Secondary ELA Resources

This Edutopia video argues that prioritizing the development of rich background knowledge in elementary students leads to more successful reading comprehension than solely focusing on discrete reading skills and strategies.

This article emphasizes that strong reading comprehension relies fundamentally on a student's rich background knowledge in subjects like history and science—a factor proven to be more critical than isolated reading skills.

This article presents a text set framework that allows teachers to plan instruction that meets disciplinary goals while also providing opportunities for students to build their background knowledge through reading.

This article make a case for the importance of background knowledge in children's comprehension. It suggests that differences in background knowledge may account for differences in understanding text for low- and middle-income children. It then describes strategies for building background knowledge in the age of common core standards.

This chapter from the book "The Reading Comprehension Blueprint" takes a practical look at background knowledge including an evidence based overview and practical teaching strategies.

This chapter in the book "The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading" offers a look at the research and evidence that supports background knowledge and then gives examples of applying the ideas.

This chapter in the book "Literacy Instruction with Disciplinary Texts" looks at ways to implement techniques through the lens of vocabulary instruction.