Prior Knowledge

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE can be explained as a combination of the learner's preexisting attitudes, experiences, and knowledge:

Attitudes
• Beliefs about ourselves as learners/readers

• Awareness of our individual interests and strengths

• Motivation and our desire to read

Experiences

• Everyday activities that relate to reading

• Events in our lives that provide background understanding

• Family and community experiences that we bring to school with us

Knowledge

• Of the reading process itself

• Of content (literature, science, and math)

• Of topics (fables, photosynthesis, fractions)

• Of concepts (main idea, theory, numeration)

• Of different types of style and form (fiction and nonfiction)

• Of text structure (narrative or expository)

• Of the academic and personal goals

Excerpted from The Strategic Teaching and Reading Project Guidebook (Kujawa & Huske, 1995).

References