By Daniel Willingham
I have written (on this blog and elsewhere) about the importance of background knowledge and about the limited value of instructing students in reading comprehension strategies.To be clear, I don't think that such instruction is worthless. It has a significant impact, but it seems to be a one-time effect and the strategies are quickly learned. More practice of these strategies pays little or no return. You can read more about that here.
Knowledge of the topic you're reading about, in contrast, has an enormous impact and more important, there is no ceiling--the more knowledge you gain, the more your reading improves.
In a recent email conversation an experienced educator asked me why, if that's true, there has been such emphasis on reading strategies and skills in teacher's professional development.
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