Language Comprehension Interventions

Connecting new information to previously learned information is one way that students can monitor their comprehension.  Activating background knowledge helps students use their schema, or what they already know about a topic, to make sense of new information. Schema also helps readers identify when they are misunderstanding something and need to fix-up strategies to make meaning.  This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to support your students' ability to activate background knowledge. As you read, consider which of these interventions best aligns with your student's strengths and needs in the whole-learner domains. 

Explicit Instruction

To support your student's ability to engage in self-monitoring behaviors through activating background knowledge, you should start by explicitly teaching this concept. This sounds like:

Explain the Skill/Concept. Define activating background knowledge, and explain the activity ("Activating background knowledge means that we connect new information we are learning to information we already know about a topic. We do this to check to see if the new information we are reading about aligns with what we've already learned. If it does, then we add it to our knowledge bank, or our schema. It it doesn't, then we need to go back and check to see why it doesn't make sense. We can either reread to see if we made a mistake, or we can re-evaluate our previous knowledge on the topic so that the new knowledge makes sense." "Today we are going to practice a strategy that helps us integrate new information with information we've learned previously..." )
Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about how you activate background knowledge while reading. ("I see that I will be reading a text about turtles. First, I will think about the information I already know about turtles, to get my mind ready to learn more about them. Let's see, I know that turtles are very slow. I also know that they lay eggs. As I read, I am going to see if the information connects with what I already know, or if it is new information." (Reads text aloud and stops immediately after reading section on turtles laying eggs.) "In the text, I learned that sea turtles lay hundreds of eggs, and that they lay them at night on the beach. This is information I didn't know about turtles, so now I have even more knowledge about turtles in my background knowledge.")
Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about what it looks like when you don't activate background knowledge effectively. ("If I know that I am about to read about turtles, and I try to activate my background knowledge by thinking that the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was awesome, does this help better understand turtles? No. I want to make sure I activate background knowledge that will help me understand the topic better.")
Practice the Skill. Engage in an activity below to practice the skill with your student, providing feedback as necessary. ("Now you try; I'm going to ask you to try to activate your background knowledge...")

Activity A: K-W-L

A K-W-L chart is one strategy that you can use to help your struggling comprehenders connect and organize new information that they learn. This graphic organizer helps students activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading nonfiction texts. Students, with or without teacher support, first list what they already Know about a topic, followed by what they Want to learn about that topic. After reading, students record what they Learned during reading. Note: This strategy is only effective when students revisit the chart and fill out the L column!

KWL Chart PDF

KWL. (n.d.). Copyright at Relay GSE. New York, NY:  Relay Graduate School of Education.

K-W-L in Action 
Begin by brainstorming as a class about the collective information students already have on a specific topic. Transcribe students' answers under the K on the chart. Next, ask students what questions they have about the topic, and collect these thoughts under the W. After students have read/studied the topic, return to the chart to fill out the L. In the whole-class debrief, students can verbalize how their thinking about a certain topic has changed, as well as what new information they have learned. Implementation Note: Once students have learned this strategy, they can also do this independently.

"Today we will be studying turtles and their reproduction cycle. In order to collect the information we already know about turtles, we'll be filling out a K-W-L chart. First, I will put the facts you already know under the K. So, what do you already know about turtles and their reproductive cycles?" (Teacher transcribes student responses under K). "Next, I'd like to you share your questions about this topic, and I'll place them under W." (Teacher transcribes questions.) "Okay, now that we have collected our thoughts concerning what we already know about turtles and what we'd like to learn, we are going to read about this topic. At the end of the class, we'll come back to this chart and share what we've learned. I'll mark those responses under the L."  

Activity B: Anticipation Guide

An anticipation guide is another strategy that can be used to activate background knowledge about both narrative and informational texts. Prior to reading, students read and respond to several statements that will be addressed in the reading. Anticipation guides serve three purposes: 1) to activate prior knowledge and get a student to think about what he or she already knows about the topic, 2) to preview the information the student is about to read, and 3) to engage the student. After students complete the reading, they return to the anticipation guide to discuss their new learning and any misconceptions they may have had.

The Giver Anticipation Guide PDF

Cavemanenglish. (2016). Anticipation guide for The Giver. Retrieved August 24, 2016 from http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/f/Anticipation+Guide+for+The+Giver.doc

Anticipation Guide in Action
Imagine that a class is about to begin reading the novel The Giver. Here are the directions the teacher might give to the students regarding the above Anticipation Guide. 
Teacher: "Before we begin reading our next book, The Giver, I'd like you to fill out this Anticipation Guide. There are 10 statements on this guide. As you read them, choose true or false to indicate whether or not you agree with the statement. There are no right or wrong answers. After we read the book, we'll return to this guide and see if any of our answers have changed. Take the next five minutes to fill out these statements, and then we'll discuss them in small groups." 

To see another example of an Anticipation Guide that would be used before reading an informational text, click here. 

Anticipation Guide (n.d.). Copyright at Relay GSE. New York, NY:  Relay Graduate School of Education. 

Activity C: Internet Workshop
Internet Workshops are another way that students can activate background knowledge before studying a specific topic. In this strategy, the teacher chooses three to five questions specifically with an eye towards building a student's background knowledge about a particular subject. The students research the answers to these questions (in groups, partners, or independently) using teacher-chosen websites. 

Steps to creating an Internet Workshop:

1. Read and know your book and the subject matter well.
2. Think about your goals and what you want students to learn about the subject.
3. Locate age-appropriate, user-friendly internet websites that connect to this material. You can either bookmark these sites on your school computers or list them on a worksheet for the students.
4. Design an open-ended activity that students can use to encourage study and analyze the websites. (This can be a set of questions for younger students or something at a higher-level for older students.)
5. Students complete the research activity in pairs or independently.
6. Come together with your students to share the findings. You may want to develop a final product of learning for your students to share their learning. You can use this for research in historical events, science, author-study, etc. Think broadly. 

Click on the following links to see two examples of internet workshops:

• Jim Crow - 6th grade 
• Polar Bears - primary grades

Wilson, A. (2015). Jim Crow internet workshop. 
Wilson, A. (2015). Polar bear internet workshop

Internet Workshop in Action
Give students an Internet Workshop sheet (such as the examples above). Tell students to use the websites to research and answer the questions. 
Teacher: "Tomorrow, we will start reading about mammals that live in the Arctic. So today, we will learn about one of these mammals, the Polar Bear, in an activity called an Internet Workshop. You will be answering the questions on the worksheet by researching the answers on the internet. Start by choosing one of the websites listed. Then, read through the questions one at a time, and record the answers as you go.  If you can't find the answer on the website you've chosen, or you want to elaborate on your answer, visit the other website listed. After you are finished, we will come back together and discuss what we've learned about Polar Bears!" 

Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught strategies for activating background knowledge and given the student multiple opportunities to practice.
     Teacher: "On your KWL chart, write down what you already know about Earthquakes under the K."
     Student: "Earthquakes are scary! I saw in a movie once that an earthquake destroyed the whole world!" 

In such a case, what might you do? 

When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your student will make errors throughout. Here are a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and that students might respond better to some types of feedback than others.

If your student struggles to meet your objective, there are various techniques that you might try to adjust the activity so as best to meet your student's needs.