Audrey's Reading Toolkit
Strategies for Activating Background Knowledge
for students Kindergarten to 3rd grade.
Visual Representation
Utilize videos, images, pictures, real objects, pictures books and interactive contents to enhance understanding and build context.
(Coppola, 2014)
Analogies
Use analogies to bridge new concepts to familiar ones.
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Analogical reasoning helps students transfer existing knowledge to novel contexts and facilitates connections between prior knowledge and new content (Coppola, 2014).
Cooperative Learning
or Partner Share activities
Provide opportunities for students to collaborate, share ideas, and deepen their understanding.
By working together, they not only acquire background knowledge but also develop essential social and communication skills (Willis, 2021).
KWL Charts
(Know / Want to Know / Learned)
Use “What I Know,” “What I Want to Know,” and “What I Learned” charts.
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Students fill in the first two sections before reading, then complete the last section afterward (ReadingUniverse, n.d.).
Graphic Organizers
Play word association games or create bubble maps or word webs.
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It encourages students to connect new words to existing knowledge (ReadingUniverse, n.d.).
