Language Comprehension

"Background knowledge is a particular subset of knowledge (e.g., facts about the world, events, people, sayings, and phrases) that is needed to comprehend and learn from a particular situation, lesson, or text" (Steps to Success). Background, when used with the other ropes in language comprehension, allows a reader to make meaning of a text. Background knowledge is developed over time through exposure to texts, media, conversations, and other forms of information.

Knowledge leads to more knowledge, making learning easier (Willingham, 2006). Background knowledge is used to "fill in" information that an author does not specifically state and helps learners make connections to previously learned information. It is foundational to meaning-making and inferencing.

Develop background knowledge:

• Develop background knowledge by reading a lot of texts about specific topics and themes. Organize learning into units that create opportunities for students to deepen their knowledge about a topic. Engage in interactive read-alouds, multi-media, and provide different types of text for students to learn more about the subject. Use technology resources to ensure student access to information in order to deepen background knowledge. (e.g., closed captioning, text to speech, adaptive technology)

• Engage students in conducting research about topics you are studying. Provide different options for students to learn more about a topic. Invite them to ask questions, select books, watch media, view pictures, or interview others to build knowledge and vocabulary about a topic.

• Strategically pre-teach key information that is needed to understand main concepts. Connect information with students' prior knowledge and other content areas when possible.

• Use realia.

Connect with students' background and culture:

• Connect information to students' culture, community, and language. All students come to us with funds of knowledge. Connecting to them will strengthen student's background knowledge.

• Model how you connect with your background knowledge during read-alouds.

• Create inquiry boards, Wonder Walls, I Wonder Walls, schema maps, or inquiry journals. Have students identify what they know about a subject (schema), and add to it as they progress through the learning.

• Develop or activate background knowledge by creating visuals or graphic organizers with students that are posted in the classroom or stored virtually.

• Use anticipation guides.

• Prompt students to connect with what they know. Examples of this might be:

  • What they know about the genre or the author. For example, we are going to read a fairytale. What do we already know about fairytales?

  • What they know about the topic. For example, we are going to read a text about sharks. What are some things you know about sharks from books, TV shows, or movies you have seen?

  • What they know about the character's actions. For example, in the story, the character cried. What do you know about how a person might be feeling when they cry?

Background Knowledge Webinar

Dr. Molly McCabe provides an overview on the importance of background knowledge and shares ideas on how to activate, build, and organize student’s knowledge.

"Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings." As Steven Stahl (2005) puts it, "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition but also implies how that word fits into the world." Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered; it is something that expands and deepens over the course of a lifetime. Vocabulary instruction is now looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence. Vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies. (Reading Rockets)

A child’s vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension (Duncan et al., 2007). Additionally, having a well-developed vocabulary enhances all aspects of literacy. Vocabulary knowledge supports comprehension and well as speaking, listening, and writing. Vocabulary knowledge is considered one of the main predictors of reading success and contributes to a child's ability to make meaning.

Developing students' vocabulary is done throughout the school day. Creating a classroom room environment rich in language and opportunities to develop vocabulary can be done in many ways:

Focus on building vocabulary knowledge around topics or themes:

• Teach related words together. Use semantic mapping or semantic gradients to connect words with concepts.

• Encourage wide reading. Allow students to select books they are interested in reading. Also include multi-media options. Engage students in multiple texts and media around the topic you are studying.

• Create many opportunities for students to discuss topics with a partner or groups. Oral language development is a pathway to rich vocabulary knowledge.

• Use a lot of unique words during the day. such as plethora, amble, commotion, or peruse. This will increase students' exposure to new vocabulary.

Teach word-learning strategies:

• Teach students vocabulary strategies to determine unknown words. Model how you use the strategies during read- alouds. Explicitly show them how to use context clues (definition, synonym, antonym, example, inference), appositives (when the definition is next to the word), and word structure (morphemes, root words, affixes, cognates) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. Ask students to use these strategies collaboratively to figure out the meaning of words they don't know. Watch a teacher model figuring out an unknown word (video) beginning at 1:37.

• Teach word analysis - root words, base words, prefixes, and suffixes that students will encounter frequently. Create anchor charts, morphology walls, or vocabulary notebooks with this information.

Directly teach key vocabulary:

• Direct teaching of key vocabulary using graphic organizers such as a Freyer model. Have students create an academic vocabulary notebook where they record words they find interesting or want to remember.

• Focus on teaching academic vocabulary that crosses across content areas. Watch a video of Dr. Isabelle Beck discussing Tier Two Words.

• Use visuals or realia.

Ensure Repetition, active engagement, and multiple exposures:

• Use technology to develop vocabulary.

• Use a variety of interactive strategies to develop student's vocabulary. Click here for additional vocabulary strategies.

• Ask questions that encourage students to utilize new vocabulary that has been introduced. Ask open-ended questions that require students to answer in a complete sentence. Provide opportunities for students to use the new words in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Vocabulary Webinar

Dr. Molly McCabe provides an overview on vocabulary development and shares ideas on how to deepen student’s vocabulary knowledge.

Language structure focuses on comprehending at the word and sentence level. This strand utilizes student's knowledge of morphology and syntax to construct meaning. A morpheme is a unit of meaning such as a prefix, suffix, or root word, and syntax refers to the grammatical rules and conventions we follow when creating sentences.

Morphology and syntax contribute to comprehension. Working in tandem with the other elements of reading, morphology helps the reader understand the meaning of words, and knowledge of syntax helps us understand what a sentence is conveying in order to clarify meaning. Authors use transition words, clauses, phrases, and word order to expertly convey their ideas, and knowledge of these practices helps support comprehension. This is especially true in complex text because academic language tends to use more complex syntactical structures and vocabulary. Additionally, knowledge of morphology and syntax can contribute to the quality of student's writing as they apply these skills to their sentence structure and word choice.

