: Building Bridges to Meaning: Background Knowledge in Reading Providing scaffolds to anticipate barriers like background knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension.

When Shared Experience Isn’t Shared

Kat explores how providing scaffolds to anticipate barriers like background knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension.

This vignette reveals a subtle but powerful barrier to equity in the classroom: the assumption of shared background knowledge. When texts draw on experiences like sailing or rural holidays — experiences not shared by all — some pupils are instantly advantaged. They can engage confidently, while others may feel lost or disengaged. This isn’t about ability. It’s about access.

Access, Not Assumptions: Why Background Knowledge Matters

Without explicit support to build or bridge background knowledge, reading becomes a test of what pupils already know, not how well they can comprehend. To support all learners, we must consider what knowledge pupils need to access a text — and who may need help to build it.

Jessie Ricketts (2025) emphasises that comprehension is enhanced when pupils are familiar with the subject matter. This background knowledge can take several forms:

-Disciplinary knowledge (e.g. understanding how lungs work),


-Broader disciplinary knowledge (e.g. how body systems function unconsciously), and


-Non-disciplinary knowledge (e.g. general awareness of pollution and air quality).


Teachers can use these categories to anticipate gaps and plan support. Ricketts offers three guiding questions:

-What background knowledge will students need to engage with the ideas in the text?


-How much of this will they already know or can activate from prior learning?


-What might be new and require explanation, illustration, or clarification before reading?


By asking these questions, teachers can avoid the pitfalls seen in the vignette — where assumed knowledge alienates some pupils — and instead create more inclusive, meaningful learning experiences.

Reading Strategies That Build on What Pupils Know

Although strategies like summarising and questioning can support comprehension, they only work if pupils already understand the content. Professor Daniel Willingham (2017) warns against focusing too heavily on generic strategies without first ensuring pupils have the knowledge needed to make sense of a text. He recommends prioritising content knowledge and exposure to a wide range of texts. The Education Endowment Foundation (2020) agrees, noting that comprehension strategies are more effective when taught through rich, meaningful content. It also states that, ​“Pupils need to understand the vocabulary and background knowledge required to access a text, otherwise strategy instruction is unlikely to be effective.”

Avoid Deficit Thinking

Crucially, addressing gaps in knowledge must be done without deficit thinking. As Dr. Katy Swift and Dr. Sam Baars (2022) remind us, pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are often framed as ​‘lacking’ rather than seen as having different — and valuable — cultural experiences. The term ​“cultural capital” is sometimes used to explain differences in attainment, but it can reinforce biased assumptions. All children have culture — through language, stories, community life and lived experiences. The issue isn’t whether they have culture, but whether they’ve had access to the curriculum-relevant knowledge expected in school.

As the EEF (2020) highlights, ​“It is particularly important to ensure that disadvantaged pupils are explicitly taught academic vocabulary and background knowledge, as they may not have had the same opportunities to develop this outside of school.” Our role isn’t to ​“fix” pupils, but to ensure that all children, regardless of background, can access the same learning opportunities.

Scaffolding, principle 3 of EEF’s five-a-day approach, can support teachers in anticipating barriers in pupils’ background knowledge to then plan to address these in upcoming lessons. It is important to note that scaffolding should be viewed as a process. The EEF tells us that it is ​“a metaphor for temporary support that [should be] removed when it is no longer required.” (EEF, 2022) The end goal is to promote pupil independence. With this in mind, the type of scaffold (high to low), when to use it and most importantly, when to remove it, are important considerations in this process.

KS2& 3 Strategies to Develop Background Knowledge

Year 6 reading lesson on ​‘War Horse’

Text Marking – a written scaffold to support understanding of key historical event – start of WWI

1. Explicit teaching of Tier 2/​Tier 3 vocabulary that is key to understanding context e.g. khaki/​jodhpurs. Words are explicitly taught within the text when the teacher is modelling reading to pupils.


2. Pupils box new vocabulary and textmark definitions.


3. Pupils read the whole text (in pairs or independently). Fluency can be supported by chunking the text with ​‘A’ and ​‘B’ partner designations.


4. As pupils read, text mark notes/​questions that they want/​need to find answers to


5. Discuss new vocabulary in context, background context of text and address pupil questions.

Year 7 First reading lesson on ​‘When Life Gives You Mangoes’

Completing a background knowledge organiser – a written scaffold to reveal pupil background knowledge gaps related to key events and themes of a book. Can be used to inform future planning.

This written scaffold below consists of an organiser split into quadrants and a diamond in the centre for ​‘self’. It can be used to ask the students what they know about key themes, setting, vocabulary in the text and also to make a forecast*. The ​‘self’ centre invites the students to add any personal experiences linked to what they think the book is about, aiming to increase their engagement with the text. In completing the other quadrants, the teacher is then able to assess for any gaps in content knowledge that can be addressed in follow up lessons.

Below is an example of an organiser completed by a Year 7 pupil who is EAL (English as an Additional Language) and currently working below age-related expectations in reading.

This is just one example amongst a range that can be developed for the purpose of developing background knowledge. As part of their regional partnership in Havering, the North London Alliance Research School are currently developing KS2/3 scaffolding exemplification in reading. Something which will support KS2 and 3 reading instruction, particularly through anticipating barriers and planning to address them appropriately.

Anticipating barriers such as building background knowledge deliberately and equitably is essential — not just for reading comprehension, but for creating a fairer education system.

*forecast: ​“Forecasting in reading involves the reader using textual cues and prior knowledge to anticipate upcoming content, helping to guide comprehension and engagement with the text.” (Afflerbach, 1990)

References

Afflerbach, P., 1990. The influence of prior knowledge on expert readers’ main idea construction strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 25(3), pp.273 – 295.

Aubin, G. (2022) ​‘The Five-a-day approach: How the EEF can support’, Education Endowment Foundation, 5 October.

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), 2020. Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2.

Department for Education, 2025. Supporting Reading in Secondary Schools. London: Department for Education

Swift, K. and Baars, S., 2022. Cultural Capital: A Critical Review in Education. London: Centre for Education and Youth.

Willingham, D.T., 2017. The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.