Background Knowledge: The Missing Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle

by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

"Background knowledge is too often neglected in our push to raise test scores, despite the fact that we know background knowledge is a critical component of comprehension. Background knowledge simply has to become an instructional focus if we want to help students make sense of school. We will lose a generation of learners if we don't act now."

-Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey Why background knowledge?

Because the Grapes of Wrath is dry reading if students don't know about the Dust Bowl. Because the Boston Tea Party is a non-event if students don't know loyalists from patriots. Because knowing a triangle has 180 degrees isn't the same as knowing why. Because content-area comprehension depends on it, you and your students need Background Knowledge.

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey help you develop lasting subject-area understanding with ideas for modeling, guided practice, productive group work, and independent work that effectively engage adolescents. You'll learn

distinguish incidental knowledge from core background knowledge check students' understanding prior to a unit with tools such as opinionnaires, interest surveys, and anticipation guides model how to activate and apply prior knowledge so kids can wrestle with new content build up students' background knowledge through virtual fieldtrips, YouTube, guest experts, and more provide collaborative ways for students to develop expertise, show what they know, and own their learning. Doug and Nancy also build your background knowledge with multimedia book-study resources at www.heinemann.com/backgroundknowledge.

"As teachers our job is not to simply fill students' heads with facts," write Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey. "We need to have students manipulate and apply information so that it becomes a permanent understanding." That's why the time is now for Background Knowledge.

Genres: School

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is an educator and Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College.

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Reviews

[Nikki Baker]

This resource has some nice nuggets and I usually love Fishers work, but not everything aligned for me with the Science of Reading so I would suggest teachers read it with a critical eye.

[Deborah]

I liked the early part of the book better than the second half, partly because I couldn't see how some ideas (critical thinking) fit into the concept. It almost felt as though the authors wanted to talk about it, so they put it in. It seems to me that the result of background knowledge would be critical thinking--but I wasn't sure that's how they presented it. That said, there are lots of useful ideas in the book that teachers can use, especially with students who need a little more support or scaffolding, and the authors are really good at explaining those things. I also liked the set-up of the chapters.

[Ashley]

Would be an ok book for a beginning teacher. But very boring and not enough strong take-aways for me to recommend it.

[Lauren Gifford]

Was hoping for a more engaging read. This book got too technical.