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Lack of background knowledge can affect the reader's ability to read complex text therefore negatively affecting comprehension. Support readers by giving a little background knowledge prior to reading complex texts.

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When students don't understand the background knowledge, it is boring, they check out and do not retain anything.

Small amount of background building goes a long way.

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Background knowledge building goes a long way when understanding new and complex texts

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ML students are more likely to return to text for comprehension/reinforcement

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I really liked the function of the 1367/1763 text activity because it really helped me to experience the feeling of being a language learner again. I have felt that way when learning Japanese and Chinese in language specific classes, as well as in other situations like when I took a Russian history class and had a difficult time determining if the key vocabulary were nouns (people’s names, places, events) or verbs (actions). This made it rather difficult to understand the content, even if the course was taught in English.

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Background knowledge plays a huge role in whether we understand text or not no matter how “good” of a reader we are! 

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Background knowledge plays a huge role in whether we understand text or not no matter how “good” of a reader we are! 

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Preview the structure of a disciplinary text and set a clear purpose for the reading

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Sophisticated reading strategies can become useless without background knowledge.

Background knowledge helps students retain far more from complex texts.

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Both texts had the exact same sentences but different nouns → proves how background knowledge can either lead to little vs. high comprehension

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If you don’t know many words in a text, it's easier to lose the main idea of the text, and even to give up trying to understand it.

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There are 2 layers of comprehension that students need to understand a text: context (background knowledge) and sentence structure.

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Background Knowledge + Visual Processing 

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Background Knowledge + Visual Processing 

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Background knowledge assumed by the teacher may overlook the reality of what students do/do not know. In addition, visual maps/content related diagrams could help students process what the text is about

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Students learn by exploring new content through different mediums.

Students have more options and choices for picking what medium they want to explore.

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MTS gives students choice and multiple means of engagement - they get to choose what they’re interested in and how they want to participate.

Give your students 7 minutes to do this, then ask to close their laptop and share what they learn. Research indicates that this engages students.

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Multimedia text sets provide some differentiation, different ways for students to engage with the topic. More specifically, the text sets target student interest

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Allows students to build background knowledge based on what they don’t already know
Can organize texts sets based on content or actions like: Observe, investigate, interpret, summarize, learn, etc

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Multimedia text sets allow students to differentiate their own learning process and chose what information they want to know to build background knowledge. Ideal time to students to explore is 7 minutes.

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Different learning modalities (reading, listening, watching). Also choice involved! Lots of UDL principles at play.

7 minutes is a well-researched sweet spot. By pausing so that students can hear what they might have missed, students’ curiosity can be maintained.

Use verbs that explain the level of cognition used for each text in the set.

Assesses and builds background knowledge. Encourages students to create their own inquiry questions.

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Different mediums allow for multiple points of entry, learning modalities, choice and interests

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This is a really fun idea that I can see clearly uses the UDL principles like multiple access points, presentation of variety and choice, which we have discussed since summer. I like how colorful and interactive these are, and they feel game like and engaging. I think it’s also great that it is by design differentiated so students who have more or less background knowledge can self-direct towards what they are most interested in or what they don’t already know about.

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Give the students 7 minutes to explore the text sets. They will hear from peers what they missed, which guides them to set their own inquiry questions. Give them 7 minutes the next day to explore the texts they missed.

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MMTS provides choice, multiple resources and differentiation -> let students choose how they engage with the topic at hand

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MMTS's promote motivation because they allow students to learn in the way that is most interesting for them

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Reading comprehension only occurs when language comprehension and decoding are strong.

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Historical Context

Characters

Physical Setting

Introducing the story (like a trailer) while including important vocabulary (scarlet for red, sagacious for wise and fearless, courtiers for flatterers, chambers for rooms)

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access and build student background knowledge

introduce vocab and concepts

build students’ confidence

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Good reading comprehension needs motivation, decoding, and language comprehension. Multiplication analogy: if decoding is strong (1) but language comprehension is weak (0), then 1 x 0 = 0. Both must be present alongside motivation.

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Decoding x Language comprehension = reading comprehension

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Access and build students background Knowledge

Introduce vocabulary and key concepts

Build students confidence with grade appropriate, complex text

Interactive!!!

Try not to give too much info

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Visual Background Overview

1. Do BEFORE reading

2. Writing out the key terms in the historical background, physical setting and characters using “draw my life” ~ be interactive

3.  Have students repeat after you when writing key terms while you explain (build phonological awareness)

4. Write in different colors + include SOME kind of sketch, drawing

I think about how if I had a teacher who did a VBO before reading literature texts in middle and high school, how much more successful I might have been in comprehending and retaining information from the stories.

