How Knowledge Supports Reading Comprehension
And How ELA Programs Can Unite Knowledge with Reading Instruction to Foster Better Readers
What is knowledge building?
Knowledge building refers to the process students undertake as they learn new things, expand on what they already know, and deepen their understanding of interconnected concepts and facts. In literacy, experts argue that if students have some knowledge about the contents of a text before they read it, they’ll comprehend more as they read, and that the more knowledge students have, the easier it is for them to acquire additional knowledge.
“Background knowledge” and “knowledge building” are often used interchangeably in education. Some educators and researchers use “Knowledge Building” to refer to collective knowledge, and some find it helpful to differentiate between types of background knowledge, such as knowledge acquired in previous grades at school versus knowledge acquired at home or in communities.
From a Science of Reading perspective, knowledge building is an important component of reading comprehension. In the commonly cited model, Scarborough’s Reading Rope, knowledge building or background knowledge is a strand of the language comprehension section of the rope.
Why is knowledge building important?
The more students know about a topic or related topics explored in a text, the more they’ll comprehend as they read. The more we can help students learn about interconnected concepts they will likely encounter in academic texts, the better their chances are for strong comprehension and deeper learning. From a brain science perspective, it’s related to lightening students’ cognitive load, or giving their working memories more capacity to process new information. Here’s a deeper dive into cognitive load theory.
Literacy expert Doug Fisher puts it this way:
“When we read, we activate things we know about the world and make connections with our experiences. When we read something entirely new, we ask ourselves, am I understanding this? How is this different from what I thought about the world? We use background knowledge to make sense of what we’re reading.”
It’s important to begin a focus on knowledge building from very early on because acquiring background knowledge and becoming a stronger reader happen simultaneously and build on one another. Experts often use the “Matthew Effect” as a reference to explain knowledge building (or the common phrase, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer). Students who already have knowledge will find it easier to acquire more. If knowledge building isn’t supported in literacy curricula (and across disciplines), existing inequities will persist, and achievement gaps will widen.
But what about reading comprehension strategies?
In some conversations about the Science of Reading, “strategies” can be a tricky subject — particularly around comprehension. But in truth, teachers don’t have to choose between knowledge and strategies. Both are important to comprehension. We know that students should use prior knowledge while reading, but they also need support using reading strategies to make sense of texts when they don’t have sufficient background knowledge. In his blog on prior knowledge and strategies, Tim Shanahan puts it this way:
“They let readers in on the secret that if you are intentional and strategic you can make sense of texts, even if you lack the background for them.”
Strategies are powerful tools that enable students to stretch beyond the boundaries of their prior knowledge and explore new ideas, new cultures, and new perspectives. If we only set students up to rely on their prior knowledge, their horizons would be too limited.
Elementary teachers can teach self-monitoring strategies such as re-reading, making predictions, asking and answering questions, making inferences, summarizing, and visualizing. Students can also learn to use text or story structure to identify main ideas or events and work to summarize or retell the contents of the text. It’s important to remember that these lose their impact when taught in isolation and are most effective when implemented within a knowledge building ELA program. This article from Natalie Wexler provides one perspective into the evolving conversation around strategies and their complex role in comprehension.
How do we build knowledge to support reading comprehension?
To claim that students will understand more of what they read if they know more about more things (with the help of some strategies) sounds simple enough in theory… but what does that mean for educators in practice?
Varying approaches to building knowledge can help students become better readers. Here are a few key tenants of a strong knowledge building foundation in literacy instruction, across grade ranges:
Build knowledge across topics in science, social studies, and literature, throughout grade levels.
One of the most pressing questions around knowledge building is simply: What knowledge should students build? There’s no single right answer, but some central guideposts can help us narrow down to a feasible scope.
Experts have found that content-rich ELA curricula base units around science and social studies topics (Hwang, Lupo, Cabell, & Wang, 2020). Content knowledge in science and social studies provides ample opportunities for exposure to complex academic texts and important vocabulary development.
However, it’s critical that we don’t leave out the arts! Arts-based texts provide opportunities for critical thinking and cover domains that are familiar to students across socio-economic backgrounds, serving as an important access point for all learners. Knowledge building isn’t just about acquiring social studies and science facts — students also need time to build knowledge about literature, such as literary devices, and to explore knowledge that literature conveys, such as insights about being human. (ELA teachers, rejoice! Knowledge building is about novels and literature just as much as science and social studies!)
