Connecting Background Knowledge

I’m know I am probably behind the educational research, but I’m really beginning to see how significant to learning background knowledge is. From what little I’ve read of him, I think some of Robert Marzano’s books include the importance of background knowledge.

I teach reading a lot in my 3rd grade classroom, and I view learning as very closely related to reading. Think of reading as a conversation between the reader and the author in which together they construct the meaning out of the text.

1. Readers only remember what they can connect to prior knowledge and experiences.
2. The memory can only pull up the things that are connected to something else.
3. For example, if a student is reading about a barnyard, the child will only recall what they connect to what they already know. They will not recall what the barnyard looks like unless they have previously experienced one. However, the student most likely will remember the dog in the barnyard from the book because they most likely have seen a dog before. The more background experiences they bring to the book, the more they will remember from the book.

Learning is much the same way.

1. The more experiences with the content you give a student or the more he or she already has, the more connections they will make.
2. The more connections they make, the more likely they are to recall the information the background knowledge is connected to.

So, activating background knowledge is crucial to good learning. Did I connect to your background knowledge? What experiences have you had in which you connected the students’ background knowledge, and the lesson seemed to come alive?

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