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shefelbine: biggest motivator for students is feeling successful. Then it is enjoyment of what they’re doing. Finally, it’s relevance and purpose.

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students have to feel successful in order to be motivated!

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what students may need/encounter in the reading --> providing context and vocab

use what student know (from think-write-pair-share)

not sending students in blindly into reading

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VBOs help students to build background with different modalities before engaging complex text, making the purpose clearer and helping students sort relevant and irrelevant details.

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Success is the #1 motivator. If motivation is not there, then it can derail reading comprehension even with decoding and lang comprehension present

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Give a very specific purpose for reading the text after providing them with background knowledge.

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Motivation at the top (success, pleasure, relevance, purpose)

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Decoding x Language comprehension = Reading comprehension

Only when both domains are strong lead to success

Motivation (#1=success, others = personal interests)

divide into L and R

Decoding (L) and Comprehension (R)

Word recognition, fluency X academic language, comprehension strategies

multiplying, not additive

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lack of background knowledge can make a text more complex - motivation does concern things like relevance and pleasure but ALSO is related with background knowledge!

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7 minute sweet spot motivates students and piques their interests by wanting to know more. Different kinds of media and student option makes texts accessible / include differentiation and center student choice

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Access and build students’ background knowledge

Introduce vocabulary and key concepts

Build students’ confidence with grade-appropriate, complex text

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Decoding x Language comprehension = Reading comprehension

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1376 was hard to understand - there were so many proper nouns and I didn’t recognize any of them, so it was hard to keep track of the different subjects

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The way the Edgar Allen Poe text set was set up made it interesting, accessible, and allowed for student choice in exploration!

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Having complex text available outside of class is helpful for ELs

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Having complex text available outside of class is helpful for ELs

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The level of sophistication in the written language of the same person is 5-7x more complex than when they’re speaking

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Highlight expertise to the class if there’s high background knowledge DEMOCRATIZE EXPERTISE!

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Read a text and assess what kind of crucial vocab is needed to understand text, this can be a pre teaching for a concept

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decoding (phonological awareness, decoding and spelling, sight recognition) x language comprehension (bg knowledge, vocab knowledge, language structure, verbal reasoning, literary knowledge) = reading comprehension

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As much as 50% of difficulty in readings can be connected to background knowledge

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Offer 1 focus question for students to explore - keeps the research honed in and provides an anchor. Recommended about 7 minutes of exploration time, allowing students to choose their own adventure in terms of which resources to spend more time on and where to begin.

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New words are spoken, repeated, defined, and visually represented  - helps to build and reinforce text-specific vocabulary

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Motivation is connected to both decoding + comprehension. Students are motivated by success, please, relevance, or purpose. Motivation needs to happen before anything else.

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Background Knowledge, Motivation, and Multilingual learners. 

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Background Knowledge, Motivation, and Multilingual learners. 

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Background knowledge is incredibly important for students to have motivation toward reading a complex text. Additionally, a large portion of the perceived difficulty is a lack of background knowledge.

This is why 1376 was so hard to understand while 1763 was much easier to understand. Additionally, using texts is helpful for MLL because they are the students that are most likely to return to a text.

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MMTS allow for self directed learning, differentiation, and allow for tasks to vary in depths of knowledge. The students are also able to set inquiry questions based kon new information and their prior knowledge and interests.

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Allows students to access and build thier background knowledge

Allows the teacher to introduce vocabulary and key concepts

Is an engaging process that has the teacher working in partnership with the students.

This can be preaching and is a way to build students confidence with a complex text.

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Just rereading a difficult text doesn’t necessarily help students with understanding; we need to build students' background knowledge to increase comprehension.

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Decoding/encoding and comprehension work together with motivation to allow students to understand texts.

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Bringing in maps, videos, images, animations, art, songs, and other sources taps into students' motivation by allowing them to freely explore sources that draw them in. Along the way, they build background knowledge that increasing comprehension for more complex texts later on.

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VBO grows students’ background knowledge by visually (and auditorily) walking them through some of the historical context, information about the physical setting and/or geography of the source, and the people and/or ideas featured

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Decoding x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension.

Both need to be high for reading comprehension to take place. If one is strong and the other is not in the equation there still is weak reading comprehension. These also are dependent on the ultimate determinant of success, MOTIVATION.

