Picture this: a classroom buzzing with the energy of discovery—where each lesson leads to new learning and every discussion contributes to deeper understanding. Content-rich classrooms making learning irresistible. Kids are asking questions, inferring, discussing, debating, creating, and generating new ideas.
As kids continue to learn about and comprehend the world, their comprehension is strengthened by existing and new knowledge. When kids build their knowledge store, it’s thinking and learning intensive.
As teachers, we don’t ask kids to read to simply amass information. Instead, they read to tackle real problems, explore authentic issues, and puzzle through ideas to make sense of the world. This is what we mean when we talk about using comprehension strategies to acquire knowledge and actively using it.
As this figure illustrates, knowledge building is a reciprocal process. As students build their knowledge through reading and thinking, they create a foundation that in turn supports ongoing learning and understanding. P. David Pearson (1996) calls this a “virtuous cycle.”
Comprehension skills, such as analyzing, inferring, and synthesizing information, enable students to delve deeper into the content. In return, the more content knowledge students acquire, the more background knowledge they have for understanding new information. It’s a reinforcing cycle where skills and knowledge continually enhance each other.
Literacy specialists Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis touched on this in their recent webinar, “Content Literacy: Teaching Comprehension Strategies Across the Curriculum.”
Comprehension strategies enable students to engage with, understand, and make sense of information they read, transforming it from simply facts and details to meaningful knowledge.
We live in the information age, but we are not sure that kids always understand the difference between information and knowledge. If kids don’t think about and actively use information, they are unlikely to learn, understand, and remember it.
When we think of comprehension in the classroom, it’s often in the context of “reading” as defined by deciphering the words on a page and making meaning. But let’s expand that view.
Reading is all about thinking and learning strategies, which are the tools that lead to a deeper level of engagement and understanding. It’s what makes learning stick, turning fleeting facts into lasting understanding.
Harvey and Goudvis emphasize that effective comprehension instruction goes beyond just understanding on a literal level. It involves grasping not just the “what,” but the “how” and “why” as well. It’s about connecting new information to existing knowledge, asking probing questions, drawing inferences, visualizing concepts, and reflecting on the implications of what has been learned.
Incorporating comprehension strategies into all areas of learning has several key benefits:
In the classroom, this means integrating comprehension strategies into every lesson and content area, especially science, social studies, and history. Acquiring knowledge is a powerful jumping off point, but it’s not enough.
As Costa (2008) suggests, content literacy is about what kids do with their new knowledge—how they make sense of it and use it in their daily lives. To explore the multiple ways that knowledge and experience interact, it is helpful to think about a continuum of understanding.
This continuum runs the gamut—from answering literal questions to using knowledge to taking action. The five comprehension processes described here include the teaching language that is characteristic of each column on the continuum. It’s a brief, practical guide for discussion during comprehension instruction.
Content knowledge provides context and background essential for making sense of new information. Think of it as a tapestry of understanding: the more threads of knowledge a student has, the easier it is for them to weave new information into this tapestry. This is especially important in complex subjects where prior knowledge plays a crucial role in understanding new concepts.
Here’s how comprehension and content knowledge work together so students learn, understand, and remember content: Together, they:
By leaning into this kind of learning, educators can create a classroom culture that embraces curiosity, wonder, and inquiry. When kids are part of a classroom environment that continually challenges their thinking and supports dynamic learning experiences such as these, comprehension and content knowledge thrive.
It’s not just “doing school” but building a foundation for lifelong learning. That’s how students become thinkers, innovators, creators, and thoughtful citizens.