While teaching morphology and syntax are essential for students acquiring English as an additional language, all students will benefit from a deeper study of these concepts. Academic texts are characterized by vocabulary that is rich in root words and affixes and it tends to use more complex syntactical structures. Deepening student's skills in this area will allow them to access more complex text and many content areas. Here are a few ideas on how to deepen student's knowledge of morphology and syntax:

Morphology:

• Explicitly teach students morphemes and how to use them to understand unfamiliar words. Create anchor charts or vocabulary notebooks for students to add to over time. Here are some ideas for teaching morphemes. Here is a list of morphemes and their meaning and here is another resource for teaching morphology.
• Engage in structured word inquiry. Here is a second-grade example.
• Develop word matrixes, word webs, and anchor charts with students. (More examples from Keys to Literacy).

Syntax:

• Explicitly teach sentence syntax based on the purpose of language. Syntax is frequently determined based on the purpose of our language. For example, if we are going to write a sentence that is comparing two items, we usually use a conjunction. For example, "One similarity between ____ and ____ is ______. " In order to strengthen student's knowledge of syntax, it is helpful to use sentence frames that align to the purpose of the sentence. "Accountable Talk Frames to Support Language Functions" is a helpful resource that provides you with a list of language purposes, transition words, and sample language frames. "Scaffolds to Support English Language Learners in Writing and Discussion" from Achievement Partners is another great resource.
• In addition to the syntax we use, transition words are also used based on the purpose of our language. For example, if we want to add information, we would use words like also, additionally, another, and furthermore. It is helpful to teach these to students to support their comprehension and writing. Here is a list of transition words by purpose.
• Teach syntax in context. Engage in sentence deconstruction and sentence unpacking with particularly complex sentences to support comprehension. Teaching syntax during writing is another important practice.
• Use a sentence patterning chart to support correct syntax when writing. Watch a kindergarten syntax lesson.

Dr. Molly McCabe provides an overview on language structures  and shares strategies that can be used with students.

Verbal reasoning focuses on developing students' ability to make inferences and interpret what the author meant to convey. Making inferences requires a student to use clues from the text as well as background knowledge in order to "read between the lines." Additionally, verbal reasoning allows us to understand figurative language, identify the difference between a main idea and details, draw conclusions, and construct meaning from text.

We use verbal reasoning every day. Strong verbal reasoning skills will help students to understand and interpret information and strengthens comprehension. Students need to know how to look beyond the words to infer meaning from what is being said, what is not being said and how it is being said (or not said).f

Verbal reasoning and inferencing needs to be explicitly taught and practiced by students. Here are a few ways you can engage students in developing their verbal reasoning skills.

Explicitly teach students how to make inferences:

• Explicitly teach the different types of inferences and the type of text clues you would look for. Teach students that we make inferences about characters, settings, cause/effect, theme, pronouns, time, problem/solution, actions, feelings, predictions, emotions, and viewpoint. Focus on one or two types of inference within a text to help develop student inference skills.
• Introduce and practice making inferences and reasoning through observation and by using images or multimedia.
• Teach students how to make predictions using text clues. Use the Directed Thinking Teaching Activity (DRTA) to practices this skill. Watch a video of the DRTA strategy.
• Model how to make inferences using a think-aloud. Watch a a teacher model supporting students with making an inference beginning at 9:00.

Discuss how you make inferences:

• Facilitate discussions about inferences students are making.
• Marzano (2010) suggests teachers pose four questions to students to facilitate a discussion about inferences.
  • What is my inference? This question helps students become aware that they may have just made an inference by filling in information that wasn't directly presented.
  • What information did I use to make this inference? It's important for students to understand the various types of information they use to make inferences. This may include information presented in the text, or it may be background knowledge that a student brings to the learning setting.
  • How good was my thinking? According to Marzano, once students have identified the premises on which they've based their inferences, they can engage in the most powerful part of the process — examining the validity of their thinking.
  • Do I need to change my thinking? The final step in the process is for students to consider possible changes in their thinking. The point here is not to invalidate students' original inferences, but rather to help them develop the habit of continually updating their thinking as they gather new information." (Reading Rockets)

Use organizers or visuals to support inferencing:

• Teach students the Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) strategy. Use this strategy to teach students about inference questions.
• Use graphic organizers to help making inferences more transparent.
• Create inference anchor charts.

Teach the different types of figurative language:

• Teach students the different types of figurative language and how to make inferences regarding their meaning.

Dr. Molly McCabe provides an overview on language structures  and shares strategies that can be used with students.

Literacy knowledge in the early grades focuses on concepts of print and print awareness. Young children learn that we read from left to right and top to bottom and that we turn pages from left to right as well. As their literacy knowledge develops, they develop an understanding that there are different text features and text structures and that authors use these to organize ideas and convey information. Students with strong literacy knowledge know the difference between expository and narrative text structures, their characteristics, and how to use them to aid their comprehension and communication. They also understand how written language is organized and structured.

Literacy knowledge aids in student's comprehension. Students with strong comprehension skills know how to use text features to assist them with identifying main ideas in informational text. They also are able to recognize the difference between narrative and informational text structures which assists them in recognizing the purpose of the text. Once these concepts are developed, students can transfer these concepts to their own writing to aid in clarity of purpose and organization.

Remember, language comprehension and word recognition work together in skilled readers. We must support student's development of each of the elements in the reading rope over time. More information on word recognition.