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not having backround knowledge can make a text difficult to follow as the relationships between, people, places and times can easily become confusing. Increasing familiarity  with these concepts and increasing access to the texts will assist all learners.

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not having backround knowledge can make a text difficult to follow as the relationships between, people, places and times can easily become confusing. Increasing familiarity  with these concepts and increasing access to the texts will assist all learners.

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a type of text that gives multiple ways to engage with a task that varies in difficulty and engagement so as to provide an opportunity for students to initially spark interest in a topic by being accessible to their ability in that moment.

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is there an MMTS template we can be linked for our future use?

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generates a familiarity with students who are about to read a text, this can be going over new vocab or key concepts, characters and setting. Going over these concepts, speaking them and visualizing them helps students feel more confident going in and increases engagement and motivation to persist in difficult texts.

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Background knowledge changes text complexity/difficulty 

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Background knowledge changes text complexity/difficulty 

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The two texts that we read were similarly complex in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure but the familiarity that I had with the concepts and themes in the second made a huge difference in terms of my ability to follow along and make sense of the text.

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One method of differentiation!  Having choice builds curiosity and motivation!

Having students to this collaboratively also gives them a chance to practice collaboration and communication skills and can further build excitement and motivation.

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Build curiosity and familiarity with important concepts for the text, helps level the playing field for students as they read. Gives them thing to look for and helps them feel more confident getting started in the text.

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tasks vary in depths of knowledge, making them adaptable for student needs/levels

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Students must read content area text because it reinforces lecture content, aids in creating independent learners around difficult text, and reading content reinforces academic vocabulary and comprehension

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Decoding x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

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Activating and building needed background knowledge along with their words/concepts and having students engage with them visually aids students with engaging content with the confidence/motivation to do so

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Lack of background knowledge affects motivation in moving through a complex text yet the only way to build background knowledge is to read more complex text

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Lack of background knowledge affects motivation in moving through a complex text yet the only way to build background knowledge is to read more complex text

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You don’t need to give too much time to explore because they can get off task. 7 minutes is the sweet spot

Allows different points of entry, differentiation, and self-directed learning/choice

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Setting up and giving background knowledge before the reading and have students verbally respond and repeat new words

Give the option for students to do it with you or not and listen to the storytelling element of it

Deep background knowledge enables and furthers critical thinking

VBO can allow you to teach tier 3 vocab in a way that isn’t just definitional but like a story

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Reading is a motivated act and people can be motivated by success, pleasure, relevance, and/or purpose

It involves decoding, comprehending the message and having an interaction with that message

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50% of reading difficulty comes from lack of background knowledge. 

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50% of reading difficulty comes from lack of background knowledge. 

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Multi-modal, students have autonomy to pick where and how they want to begin, differentiated for  the cognitive level students want to engage in

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Multi-modal, students have autonomy to pick where and how they want to begin, differentiated for  the cognitive level students want to engage in

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1. Historical Context
2. Physical Setting
3. Characters
4. Purpose for Reading

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teachers should scaffold the relevance of a complex text by familiarizing students with relevant vocabulary and background information - wren

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teachers should scaffold the relevance of a complex text by familiarizing students with relevant vocabulary and background information - wren

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Reading comprehension will always suffer when either decoding or language comprehension is weak. For reading comprehension to be strong, students need to learn decoding skills while simultaneously developing their understanding of the world and literacy.

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for students to meaningfully comprehend what they have read,  their interaction with the content needs to be scaffolded by teachers in a way that gives students agency and provides them an avenue for success - wren

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for students to meaningfully comprehend what they have read,  their interaction with the content needs to be scaffolded by teachers in a way that gives students agency and provides them an avenue for success - wren

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multimedia text sets provide students with a wide array of resources that are UDL and can pique interest as a way to build background knowledge before a complex text is encountered in class - wren

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multimedia text sets provide students with a wide array of resources that are UDL and can pique interest as a way to build background knowledge before a complex text is encountered in class - wren

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the visual background overview is critical for students to begin to conceptualize in their minds the ideas that are conveyed in a complex text.

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the visual background overview is critical for students to begin to conceptualize in their minds the ideas that are conveyed in a complex text.

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Students must be able to negotiate difficult text independently. Watering down texts does not support meaningful learning.

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natural way to encourage differentiation and freedom of choose in the classroom. Additionally, promotes collaboration between students

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engages students' previous knowledge and builds their confidence about the given topic

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motivating students must occur before any sort of comprehension can occur.

students are motivated by 4 different things

success, pleasure, relevance, purpose