![]() A student’s ability to comprehend a text will vary depending on his familiarity with the subject no degree of “skill” will help if he lacks the knowledge to understand it. The implication is clear: abstract “reading ability” is largely a mirage constructed by reading tests. In other words, the gap in comprehension wasn’t a gap in skills. When prior knowledge was equalized, comprehension was essentially the same. But then they read a story about a subject neither group knew anything about made up animals called wugs. When they tested comprehension, the wealthier children did significantly better. In another study, researchers read preschoolers from mixed socioeconomic backgrounds a book about birds, a subject that they had determined the higher income kids already knew more about. In fact, the bad readers who knew a lot about baseball outperformed the good readers who didn’t. And among those who knew a lot about baseball, the “good” readers and the “bad” readers all did well. The kids who knew little about baseball, including the “good” readers, all did poorly. It turned out that prior knowledge of baseball made a huge difference in students’ ability to understand the text-more of a difference than their supposed reading level. The next batter is Whitcomb, the Cougars’ left-fielder. Churniak is on first with a single, Johnson stayed on third. Haley comes in, fields it, and throws to first, but too late. Each student was asked to read a text describing half an inning of a fictional baseball game and move the wooden figures around the board to reenact the action described.Ĭhurniak swings and hits a slow bouncing ball towards the shortstop, the passage began. Recht and Leslie chose baseball because they figured lots of kids in junior high school who weren’t great readers nevertheless knew a fair amount about the subject. The goal was to determine to what extent a child’s ability to understand a text depended on her prior knowledge of the topic. ![]() Then they brought in sixty-four seventh- and eighth-grade students who had been tested both for their general reading ability and their knowledge of baseball. They peopled it with four-inch wooden baseball players arranged to simulate the beginning of a game. In 1987, two researchers in Wisconsin, Donna Recht and Lauren Leslie, constructed a miniature baseball field and installed it in an empty classroom in a junior high school. This article is excerpted, with permission, from THE KNOWLEDGE GAP: The Hidden Cost of America’s Broken Education System-And How To Fix It. Our guest author today is Natalie Wexler, an educational journalist who is a senior contributor to and whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and other publications. Issues Areas show submenu for "Issues Areas".
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