State of the Art: Reading - November 1993
               1. Children, when reading, construct their own meaning.
The meaning constructed from the same text can vary greatly among people 
because of differences in the knowledge they posses. Sometimes people do 
not have enough knowledge to understand a text, or they may have 
knowledge that they do not use fully.  Variations in interpretation 
often arise because people have different conceptions about the topic 
than the author supposed.
                                      (Anderson et al. 1985, p.10)
Reading is comprehending, that is, the construction of meaning. Readers 
construct meaning by interacting with the text (Pearson et al. 1990) on 
the basis of their existing or prior knowledge about the world 
(Rumelhart 1980). The importance of prior knowledge in reading has been
demonstrated through research based on schema theory (Anderson and 
Pearson 1984). According to schema theory, readers understand what they 
read only as it relates to what they already know. That is, their 
existing knowledge about a particular topic influences the extent to
which they understand what they read about that topic. Because text is 
not fully explicit, readers must draw from their existing knowledge in 
order to understand it.
Prior knowledge should be looked at in two ways by the teacher when 
developing lessons: first, as overall prior knowledge, and second, as 
specific prior knowledge. Overall prior knowledge is the sum total of 
learning that students have acquired as a result of their cumulative 
experiences both in and out of school. Specific prior knowledge is the 
particular information a student needs in order to understand text that 
deals with a certain topic. Specific prior knowledge is of two types:
text-specific knowledge calls for understanding about the type of text--
for example, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end; topic-
specific knowledge entails understanding something about the topic--for 
example, knowing about dinosaurs before reading a book on prehistoric 
animals.
Overall prior knowledge is expanded continually by a variety of means 
which include extensive reading and writing. The more students read and 
write, the more their prior knowledge grows which, in turn, strengthens 
their ability to construct meaning as they read. Teachers must not only
recognize that independent reading and writing activities are crucial 
for expanding students' prior knowledge. They must also systematically 
include such activities in their literacy program. In addition, both 
text-specific and topic-specific prior knowledge play an important role 
in helping students construct meaning (Paris et al. 1991). Activating 
only students' topical prior knowledge without helping them to consider 
the actual structure of the text does not  improve their meaning-making 
abilities (Beck et al. 1982). Conversely, teachers can effectively 
improve these abilities when they activate all levels of students' prior 
knowledge appropriately.
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