students, especially English language learners and students with social difficulties, must comprehend the differences between conversation and academic language.
Students can perform enjoyable skits demonstrating the differences in language use in various situations and teachers can monitor and model language use as students tell stories, describe events, or recount personal experiences.
To help students develop language comprehension, the underlying meaning-based elements of reading—background knowledge, vocabulary, and language structures—must be taught and monitored. Unlike teaching students to recognize words accurately and automatically so that they become fluent readers, teaching the elements of language comprehension must be done so that students become increasingly strategic about extracting the meaning from texts they read.
This is an incremental, ongoing, developmental process that lasts a lifetime. With each new bit of background knowledge, each new vocabulary word, and each new understanding of language use, students can integrate this knowledge strategically to comprehend text.
The two essential components of the Simple View of Reading, automatic word recognition and strategic language comprehension, contribute to the ultimate goal of teaching reading: skilled reading comprehension. Once students become proficient decoders and can automatically identify words, the role of language comprehension becomes increasingly important as students shift from paying attention to the words to paying attention to meaning.
Teachers must be ever mindful of the presence or absence of background knowledge that students bring to the task. The value of the knowledge that students bring to their reading should never be sacrificed for the sake of comprehension strategy instruction. They must go hand in hand. Adams, M. American Educator, 34, , Beck, I. Text talk: Capturing the benefits of read aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55, This summary gives some specific techniques you can use to help students develop comprehension skills.
These strategies will help the student think about what he or she is reading, understand what he is reading, and remember what he read. These strategies are effective for non-impaired readers. The following reading comprehension strategies should be implemented as a part of the guided reading.
Basically, you help the student think about the material before they start reading. This section discusses thermal or heat energy. This overview of the chapter outline is especially helpful with textbooks.
This preview helps the student understand the overall intention of the chapter or section. Some textbooks highlight key words, and important new vocabulary terms. Defining the keywords before reading is especially critical with subject terminology. Knowing the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions is important to understanding text discussions on chemical reactions.
To comprehend the basic physics of motion the student needs to understand the difference between the terms speed, velocity and acceleration. Help the student understand the structure and organization of writing : By recognizing important fundamentals about the structure and organization of writing, the student is better able to extract the important material and achieve comprehension.
In informative writing most sections should have a main idea and supporting details. Most paragraphs have an opening, a middle and an end. The opening sentence usually outlines the main idea of the paragraph. The supporting points and details should be in the body of the paragraph and the concluding sentence at the end. Awareness of the structure of paragraphs, sections and chapters helps the student better understand material.
For example, stories usually contain a conflict with the typical plot structure of exposition, rising action, climax and conclusion or catastrophe.
Awareness of elements including the point of view or voice the author uses to tell the story, situation, setting, and characterization all contribute to overall comprehension. Help the student understand key writing elements. Help the Student Learn to Identify and Extract the Main Ideas : The ability to find, identify, extract and understand main ideas is critical to not just reading comprehension but to educational objectives.
Much of the reading students do is to acquire specific information. Some students have high comprehension on fictional stories yet have difficulty extracting necessary information from textbooks and other non-fictional informational reading. These students need direct instruction on how to identify and extract necessary information. Many of the new textbooks contain a style of writing that many students need to learn how to read. The short paragraphs, numerous interruptions, interesting but irrelevant trivia, and tidbits of boxed information at various locations can sometimes make it more difficult to locate, identify and extract pertinent information.
For example, if the student is reading a chapter on United States expansion, the photo of a grizzly bear and sentences about how Thomas Jefferson had a grizzly bear in a cage on the White House grounds may distract the student from the main point.
The student needs to understand Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase and sent the Corps of Discovery expedition to explore this new territory.
They need to understand how Lewis and Clark mapped this new region and recorded information not just on many new plants and animals but also on the peoples that lived there. Help the student learn how to look for and identify the main idea both before reading and during the reading process. Stop the student at appropriate paragraphs or sections and ask targeted questions that direct the student to important information. Ask specific questions that help the student identify and understand the key concepts.
Not only does this allow the student to find necessary information but it teaches the student the essential skill of looking back and re-reading text to find necessary information. Show the student how to make an outline.
The type of instruction that a student receives will also affect reading comprehension. Strategies for improving reading comprehension must be taught directly by teachers. Simply providing opportunities or requiring for children to read will not teach many students the comprehension strategies they need to be proficient readers.
These need to be taught directly as students learn to read simple sentences and this direct instruction needs to continue in different forms throughout a student's elementary and secondary school experience. There are many ways to think about reading comprehension and many factors that affect reading comprehension.
Teachers should keep in mind two overriding questions about how to organize how to teach reading comprehension. These questions are, "What strategies should I teach? What strategies should I teach? The most practical way of thinking about teaching reading comprehension is to organize instruction according to how you want students to think about strategies.
For this reason, the most straightforward way of organizing comprehension strategies is to think about strategies that one might use before reading, duringreading, and after reading. Before Reading Strategies consist of those strategies that a student learns to use to get ready to read a text selection. These strategies help the student get an idea of what the author might be trying to say, how the information might be useful, and to create a mental set that might be useful for taking in and storing information.
These strategies could include previewing headings, surveying pictures, reading introductions and summaries, creating a pre-reading outline, creating questions that might need to be answered, making predictions that need to be confirmed, etc. The primary question for a teacher here is: "What steps observable as well as unobservable should I teach students to do regularly and automatically that will prepare them in advance to get the most out of a reading selection that needs to be read more thoroughly?
Teachers will need to continue to lead students in these types of before-reading activities to ensure content area learning occurs until students have been taught to fluently use Before-Reading Strategies. Teacher use of before-reading prompts and activities does not necessarily lead students to develop and use Before-Reading Strategies independently without direct and explicit instruction.
This is why it is important to directly teach and provide practice that gradually requires students to use Before-Reading strategies. During Reading Strategies consist of those strategies that students learn to use while they are reading a text selection. These strategies help the student focus on how to determine what the author is actually trying to say and to match the information with what the student already knows. These strategies should be influenced by the Before Reading Strategies because students should be using or keeping in mind the previews, outlines, questions, predictions, etc.
The During Reading Strategies that help a student understand during reading include questioning, predicting, visualizing, paraphrasing, elaborating i. The primary question for a teacher is: "What steps observable and unobservable should I teach students to do so that they will regularly and automatically figure out the intended meaning of the text and how it connects to what they already know?
When a teacher develops reading guides and outlines that need to be completed during reading, requires students to ask and answer questions, creates summaries as they read, etc. Teachers will need to continue to lead students in these types of during-reading activities to ensure content area learning occurs until students are taught to fluently use Before-Reading Strategies. Teacher use of during-reading prompts and activities does not necessarily lead students to develop and use During-Reading Strategies independently without direct and explicit instruction.
This is why it is important to directly teach and provide practice that gradually requires students to use During-Reading strategies. After-Reading Strategies consist of those strategies that students learn to use when they have completed reading a text selection.
These strategies are used to help the student "look back" and think about the message of the text and determine the intended or possible meanings that might be important. These strategies are used to follow up and confirm what was learned e. However, After-Reading Strategies also help the reader to focus on determining what the big, critical, or overall idea of the author's message was and how it might be used before moving on to performance tasks or other learning tasks.
The primary question for a teacher is: "What steps observable and unobservable should I teach students to do so that they will regularly and automatically stop when they are finished reading a text selection and try to figure out the intended meaning of the text to determine what is most important and how they will use it?
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