Building Background Knowledge For Academic Achievement: Research On What Works In Schools

227 Pages·2004·1.27 MB·English

by  Robert J. Marzano

BuildBkrndKnow_2Covers 7/20/04 11:05 AM Page 1
$26.95 U.S.
Education Robert J. Marzano
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In Building Background Knowledge for Academic c
Achievement, Robert J. Marzano shows how a k
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carefully structured combination of two
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approaches—sustained silent reading and
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instruction in subject-specific vocabulary u
Research on What Works in Schools terms—can help overcome the deficiencies n
in background knowledge that hamper the d
achievement of many children.
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Readers will learn
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●The principles that underlie an effective o
sustained silent reading program w
●A five-step process for using sustained
BROWSE EXCERPTS l
silent reading to enhance background e
FROM ASCD BOOKS:
knowledge d
http://www.ascd.org/books g
●The defining characteristics of effective
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vocabulary instruction
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● A six-step process for direct instruction o
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in vocabulary in each discipline A
●The vocabulary terms critical to students’ ca
Association for Supervision d
success in every academic subject e
and Curriculum Development m
Alexandria, Virginia USA Vignettes suggest how the recommended i
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reading and vocabulary instruction programs A
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might be implemented in elementary schools, h
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middle and junior high schools, and high e
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schools. The book also includes a list of em
7,923 vocabulary terms culled from the e
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national standards documents and other t

