Unleash the potential of knowledge building in language comprehension
Every child is capable of becoming a skilled reader. Every classroom can provide that opportunity and drive student success, through a content-rich literacy curriculum.
We’ll show you how.
The relationship among knowledge, language comprehension, and literacy skills
The Science of Reading shows that early literacy skills are best built deliberately, on a foundation of knowledge. Knowledge building is not a result of reading and language comprehension; it’s a vital prerequisite and a fundamental part of the process. When students read a text on a familiar topic–event a tough one–they’re more likely to comprehend it. In other words: The more you know, the more, and faster, you learn.
Why is building knowledge so important?
Background knowledge—coupled with comprehension strategies—fuels students’ capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with ideas.
Students bring different bodies of knowledge into school. Some are whizzes at baseball or mechanics; some visit museums, have tons of books at home, and know the word “yacht.” That means their comprehension of a given topic or text will correlate with what they already know. But what happens when they learn the same content together? A recent independent study showed that a knowledge-building literacy curriculum in elementary school raised test scores and helped eliminate income-based opportunity gaps.
It is our responsibility as educators to bring the world into the classroom for all students and help them grow their literacy skills.
Literacy instruction has typically focused on decontextualized skills—finding the main idea, making inferences—before, or instead of, the content of texts and resources that students engage with. Many teachers may have been trained to “put the skills and strategies in the foreground, like a skill of the week, then bring in texts that they find suited for demonstrating the skill or strategy,” says Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap. But science shows that harnessing skills and strategies to content is actually more effective. That is, using a coherent and systematic progression of content that helps knowledge and skills build on each other has been shown to result in better student outcomes.
“The advantage of a coherent curriculum is that the topics it covers can build on one another, with one unit providing a foundation of knowledge for others that come later, both throughout a single school year and across grade levels,” according to Barbara Davidson and David Liben. Along the way, students also cultivate curiosity and confidence, accelerating the entire process. So the more you know, the faster you learn—and that lasts a lifetime.
Getting started with knowledge based learning
Effective literacy instruction must celebrate the experiences students have but not assume each student has specific pieces of prior knowledge. Rather, it must build knowledge in the classroom. Students (and teachers) need curricula that expose them to a diverse array of new topics—spanning history, science, literature, culture, and the arts—in an intentional sequence that builds a rich and common knowledge base from which all students can draw.
Want to get started now? We’ve got an ebook to help you out.
Professional development to support your shift to the Science of Reading
Ignite literacy transformation with Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Learning Lab—an inspiring three-course series.
- Course 1: Foundations to the Science of Reading
- Course 2: Advanced Topics in the Science of Reading: Assessment and Reading Difficulties
- Course 3: Applied Structured Literacy
Crafted to the standards of the International Dyslexia Association, this self-paced online series provides unparalleled, research-backed instruction. Explore enriching activities, curated resources, and learn from Susan Lambert, chief academic officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast.
The best investment you can make is in knowledge, and the returns are priceless.
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Before and after knowledge building: What knowledge looks like in the classroom
Making connections to what students already know
Before: Teachers “activate” students’ prior knowledge before reading.
After: Teachers build students’ knowledge explicitly for students to leverage later as background knowledge.
Developing reading comprehension
Before: Teachers focus instruction on comprehension strategies (e.g., “strategy of the day” instruction).
After: Teachers focus on content and use comprehension strategies to help students gain knowledge of that content.
Introduction of new topics and information
Before: Students learn about content-area topics individually in disconnected units of instruction.
After: Students learn topics through a coherent approach that builds knowledge within and across units of instruction.
See the remarkable difference shifting to a knowledge-building approach can make in your school. Our enlightening flyer guides you through a before-and-after journey, illustrating the profound impact of knowledge building on learning. Check it out!
What to look for in a knowledge-building literacy curriculum:
It develops content knowledge.
The program should immerse students in a given domain for weeks—that’s how they acquire academic knowledge. The content should also develop from grade to grade, so that students learning about Renaissance art can reflect on and compare to what they previously learned about art in the Middle Ages.
It leverages read-alouds for exposure to complex language.
In early grades, students’ listening comprehension outpaces their reading comprehension. Interactive read-alouds can be used to expose students to academic language and rich vocabulary. With background knowledge, vocabulary words are “the main support beams in the comprehension house.” This approach also helps teachers introduce students to new information and experiences—in a supportive and interactive environment.
It introduces students to a wide variety of topics and content.
A content-rich curriculum exposes students to broad knowledge over time in a systematic, cumulative way, which is more effective than spending several months on just one topic. And while that’s happening, students are participating in enriching discussions and writing activities so they can further interact with the content, promoting deeper engagement and supporting retention of both the knowledge and associated vocabulary.
It builds both knowledge and foundational skills.
Knowledge building is just one component of literacy development. A content-rich curriculum that helps students build both knowledge (language comprehension) and skills (word recognition) takes into account both sides of the Reading Rope, giving students everything they need to build the foundation for a lifetime of literacy success. Instead of learning to read so they can read to learn, students who use a content-rich curriculum learn to read and learn about the world at the same time, enabling them to understand what they’re reading.