Chapter 1
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness and Emergent Literacy
Course: Elementary Education Multiple Subjects 7001
Subject: Elementary Education Teaching Reading Subtest 7002
Chapter: Comprehension Of Literary And Informational Text
1. Overview
Activating and building background knowledge is a foundational component of reading comprehension instruction. Students make sense of what they read by connecting the information in a text to what they already know. This process—sometimes referred to as schema activation—is critical because texts do not provide all information explicitly; they rely on the reader’s prior knowledge to fill in gaps, interpret meaning, and make inferences.
If students do not possess relevant background knowledge, they may struggle to understand what they read, even if they can decode the words correctly. Therefore, teachers must intentionally activate what students already know and build new background knowledge through pre-reading activities, rich discussions, exposure to experiences, and explicit vocabulary instruction.