Background knowledge in Reading Comprehension is simply what a reader already knows about a topic in a book they are reading. For example, If a child is reading about a jet ski, and because they have never seen or read about a jet ski, they will not have the comprehension connection they need to anchor to the book about jet skis. However, if a child is reading about dinosaurs and because they have played with toy dinosaurs, also own several movies, and have looked at many picture books about dinosaurs, they will have the needed background knowledge in reading comprehension to tie it all together.
Teaching Background Knowledge
Teaching Background Knowledge for Reading Comprehension is an important concept even for the youngest or beginning readers. If students are just word callers, they aren’t truly understanding or comprehending the story. Background knowledge in reading comprehension may be more important than other reading strategies such as visualization or inference according to experts. Additionally, without background knowledge, readers don’t have the base knowledge to attach to the comprehension in a story.
Imagine working with a student and they are reading a passage to you! You have worked so hard with phonics and coding together words and they are reading!! You celebrate! Whoo hooo! After a few days, you start asking questions about a story, but they stare at you like deer in headlights, frozen. They don’t have the reading comprehension. One of they issues may be they don’t have background knowledge to attach to the plot of the story.
As an adult it is similar for me if I am reading a book about a vacation in the Bahamas, I would more likely be able to make the connections and place myself in the book since I have been to the Bahamas. But if I am reading a book about building planes in Tokyo, chances are I would be lost and put the book aside because I don’t have the anchor or any background knowledge for reading comprehension to tie to that topic.
This article is to give you a beginning place to start teaching background knowledge. Here is a FREE lesson plan to help you get started!
Lesson Plan Background Knowledge Reading Comprehension
Prior to the Lesson
Before your lesson, have a piece of anchor chart paper with the title: Background Knowledge at the top. Tell the students that today we are going to learn about background knowledge. Draw a brain (even a circle with a nose and eyes.) You can also paste a blank blackline master of a brain if you would rather. Explain this is a brain and this (boy/girl) already knows some things about the story I will be reading today. He/she has “background knowledge.”
During the Lesson
-Read a book. For an example, I will use “Two Bad Ants,” by Chris Van Allsburg. You can use any book you would like if you are doing a theme or topic. I am not an affiliate of this book.
-As you are reading, say this boy (on your chart) already has background knowledge about (a) ants. He saw some ants coming into his house last summer. Continue reading and when you come across the part of the story where the ants fall into the (b) sugar jar, draw that on the brain and explain, this boy/girl knows about sugar. They have sugar at home. Continue reading and when you come across the part in the story where the person is drinking coffee, say he/she already knows about and has background knowledge of coffee. His grandfather (c) drinks coffee every morning. Continue with more examples as needed.
a. Draw ants in the brain on the chart and label.
b. Draw a sugar bowl or grains of sugar and label it on the brain.
c. Draw a cup of coffee and label on the brain.
Also, allow students to discuss parts of this book they already have background knowledge for and add that to the brain on your chart if you have room.
-Another way to solidify this concept is to make a color copy of the book and paste it somewhere on the chart and display it somewhere in your room. I have a place where I keep all my comprehension strategies to refer to with students.
-Lastly, as you are reading books throughout the year, refer to the anchor charts when appropriate.
After the Lesson: Extensions
Extension one: At their seat or in station: give them a copy of the book you read. Have them draw a brain or use the blank one included in this product (link at the bottom of this article.) They may look through the book and draw their background knowledge about the subject you read. For differentiation, you can have them also write sentences about their background knowledge of the book.
Book ideas: Use the exact book first with whole group, but then consider using topic books in a small group, station, and/or the following week to identify more background knowledge.
Extension two: Give them a blank white paper with the word ants on the top. They will write all the things they know about it. This is their background knowledge. I do have a blank copy in a product you can purchase. You could also use any topic pages for any topic you use in the future and assign for review throughout the year.
Extension three: This one is so fun!! Use posty notes for students to make tiny pictures of their background knowledge. They love to do this in my class. I also do this at my guided reading table sometimes. You might consider adding these posty notes to the anchor chart you made in the initial lesson.
Save Time With Ready to Go Printables:
Background Knowledge Reading Comprehension Ready to Go Printables to go along with this lesson.
