Bridging the Gap: How What You Know Helps You Understand

Grade Level: Middle School
Subject: English Language Arts / Reading Comprehension
Duration: 60 Minutes

Objective

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify and apply the concept of prior knowledge (schema) to better understand unfamiliar texts. They will recognize how connecting what they already know to new information improves comprehension.

Materials Needed

• A short, unfamiliar paragraph or brief story (can be displayed on whiteboard/smartboard or read aloud)

• Chart paper or whiteboard for brainstorming

• Markers

• Student notebooks or scratch paper for responses

Lesson Plan Outline

1. Engagement Activity: “Mind Movie” Warm-Up (10 Minutes)

Do: Begin the class by telling students that their brain is like a movie theater that plays stories based on their past experiences. 

Ask: “What comes to your mind when I say the word beach?” Take several answers (e.g., sand, waves, vacation, sunscreen) and jot them down on the board.

Say: “None of you needed a dictionary to know what ‘beach’ means—you used your brain’s stored memories to understand it. That’s your background knowledge, also called ‘schema.’”

Discuss: Prompt students to think about how this helps with reading. 

Ask: “Why might thinking about what you already know help you understand something new?”

Do: “Good readers connect new information to what they already know. Today, we’ll practice using that to help us understand unfamiliar texts.”

2. Instruction and Demonstration: Connecting Prior Knowledge (15 Minutes)

Say: “Let’s read a short paragraph together, but I won’t tell you everything about it—see what you can figure out just by using clues and what you already know.”

Do: Display or read the short text (example: a paragraph describing a scene at a cultural celebration without naming the country).

Ask: “What do you picture in your head?” “What clues help you figure out where this is taking place or what’s going on?”

Model: As students respond, point out how they used prior knowledge:

(Example: “You said the food reminded you of something you’ve had at a festival—great use of your own experience!”)

Write on the board:

• What I Know (schema)

• What I Learned (new info)

• How It Helped (understanding)

3. Guided Practice: Brainstorming Bridges (15 Minutes)

Do: Present a new, short, and slightly more challenging paragraph. Break the class into pairs and guide them through this thinking process:

• What do I already know about this topic or situation?

• What new information am I getting from the paragraph?

• How do those things connect?

Say: “This time, work with your partner. Pretend you’re detectives trying to figure out what’s going on by using your background knowledge.”

Do: Allow time for students to answer the three questions about the text with their partners. 

Discuss: Come back together and ask a few groups to share what helped them make sense of the paragraph and what connections they made. Write a few standout connections on the board.

4. Independent Practice: Making Personal Connections (15 Minutes)

Ask: “Think about something you read recently. What did you already know that helped you understand it? How did it help?”

Do: Invite students to write a brief paragraph reflection or draw a diagram in their notebooks. Provide guiding questions on the board:

• What was the topic or story?

• What personal knowledge or experience helped?

• How did it make reading easier or more interesting?

Say: “There’s no wrong answer—this is about your thinking process. You might write about a book, a news story, or even a text in science or history class.”

Do: Circulate and support students who need help connecting ideas, offering sentence starters like: “This reminded me of…” or “I’ve seen/heard about this when…”

5. Reflection and Wrap-Up: Share and Compare (5 Minutes)

Do: Invite 2–3 volunteers to share what they wrote or explain their connections.

Ask: “Did anyone else have a similar experience? Or a totally different one?”

Do: Use this to reinforce that different students bring different knowledge, and that’s a good thing.

Say: “Today you learned that what’s in your head already is a tool—when you read, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re building a bridge from what you know to what you’re learning.”

Assessment Options

• Observe student participation during discussion and partner work

• Review students’ written reflections for evidence of making personal connections

Use class discussion to gauge understanding of the schema concept

Written by Rachel Jones
Education World Contributor
Copyright© 2025 Education World