6 Ways to Build Background Knowledge

Background knowledge is a significant driving factor behind successful reading comprehension. Without it, readers struggle to make connections and grasp what they are reading. Students will come with different types of background knowledge, some more than others. This will be dependent upon many factors, such as:

  • How language-rich the student’s home environment is (the books read to that student and discussions with caregivers)

  • The access students have had to places such as museums, libraries, and other hands-on learning destinations to develop new knowledge and make connections

  • Extracurricular and enrichment activities

  • Opportunities for travel

  • Exposure to other cultures

The above are variables that we cannot control, so we focus on what we CAN control to build a sturdy framework of background knowledge. Here are my favorite ways for helping students build background knowledge regardless of their socioeconomic background:

  1. Read Alouds

    Read Alouds using picture books with authentic visual information is a powerful way to pack knowledge and information about a new topic.

  2. Field Trips

    Whether virtual or in-person, field trips are fantastic ways to learn about and engage in new topics. Since the pandemic, there is more opportunity now than ever to explore places, history, topics with a click of a mouse, and interact with guides and experts in the field.

  3. Guest Speakers

    Guest speakers can range from a child’s family member in a specific field of interest or relevance to someone in the local community.

  4. Show and Tell with Intention

    This isn’t the type of show and tell done in the early grades. This type of show and tell is done with a specific intention using an explicit outline to follow. The student would prepare an “expert presentation” about the item’s relevance, and facilitate a Q&A to further engage peers in discussion.

  5. Informational and Appropriate Media

    Whether it be a musical performance, famous speech, photographs or other piece of art, or short video, we can use the good that media does have to offer to connect our students with critical background knowledge.

  6. Sensory Experiences

    Engage students’ senses to connect more deeply with topics. Studying coconuts? Bring one in to explore. Learning about medicinal plants? Bring in an aloe plant!

Background knowledge should always be presented with rich, academic vocabulary that students become fluent in, both receptively and expressively.


Come Join the MW LITERACY® Instagram Community

Sign up here for bite-sized doses of professional development delivered to your inbox each week.

Considerations for Instruction of Consonant Blends

Before we decide to take up valuable instruction time to teach a skill or concept, it is critical to gauge its value. WHY am I teaching this and HOW will my students benefit from this? Today I’m discussing whether or not there is value in teaching consonant blends.

Is teaching blends necessary?

One school of thought is NO, it’s not. If you are teaching explicit phonics, and your students can segment and blend the phonemes in a word with automaticity when they look at the graphemes, they are already blending regardless of how those graphemes are classified. They do not need to know that, for example, the letters s + l are a blend in order to successfully sound out the words slime or slow. Makes sense, right?

And I agree.

HOWEVER, there are two reasons why explicit instruction of consonant blends (initial and final) do carry value. 

The first consideration:

The first benefit of teaching blends is for those struggling spellers who may spell a word like stand as sdand. In other words, students who write what they hear themselves sound out, even when our language never spells those letters next to each other. Other examples of similar spelling mistakes are:

jraw for draw

chrain for train

In this case, explicit instruction of blends can help prevent these types of spelling errors when students learn that certain letter combinations simply never go together.

The second consideration:

Another time to consider explicit instruction of blends is to support knowledge of accurate syllable division. For example, VCCCV (vowel-consonant-consonant-consonant-vowel) words like monster, conflict, and pumpkin all require division somewhere among the consonants. Having knowledge of blends that stay together helps immensely in understanding where the division will occur. 

So, is teaching blends absolutely necessary?

When it comes down to it, what’s the verdict? If students have the fluent ability to blend the phonemes represented by the graphemes in front of them to read words, have no spelling deficits, and can effortless divide VCCCV words properly, they will not require much instructional time spent on blends, and may just benefit from a quick reinforcement. Conversely, if students are struggling with spelling and syllable division, time spend on blends will be warranted. As always, explicit instruction is crucial.

Types of Consonant Blends

L-blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

R-blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr,

S-blends: sc, sk, (sl), sm, sn, sp, st, sw

Final blends: ct, ft, ld, lf, lk, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pt, rd, rk, sk, sp, st, xt

3-letter blends: scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr, nch

Other blends: dw, tw

I hope this information helps to drive meaningful instruction and sorts out any questions you may have had about the shoulds or ifs of consonant blends instruction.

For more literacy information, join me over on INSTAGRAM for new weekly content.