Extend World Knowledge with Reading

Luis Gomez and colleagues are extending world knowledge from a book on camping in this demonstration lesson from Basic Language Skills, a Neuhaus class for teachers who do intensive reading intervention with young readers.

Extending world knowledge and increasing oral language happens every time you read a story aloud to children. In stories, children hear new vocabulary and are introduced to topics that may be unfamiliar to them. Building background before reading, asking questions during reading and extending the topic after reading add to the bank of content knowledge students need to make connection while they read throughout their lives.

Let's take the story, Is Your Mama a Llama, by Deborah Guarino, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, as an example. Start by asking the students if they look like their mothers, and how. You might show some baby animals with their mothers, name these animals, and discuss the similarities and differences of the baby and adult animals. Is Your Mama a Llama is an endearing story of a baby Llama named Lloyd who is trying to discern which animals have a mama who looks just like his mama. He approaches baby animals of numerous different species - a bat, a seal, a swan, a cow, and a kangaroo - and determines by each of their attributes that his mama is quite different.

You might ask the students to name all the animals they can think of. Then ask them to name animals that have feathers and wings, animals that live in the water, animals that live on farms, etc. Being the scribe and making lists helps create anchor charts to refer to for extended activities later on. You might also begin by asking about the attributes of the animals in the story by saying, "Let's describe what we know about bats (swans, seals, cows, kangaroos)." After reading the story, discusss similarities and differences among the animals. Who knows where the discussion might take you? Steven Kellogg's pictures create beginnings of discussions about animal habitats all over the world.

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