If you’re a reading, social studies, science, or even a math teacher, you know how important it is that students comprehend the material.  You also know that many things can stand in the way of this goal.  For every one of us, lack of comprehension is of primary concern.  Complex sentences, difficulty decoding, and lack of vocabulary can all greatly impact comprehension.  And closely tied to vocabulary is background knowledge.  Background knowledge is absolutely essential to comprehension.  And that’s why knowledge building–building that background knowledge–is such an important topic. 

In fact, in the much-anticipated book Shifting the Balance:  6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom, it’s so important that it’s the topic of the very first chapter! 

“When we dove into the research, especially from cognitive science, it showed us that background knowledge–knowing stuff about stuff–is absolutely indispensable for reading comprehension.”

-Shifting the Balance Podcast, August 2023

In a previous post, I talk about how to build vocabulary.  Just as with all good teaching, this doesn’t come from a boxed curriculum.  (Check out that post for where it DOES come from).  This is also true of background knowledge, which I also  wrote about in another post. Both matters a lot in terms of reading comprehension.  

Where does wide knowledge building begin?

Lots of places.  When kids are little, it comes from being read to, from experiences, and lots and lots of conversation with adults.  

But let’s be real.  These days, many kids spend more time playing games on devices than anything else. 

Not being read to. 

Not having conversations with adults who enrich their vocabulary levels.  

Not experiencing the world around them.

And what’s more, our population of second language learners is growing.  

So what can educators do when kids come to us lacking background knowledge and the vocabulary that comes with it?

More than you might think.

First, the easiest:  allow children to read.  From a variety of texts, styles, authors, topics, and genres.  I can tell you that as a reader myself, through beautiful literature I have learned a great deal about what it’s like to be Black in America, what it’s like to live in deep poverty, how homelessness can happen to even the most fortunate, the pain of losing a loved one to drug abuse, the disparity between what it’s like to live in America versus Afghanistan, the role that advertising plays in influencing popular culture, and how very difficult it has been for women to succeed in breaking that glass ceiling.* 

And that’s just a fraction of what I’ve learned from my own reading.  

It’s the same for kids.  

Another way a great deal of knowledge building can happen is with read alouds.  Whether they are just-for-enjoyment read alouds or interactive, the variety of books we share can teach so many things:  about the world, about themes and ideas, about science, history, and people.  

If we also tie our read alouds to what we’re teaching in content areas, kids build a strong understanding of the concept as well as the vocabulary around that concept.  We can even take it a step further–and take the learning deeper–with text sets around these topics.  Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap, says that “knowledge, like Velcro, sticks best to other related knowledge” (2019, 35).  Text sets are a perfect vehicle for building knowledge in ways that relate to each other.  

Speaking of content areas, it’s extremely important that kids don’t miss out on this instruction.  I’ll admit that early in my career, especially as a primary teacher, I didn’t see the tremendous value that content study instruction had on reading comprehension.  I reasoned that if there was any part of the day to miss, that was the one that mattered least.

How very wrong I was.  

In their August 2023 podcast, Burkins, Yaris, and Cunningham, authors of Shifting the Balance, remind us that social studies and science are crucial pieces of the background knowledge puzzle.  They caution us about “this idea that science and social studies instruction is less important than reading instruction, particularly for students having difficulty with reading.”  They say:

“The truth is, without some background knowledge in the content areas, then their comprehension is at risk.  And unfortunately, the common scenario of reading instruction gets the lion’s share of instructional minutes to the neglect of helping children acquire knowledge…has actually set students up for reading comprehension in complex texts to be more difficult.” 

-Shifting the Balance Podcast, August 2023

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen it happen again and again: kids who struggle with reading and need intervention, whether because they lack reading skills or English language skills, tend to not be pulled during reading, but instead during content study…creating a vicious cycle.

Another method for knowledge building?

Experiences.  This absolutely happens through read alouds, but also through video, art, and trips–either real or virtual.  With today’s technology, we can immerse our students in any kind of experience–we could visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium one day, Egypt’s pyramids another, and watch what happens on farm with just the click of a few buttons.  

But it doesn’t have to be elaborate.

Our own vocabulary should remain robust, no matter what age level we teach.  We can expand our students’ vocabulary knowledge by exposing them to all kinds of words.  

In her book Talk About Understanding (2012, 81), Ellin Oliver Keene shares a lot of insight into this idea.  Here are two examples from her book that tell the exact same idea –a teacher’s enjoyment of a book–but worded in different ways:

1.  “[T]his is my favorite section–I just loved it.”
2.  “[This] pulled me into its pages so much that it caused me to feel and think and even speak in the manner of the character for a few minutes after I put it down.”  

Huge difference, right?!  Keene tells us that such thoughtful, intentional wording, all across the day, is a great way to build up students’ vocabularies.  She urges us to “use specific vocabulary, but define the words in the context of the discussion; use these words repeatedly”  (2012, 87).

This could be so much fun!

Imagine, instead of asking kids to simply line up for lunch, we ask them to “proceed to the door so we may embark on our journey to the cafeteria, where you will quench your thirst and satisfy your famished stomachs.”

A little much, yes–but you get the point! In order for kids to develop a robust vocabulary, we need to use one ourselves. We are the model, even in the way we speak.

What’s the commonality in all of these examples of knowledge building?

Notice how none of these methods for knowledge building required a boxed curriculum? 

Not.  One. 

Just you, and a few simple materials you already have ample access to.  

Materials and topics that can provide a tremendous range of background knowledge.  

Which is where I have to point out some of the downfalls of the “knowledge-building” curriculum out there:

1. There is a very finite set of topics within the program. Some programs (like Wit and Wisdom), spiral those same topics throughout the grades.  Yes, it’s a deeper dive each time, but it’s still a very narrow amount of content.
2. The topics are chosen by the curriculum writers-writer who have never met your students, have never been to your school, and who quite possibly don’t even know any students.  How relevant are their chosen topics to your context?  
3. The topics chosen are not likely to line up with your states’ content topics–which will likely lead to surface learning in both.
4. The topics chosen by the curriculum writers may or may not be interesting to students…or teachers. Teachers then must put in more time and effort to find ways to make it interesting.  
5. The cost of such curricula means we must keep it for a while.  So while the world continues to provide us with more and more ideas, the book world explodes with new texts, and state standards change, the need to stick with the expensive curriculum schools have purchased means we remain stuck–thereby further limiting our students.  

Knowledge building is absolutely critical to comprehension, all across the day.  And it’s easy (and free!) to do.  Intentional teacher language, quality read alouds, making experiences accessible, helping students find books that will engage them, providing time for independent reading, and protecting students’ time in content subject study are all things we have control over.  What we don’t need is a boxed curriculum to define what we expose our students to.

What’s needed is you!  

Ready to learn dig deeper?

If the topic of knowledge building interests you, I’ll be facilitating a book study with Shifting the Balance (upper grades) in the Facebook group in the month of October–join us!  You won’t even have to own a copy of the book to be a part of the conversation!

For 1:1 support in designing lessons that support vocabulary and knowledge building for your students, I’m here! Together, we can brainstorm, plan, and reflect so that your time and energy is impactful and efficiently spent. I’m always here for a coaching call!

And as always, if this post resonates with you, I’d really love to hear your thoughts.  You can send me an email, let me know in the FB group, or DM me on Instagram!

*P.S. In case you’re interested, the books that have stuck with me that taught me about the world:  The Bluest Eye, An American Marriage, Hillbilly Ellegy, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Glass Castle, Demon Copperhead, The Kite Runner, The Jell-o Girls, and Barbie and Ruth (which I read YEARS before the movie came out!)

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