Chapter 1 Background Knowledge: A Neglected Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle

1
Chapter 1Background KnowledgeA Neglected
Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle
Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2009). Background
Knowledge The Missing Piece of the Comprehension
Puzzle. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
2
Todays Purposes

• Discuss how background knowledge influences
  understanding
• Examine three conditions necessary to make
  background knowledge useable
• Consider three outcomes directly affected by
  background knowledge

3
Might it Rescue the Next Generation of Readers?

• Lack of background knowledge inhibits student
  progress to higher reading levels.
• Remedial programs for readers focus on
  comprehension strategies but not on building
  background knowledge.

4
How Does Background Knowledge Impact Your
Comprehension?

• Improved vascular definition in radiographs of
  the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be
  procured by a process of subtraction whereby
  positive and negative images of the overlying
  skull are superimposed on one another.

5
What Comprehension Strategies Did You Use?

• You were able to
• decode all the words
• understand imaging
• understand subtraction
• read it fluently

• So what strategies did you use?
• Did you predict?
• Infer?
• Summarize?

6
Background Knowledge is Essential

• Improved vascular definition in radiographs of
  the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be
  procured by a process of subtraction whereby
  positive and negative images of the overlying
  skull are superimposed on one another.

• Best predictor of reading comprehension
• Influences interest and motivation
• Knowing lots of strategies cannot fully
  compensate for lack of background knowledge

7
Table Talk

• Discuss a time when lack of background knowledge
  made it difficult to learn something new. How did
  your lack of background knowledge impede your
  learning? How did you build it?

8
Background Knowledges Impact on Digital Literacy

• Strongest middle school readers utilized their
  background knowledge of how web-based information
  was organized in order to search efficiently and
  accurately
• Knowledge of print-based background knowledge was
  not enough (Coiro Dobler, 2007)

9
Background Knowledge is Like a Teenagers Closet

• Just because the backpack is in there doesnt
  mean he can find it!

10
How People Learn

• Organized Knowing where to find it
• Conditionalized Knowing when it is needed
• Transferable Knowing how to apply it to new
  situations (Bransford, Brown Cocking, 2000)

11
Organized Through Schema

• Schema is the hierarchical relationship of
  information to other information
• Without schema, information is a scattered mess
• Schema unifies this information

12
Conditionalized by Knowing WHEN to Use It

• Understanding when background knowledge is
  relevant
• Directly related to motivation and interest
• Students can misapply background knowledge, too
• Misapplication A student talks about the life
  cycle of the turtle during a lesson about a
  turtle in a folktale

13
Transferable to New Situations

• Learning is solidified when students are able to
  apply what they have learned to a novel problem
• Information is transferred in pieces, not in
  whole concepts, making formative assessments
  critical
• Establish subgoals for learners to facilitate
  transfer
• Transfer often occurs in the company of fellow
  learners

14
Table Talk

• In what ways do you foster transfer (application
  of learning to novel situations) in your
  teaching? What conditions make it more
  successful? Under what circumstances does it
  break down?

15
Background Knowledge and Vocabulary

• Vocabulary serves as a proxy for what a learner
  knows
• Volume of word knowledge a child possesses at
  school entry predicts school achievement (Hart
  Risley, 1995)
• Correlated to performance on standardized tests
  (Stahl Fairbanks, 1986)

16
Assessing Your Practice
17
Building Your Own Background Knowledge

• The National Academy Press website on How People
  Learn (Bransford, Brown Cocking, 2000),
  including free podcasts and online book
  http//www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id6160
• CAST Centers resources on the importance of
  background knowledge http//www.cast.org/publicati
  ons/ncac/ncac_backknowledge.html
• Theres arguably no better way to build your own
  background knowledge about virtually anything
  than Wikipedia (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_
  Page). Dont overlook the Discussion, Source, and
  History pages for each entry. They shine an
  important spotlight on how knowledge is build,
  disputed, and refined.