publications, organized into 11 subject areas

and 4 grade-level categories. M
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With its research-based recommendations r
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and step-by-step approach, Building an
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Background Knowledgeequips educators with
the tools they need to help close the
achievement gap and enable all students
Research on What Works in Schools
to succeed.
BuildBkrndKnow_TITLE 7/20/04 11:03 AM Page 1
Robert J. Marzano
Research on What Works in Schools
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Alexandria, VA USA
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marzano, Robert J.
Building background knowledge for academic achievement : research on what works in
schools / Robert J. Marzano.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87120-972-1 (alk. paper)
1. Academic achievement—United States. 2. School supervision—United States. 3.
Silent reading—United States. 4. Vocabulary—Study and teaching. I. Title.
LB1062.6.M37 2004
371.2'03'0973—dc22
2004009792
___________________________________________________________
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
frontmatter 8/10/04 12:35 PM Page iii
1 The Importance of Background Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3 Tapping the Power of Wide Reading and Language Experience. . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Building Academic Background Knowledge Through Direct
Vocabulary Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5 Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6 Defining an Academic Vocabulary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7 Setting Up a Schoolwide or Districtwide Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Technical Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Mathematics Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Science Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
English Language Arts Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
History
General History Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
U.S. History Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
World History Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Geography Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Civics Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Economics Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Health Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Physical Education Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
The Arts
Arts General Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Dance Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Music Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Theater Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Visual Arts Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Technology Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
frontmatter 8/10/04 12:35 PM Page iv
frontmatter 8/10/04 12:35 PM Page v
To my grandchildren: Cecilia and Aida
frontmatter 8/10/04 12:35 PM Page vi
chap1 8/10/04 12:39 PM Page 1
1
The Importance of Background Knowledge
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), every day from
September to June some 53.5 million students in the United States walk into
classes that teach English, mathematics, science, history, and geography and face
the sometimes daunting task of learning new content. Indeed, one of the nation’s
long-term goals as stated in the The National Education Goals Report: Building a
Nation of Learners (National Education Goals Panel, 1991) is for U.S. students to
master “challenging subject matter” in core subject areas (p. 4). Since that goal was
articulated, national and state-level standards documents have identified the chal-
lenging subject matter alluded to by the goals panel. For example, in English, high
school students are expected to know and be able to use standard conventions for
citing various types of primary and secondary sources. In mathematics, they are
expected to understand and use sigma notation and factorial representations. In
science, they are expected to know how insulators, semiconductors, and super-
conductors respond to electric forces. In history, they are expected to understand
how civilization developed in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. In geography,
they are expected to understand how the spread of radiation from the Chernobyl
nuclear accident has affected the present-day world.
Although it is true that the extent to which students will learn this new con-
tent is dependent on factors such as the skill of the teacher, the interest of the stu-
dent, and the complexity of the content, the research literature supports one
compelling fact: what students already know about the content is one of the
strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the con-
tent. Commonly, researchers and theorists refer to what a person already knows
about a topic as “background knowledge.” Numerous studies have confirmed the
1
chap1 8/10/04 12:39 PM Page 2
2 BUILDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE FOR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
relationship between background knowledge and achievement (Nagy, Anderson,
& Herman, 1987; Bloom, 1976; Dochy, Segers, & Buehl, 1999; Tobias, 1994;
Alexander, Kulikowich, & Schulze, 1994; Schiefele & Krapp, 1996; Tamir, 1996;
Boulanger, 1981). In these studies the reported average correlation between a per-
son’s background knowledge of a given topic and the extent to which that person
learns new information on that topic is .66 (see Technical Note 1 on p. 127 for a
discussion of how the correlation was computed).
To interpret this average correlation, let’s consider one student, Jana, who is at
the 50th percentile in terms of both her background knowledge and her academic
achievement. Envision Jana’s achievement at the 50th percentile as shown in the
middle of Figure 1.1. (For a more detailed explanation of this example, see Tech-
nical Note 2 on pp. 127–129.) If we increase her background knowledge by one
standard deviation (that is, move her from the 50th to the 84th percentile), her
academic achievement would be expected to increase from the 50th to the 75th
percentile (see the bars on the right side of Figure 1.1). In contrast, if we decrease
Jana’s academic background knowledge by one standard deviation (that is, move
her from the 50th to the 16th percentile), her academic achievement would be
FIGURE 1.1
Academic Achievement at Three Levels of
Academic Background Knowledge
100
Academic background knowledge
Academic achievement
80
84
75
60
50 50
40
20 25
16
0
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
chap1 8/10/04 12:39 PM Page 3
The Importance of Background Knowledge 3
expected to drop to the 25th percentile (see the bars on the left side of Figure 1.1).
These three scenarios demonstrate the dramatic impact of academic background
knowledge on success in school. Students who have a great deal of background
knowledge in a given subject area are likely to learn new information readily and
quite well. The converse is also true.
Academic background knowledge affects more than just “school learning.”
Studies have also shown its relation to occupation and status in life. Sticht, Hof-
stetter, and Hofstetter (1997) sought to document a relationship between back-
ground knowledge and power, with power defined as “the achievement of a higher
status occupation and/or the ability to earn an average or higher level income”
(p.2). To test their hypothesis that “knowledge is power” (p. 3), they interviewed
538 randomly selected adults and gave them a test of basic academic information
and terminology. They found a significant relationship between knowledge of this
academic information and type of occupation and overall income.
This discussion paints a compelling picture of the impact of academic back-
ground knowledge on students’ academic achievement in school and on their lives
after school. It is important to note the qualifier academic. Two students might
have an equal amount of background knowledge. However, one student’s knowl-
edge might relate to traditional school subjects such as mathematics, science, his-
tory, and the like. The other student’s knowledge might be about nonacademic
topics such as the best subway route to take to get downtown during rush hour,
the place to stand in the subway car that provides the most ventilation on a hot
summer day, and so on. The importance of one type of background knowledge
over another is strictly a function of context (Becker, 1977; Greenfield, 1998). The
background knowledge of the second student is critical to successfully using pub-
lic transportation in a specific metropolitan area, but probably not very important
for success in school. The first student’s background knowledge is critical to suc-
cess in school but not to successful public transit.
This book is about enhancing students’ academic background knowledge.
This is not to say that other types of background knowledge are unimportant.
Indeed, Sternberg and Wagner’s (1986) compilation of the research on practical
intelligence makes a good case that success in many aspects of life is related to
nonacademic types of background knowledge. However, it is also true that in the
United States all children are expected to attend school, and success in school has
a strong bearing on their earning potential. Figure 1.2 illustrates the dramatic rise
in yearly income as the level of education increases. One particularly disturbing
aspect of Figure 1.2 is the income level of those who have not graduated from high
school—namely, $10,838. This is not much above the official poverty line in the