# @edutopia on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CFFnahUlOL4
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20304339-edutopia-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/cc47aa0771.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-09-13T19:03:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Edutopia (@edutopia) — https://gondola.cc/edutopia

## Caption

A purely skills-based approach to reading instruction—where kids are introduced to unfamiliar subjects and then drilled on strategies like summarizing and finding the main idea—ignores growing research into “the crucial role of background knowledge in comprehending what you read,” writes Holly Korbey. It also leaves behind many low-income kids, English language learners, and students of color. ⁣
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After a decade of tanking reading scores, Baltimore City Public Schools took a deep dive into the cognitive science of reading comprehension; the district found enough convincing evidence to upend its traditional ELA instruction. Now, students still learn typical ELA skills—such as figurative language and sight reading—but they’re grounded in concepts they’re already familiar with from other classes. So, while studying “the U.S. colonial era in social studies, for example, students may read anchor text about the American Revolution, hold a Socratic seminar on the beginnings of the war, and then write an essay defending one side’s position using the vocabulary they learned in ELA,” notes Korbey. ⁣
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When students read about something they have baseline knowledge about, “they’re able to retrieve more information about the topic from long-term memory, leaving more space in working memory for comprehension. They’re also better able to absorb and retain information, because knowledge—like Velcro—sticks best to other related knowledge,” says Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap. ⁣
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Link in bio.⁣
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#Teacher #TeachersofInstagram #TeachersOfIG #Classroom  #HighSchoolTeacher #ElementarySchoolTeacher #HighSchoolTeacher #TeacherTips #MainIdea #ELA #ELATeacher #EnglishTeacher

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## Tags

highschoolteacher, teachertips, teacher, classroom, elementaryschoolteacher, ela, teachersofinstagram, teachersofig, elateacher, englishteacher, mainidea

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