SRS Weekly Newsletter
January 5, 2024
Did you know that research shows teaching students comprehension strategies is not the key to helping them become better readers? Instead, building background knowledge and vocabulary is linked to reading comprehension. Knowledge is like mental velcro- it sticks best to other related knowledge. If we already have some knowledge of a topic, we are much more easily able to retain new information and new vocabulary, which, in turn, helps us to understand more text.
In 1987, researchers conducted what is known as the "Baseball Study," evaluating their results based on the student's reading abilities and prior knowledge of baseball. They concluded that prior knowledge of baseball was just as important as reading proficiency in a student's ability to understand text. In fact, struggling readers who knew a lot about baseball outperformed proficient readers who didn't.
So, keep exposing your child to lots and lots of knowledge about the world around them! Encourage them to become experts on topics that pique their interest. And, read complex text aloud to your child- just because they can't decode the words doesn't mean they can't soak up the knowledge! Elane Mylett South River School
