Background knowledge plays a critical role in language comprehension, thus, reading comprehension. Many students that we see either have difficulty building background knowledge or revising their knowledge and new information occurs.
We know that students will process information faster and learn more when they have background knowledge to support this.
Marzano (2004) in Building Background Knowledge discusses the importance of building background knowledge. He then goes on to discuss how building this background knowledge will lead to building background academic knowledge. We know from the research on syntax as well that students demonstrate improved reading comprehension when they are familiar with the topic.
According to Robert Marzano, "What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content" (2004, p. 1). John Guthrie is equally adamant as he writes about comprehension as impossible without prior knowledge (2008, p. 11),
As speech-language pathologists, we can support students in accessing their background knowledge for new learning. Here are some ways:
· Always base new information on what the student already knows.
· Preteach/prelearn information. This will increase overall comprehension when the information is presented in class.
The following ideas are presented to assess the student's background knowledge.
1. Prediction guides, also called anticipation guides (Buehl, 2001), are one of the best ways to assess students' prior knowledge. Information is given about the topic and the student states whether he or she agrees or disagrees with the statement.
2. Use a Mindmap with the main idea in the middle, ask the student to tell you everything they know about that topic.
The next step, after background knowledge for a topic is determined, would be to build background knowledge about a topic. Marzano (2004) and Cossett Lent (2012) provide both direct and indirect approaches.
· Trips to museums, art galleries, outdoor labs, etc.
· Vacation destinations (past and present)
· Trips to parks
· Camps
· Plays/performances
· Preview what the student will experience on the field trip.
· Make a vocabulary board and discuss. The vocabulary board should accompany the student on the field trip.
· Have an educator take pictures sequentially.
· Use these pictures to add to vocabulary and overall background knowledge.
The first indirect approach to building background knowledge is through narrative.
The following strategies can be used.
· Preview using the extra information provided in fiction and nonfiction (including textbooks) including the prologue, author’s notes, maps, recipes, activity directions, and timelines.
· Use picture books and graphic novels
· Build in stopping points to discuss what is happening and determine the students’ current background knowledge of the information.
o Choose one picture in a chapter from a textbook and have your student(s) state why this picture is important.
o List three things to look up online that would help your student(s) better understand this chapter.
Another approach is direct vocabulary instruction. Please see previous posts about vocabulary.
Implement a program of direct vocabulary instruction that focuses on the terms and phrases that students will encounter in their academic subjects. This includes a linguistic and nonlinguistic representation of the word. Nonlinguistic would include: a picture (mental then drawn) or physical sensation (see, smell, touch, hear, taste) such as watch a video, act it out, make it, hear it, etc.
