Since prior knowledge is positively linked with reading comprehension, methods of measuring prior knowledge are important. A word association test is a useful technique for evaluating topic familiarity and enables the teacher to make decisions about how much additional information is needed for students to process a text successfully. (SRT)

Presents a teaching strategy which uses points of reference (or basic underlying concepts) to help students understand definitions, descriptions, and comparisons/contrasts, and models its use. Notes that understanding the importance of points of reference is one of the first steps in the technique called "knowledge modeling." (SR)

Asserts that students' inaccurate prior knowledge in science can hinder the learning process. Presents instructional strategies for elementary and secondary school students that have been proved effective by research, such as augmented activation activities, refutational text, nonrefutational text, and the discussion web. (PRA)

Describes how prior knowledge, current text, future text, and prior text all play a part in knowledge acquisition. States that most content area reading instruction emphasizes only current text. Notes that future columns will address this issue by introducing a method for teaching comprehension of exposition called "knowledge modeling." (SR)

Discusses common flaws in Anticipation Guide statements (teacher generated statements, used in teaching expository reading, about a topic that students respond to before reading about that topic). Offers guidelines for writing statements and examples of ineffective and effective statements. (SR)

Describes a study of the background knowledge of college students from remedial English, regular composition, and English-as-a-second-language classrooms, indicating that remedial students often do not have the background information network necessary to cope with materials. (HTH)

Describes a teaching method that combines the concepts of the structural overview and concept attainment in order to help students read content area textbooks. (FL)

Describes some recent studies which establish that meaningful learning can be promoted by a certain type of questioning activity, called elaborative interrogation, that leads students to activate prior knowledge and tie it to the new information. (SR)

Argues that using reading strategies in mathematics classes can help students understand mathematical concepts. Discusses five principles for mathematics teachers to use in incorporating reading strategies in the classroom. (RS)

Introduces the FLIP (Friendliness, Language, Interest, Prior Knowledge) framework to help middle and secondary students examine their reading assignments and develop appropriate plans of action. Includes a rationale for the framework, a description of it, and suggestions for classroom implementation. (SR)

Explores research on the efficacy of previewing before reading to build background knowledge. Offers guidelines for presenting a preview to students. (HTH)

Describes a brainstorming/conceptualization activity suitable for adult, secondary, and college levels which serves as a preliminary exercise to test students' prior knowledge and to activate a schema for deeper immersion into a text. Describes how students use the activities to construct a sentence which defines the purpose of their textbook. (RS)

Describes how content area teachers balked at the need for prereading activities. Discusses how the teacher realized the importance of such activities through a variety of inservice activities. (RS)

Describes 10 categories of inferences and proposes a three-step procedure for teaching students to make inferences while reading. (HOD)

Explains how a teacher can prepare students to read content area material by helping them bring prior knowledge about a topic to memory. (AEA)