Knowledge building efforts across the disciplines should align to grade-level topics, systematically progressing within and across grades. Instruction should begin as early as kindergarten to start a strong conceptual framework for students to draw upon when grappling with increasingly complex texts (Cabell & Hwang citing Kintsch, 2009; Stanovich & Cuningham, 1993).
Explore topics in depth over long periods of time.
Research indicates that curricula should dedicate many weeks of classroom time to a topic, rather than jumping around day to day (Neuman, 2021; Kim et al 2023). That may seem like a long time, especially when you think about the fast-paced environment of an elementary classroom. But extended periods provide opportunities for students to build a network of related concepts around the topic, which is essential for developing vocabulary. It also gives students opportunities to read multiple genres on the same topic, which then helps them develop deeper knowledge about the topic. Finally, be sure to include time for oral language practice.
Teachers can draw on fiction and narrative nonfiction books to help students acquire new vocabulary and develop an emotional connection with the topic, which can help boost engagement and spark joy in learning. Informational books, on the other hand, are important to begin working with more dense, academic vocabulary and explore information about the topic.
Consider teaching related words together.
Knowledge building can provide a useful framework for helping students learn and retain new vocabulary words. Teachers can introduce new words, related to the current topic, by categories or relationships. According to researchers, categorical relationships increase vocabulary by helping students develop a well-organized semantic network (Willingham, 2017), which helps with understanding word meanings (Mezynski, 1983) and depth of word knowledge (Neuman, Kaefer, & Pinkham, 2014). However, it’s important to note that sometimes relying only on categories, depending on the types of categories, can make words harder to learn. For more on teaching vocabulary, read:
Build knowledge through a diverse set of voices and perspectives.
If we return to the question of what knowledge to build, it’s also important to consider the sources of knowledge, perspectives and voices of texts, and cultural implications of the breadth of knowledge students explore. Text sets and supporting multimodal resources throughout a unit should feature diverse authors, characters, geographies, points of view, and cultures.
Have students write about what they read.
If you’re a frequent reader of our blog, this one may sound familiar. That’s because it’s a key principle of what we know about the science of writing. Providing students with opportunities to write about what they read helps them become better writers while improving reading comprehension and fluency. Researchers also believe that reading and writing about content area concepts can make literacy activities purposeful, which boosts students’ motivation (Graham et al 2010). As students explore topics in-depth, they should have opportunities to write about those topics in different genres and illustrate connections between concepts.
Include multimodal resources and hands-on activities.
Finally, an ELA block rooted in knowledge building doesn’t have to be limited exclusively to reading and writing. Students can benefit from multimodal resources (as long as they aren’t relying too heavily on non-textual sources) and project-based learning should have a seat at the table, too. It’s important that projects are relevant to the topic and require students to think critically and demonstrate a deep understanding of what they’ve learned, perhaps even applying it to creating something novel.
There’s still much more to learn about knowledge building and its impact on reading proficiency and long-term student success. But as we strive to re-think our approach to comprehension and work to ensure students have access to rich, motivating instruction, knowledge building ELA curricula that combine content with reading instruction offer a promising way forward.
For more on the science of reading and literacy see:
References
Graham, Steve, and Michael Hebert. Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve. Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010. Print.
Hwang, H., Lupo, S., Cabell, S. Q., & Wang, S. (2021). What research says about leveraging the literacy block for learning. Reading in Virginia, 42.
Kim, J. S., Burkhauser, M. A., Relyea, J. E., Gilbert, J. B., Scherer, E., Fitzgerald, J., Mosher, D., & McIntyre, J. (2023). A longitudinal randomized trial of a sustained content literacy intervention from first to second grade: Transfer effects on students’ reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 115(1), 73–98.
Mezynski, K. (1983). Issues concerning the acquisition of knowledge: Effects of vocabulary training on reading comprehension. Review of Educational Research, 53(2), 253–279. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170386
Neuman, S. B. (2021, July 8). A more actionable take on the science of reading. Albert Shanker Institute. https://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/more-actionable-take-science-reading
Neuman, S. B., Kaefer, T., & Pinkham, A. (2014). Building Background Knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 68(2).
Stanovich, K. E., & Cunningham, A. E. (1993). Where does knowledge come from? Specific associations between print exposure and information acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 211–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.85.2.211
Willingham, D. T. (2017). A Mental Model of the Learner: Teaching the Basic Science of Educational Psychology to Future Teachers. Mind, Brain, and Education, 11(4).
