Background Knowledge: The Missing Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle
by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
(Heinemann, 2009 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Fran Toomey

In Background Knowledge: The Missing Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey chose an essential topic. They focus their discussion on the three dimensions that support new learning: organization, conditionality and transferability.

More importantly, they asked three essential questions:

• How can we activate background knowledge?

• How can we access background knowledge?

• How can we build background knowledge?

Their answers come in the form of detailed classroom observations — a treasure-trove from middle and high school teachers across the subject areas, using a wide variety of tools including:  KWL (and its many variations), anticipation (and opinionnaires guides); a meta-comprehension strategy index, cloze readings, interest surveys, quick writes that focus on purpose, text impressions, structured partner discussions, and checklists, wide reading, field trips and graphics.

While many of these techniques are probably familiar to experienced teachers, embedding their descriptions in real classroom activates offers new insights on how and when to use them. Undoubtedly these descriptions will be valuable to teacher educators and beginning teachers. I leave out the details to entice teachers to check out these valuable resources themselves.

Fitting the techniques into larger instructional frameworks

To give the reader context, the authors describe four overarching frameworks that guide their thinking about teaching: the gradual release of responsibility, a learning cycle that begins with background knowledge, purposeful use of declarative-procedural-conditional knowledge questions and tasks, and a system for differentiating core and incidental knowledge.

The system for differentiating core and incidental knowledge is critical to using all of the other ideas in this text. As the authors say, a teacher’s first challenge is to differentiate between core and incidental knowledge for whatever topic or essential idea(s), question(s) or task(s) is being put forth. The method they suggest is based on four criteria: representation, transmission, transferability, and endurance.

Fitting the learning into a larger world context

As in almost all discussions of education in the 21st century, the authors venture into the cyberworld. Given how much and how often students get information and ideas from the Web, they begin a discussion of critical literacy. Here they rely on four processes described by van Sluys, Lewison, and Flint (2006): disrupting a common situation or understanding, examining multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues, and taking action. Again they bring these dimensions alive through classroom based examples.

In the next-to-last chapter, “New Literacies, Old Standards for Excellence,” the authors address a common issue: the relationship between the tool and the task. More specifically, we need to ask: Which tool best serves particular learners given the particular task?

Is teaching background knowledge the teacher’s job?

The final chapter asks teachers to consider their role in teaching for thinking (i.e., thinking habits in relation to background knowledge), and background knowledge as a process at the heart of every student-teacher interaction.

And, finally, the publisher has included a study guide that asks teachers to assess their own background knowledge about background knowledge.

Some readers are never satisfied

I suppose like many other readers, I always want more. Specifically, I would like to have seen a more in-depth discussion on memory (pages 15-19). There is such a rich literature on the role of both working and long term memory in learning, I think the topic warranted a deeper consideration.

I also believe misconceptions, and how that topic relates to discipline-based concept development, deserved more discussion. Again, there is a wealth of information out there. One of the significant issues with concept development and background knowledge is that students do not learn concepts well in the first place; therefore, they cannot transfer that knowledge nor take conditionality into account.

Fran Toomey is a Professor Emeritus at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont. She is a blogger and wiki developer with special interests in reading comprehension  and learning how to learn. Her book reviews are written “from my point of view — a teacher educator asking whether this text would be valuable in coursework or professional development as required or recommended reading.” Her e-course on reading comprehension (based on the unpublished text SPOKES: A Cognitive Approach to Reading Comprehension by Toomey, Scobie, and Toomey) is under development.

Ten Differentiation Strategies for Building Prior Knowledge
By Jill Spencer
(Association for Middle Level Education, 2012 -  Learn more)

Reviewed by Lucille Schauer

As I sat in a faculty meeting two weeks ago, I listened to my principal relay information on the findings from several classroom visits done by our district office employees. “They want more differentiation,” he explained as he looked at the list of items targeted for improvement.

If you are anything like me, you’ve heard that word “differentiation” used many times in many different ways. I’ve wondered: What does differentiation really mean? And what exactly are they expecting to find when they look for it in our classrooms?

In her book Ten Differentiation Strategies for Building Prior Knowledge, Jill Spencer makes this point: “Differentiation is a word that is bandied around as if educators, parents, and students all share the same definition. We don’t!” From there, she goes on to offer her explanation of what it means to differentiate instruction, and why it’s an important practice in today’s classrooms.

Differentiation and more

When choosing to do a review of Spencer’s book, differentiation in the title didn’t catch my eye, but rather the idea of background knowledge. In hopes of increasing my students’ retention of the material I taught, I wanted to more heavily focus my attention on the beginning of my lesson/unit instead of the end, with such tools as reviewing.

There’s enough in this book to meet my current needs and expand my thinking. As Jill Spencer explains, “The purpose…is to share 10 strategies that will help you access, build, and/or assess prior knowledge in a differentiated manner so that you get the feedback you need to thoughtfully move forward in your planning.”

This book isn’t only directed to teachers who are starting to differentiate instruction, but for any teacher who wants to try new strategies, have a classroom engaged in the digital world, or find more ways to tap into student background knowledge. She is hopeful that Building Prior Knowledge will be the first in a series to help teachers plan their lessons/units to address student learning needs and preferences.

Well-organized information

Ten Differentiation Strategies for Building Prior Knowledge is broken down into three sections: Four ways to differentiate, FAQs about prior knowledge, and 10 strategies for activating, building, and assessing prior knowledge. The third section fills most of the book’s pages, where Spencer explains each of the ten strategies in detail. Each strategy has a short description, its purpose, how it differentiates, the procedures associated with it, three content examples, and its benefits. The content examples are extremely informative on how to apply each strategy and how to use it in different ways. As a science teacher, I appreciated her use of many science content examples. I even used one of the strategies the following week after reading about it. It went very well.

Technology integration

Another perk of the book is that Jill suggests several ways to implement technology in concert with the 10 strategies. Since many students are daily users of technology outside the classroom, and more schools are becoming technologically equipped, strategies for integrating technology into lessons are more in demand. Some of her suggestions for bringing this technology into the classroom are podcasts, wikis, Flickr, and clicker systems.

Final thoughts

This is a good and useful book and a quick read. Spencer’s strategies are easy to implement and modify to fit your student’s needs. Her thoughts on differentiation and prior knowledge are insightful. The book was a great help in my search for ideas on how to effectively assess my student’s background knowledge. I plan to use more of her suggestions in future lessons.

Two final thoughts from Jill Spencer: “If time isn’t spent up front, it will be spent on the tail end of a lesson or unit when students cannot demonstrate mastery.” And always remember: “Teaching and learning should be joyous processes.”

Lucille Schauer teaches 7^th grade science in South Carolina. She earned her BA in middle childhood education from Wittenberg University. She received Wittenberg’s Excellence in Pre-service Teaching Award and was later chosen her school’s rookie teacher of year. She resides in Wallace, SC with her husband.