Knowledge-Building Isn’t Just for Students

“First, and most necessary of all, [a teacher] must know the subject. He [or she] must know what he [or she] teaches.” - Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching.

Increasingly, the importance of building knowledge as an integral part of literacy instruction has been gaining traction and is discussed in depth in the science of reading realm. The simple view of reading makes clear that reading comprehension involves both word recognition and language comprehension. Hugh Catts has emphasized the important role knowledge plays in reading comprehension. Natalie Wexler’s The Knowledge Gap and the Knowledge Matters Podcast have brought knowledge-building into the conversation. The Reading League (TLR) has included knowledge-building programs in their Curriculum Navigation Reports on their Compass Page. Districts, and schools are adopting knowledge-building curriculum. 
Facebook pages abound for teachers to share ideas of how they are implementing knowledge-building curriculum in their classrooms. However, while the language comprehension side of the Reading Rope is gaining traction, what isn’t being talked about is, “What about knowledge-building for the teacher?” 

When I visit social media pages dedicated to knowledge-building, I see a significant number of teachers voicing frustration and negativity towards the knowledge-building lessons. Typical comments include: 

“It’s boring!”
“My students are not engaged.”
“It’s not age appropriate.”
“It's too much.”

But what I think is being unexpressed by these teachers is their lack of personal knowledge in the content areas they are asked to teach. 

When the science of reading started gaining traction, the biggest frustration teachers voiced was “Why didn’t I learn this in college?” They were talking about foundational reading skills. We had never heard of phonological awareness, phonemes, graphemes, and orthographic mapping. We did not know about spelling rules such as: “CK comes after a single, short vowel” or “English words don’t end in I or U”. The demand for this knowledge resulted in training initiatives for teachers using programs such as LETRS. These programs gave teachers in-depth instruction in foundational skills and how to teach a literacy block with all the necessary components.
However, these programs did not get teachers up to speed on the knowledge-building content that they are being asked to teach. Many of us were denied a robust education in history, geography, science, and even literature in elementary and high school. We also did not receive this knowledge in teacher training. Now, teachers are tasked with imparting this knowledge to their students.

The knowledge- building curricula available to us are sufficient for the grades we teach, but teachers need more. Just as we must understand phonemic awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondences, and spelling rules—even if we don’t directly teach all of these concepts at our grade level—we also need a solid grasp of history, geography, and science beyond the grade we teach. We need to know what came before and what lies ahead in the students' educational journey.  Most importantly, we need a deep, thorough understanding of the knowledge we teach at our own grade level. Gilbert Highet, in The Art of Teaching, said it this way, “The first essential of good teaching, then, is that the teacher must know the subject. That really means that [she or] he must continue to learn it.” Teaching content we barely know, with no schema for understanding its larger context, is both frustrating and uncomfortable. Teachers deserve instruction in these areas as well. I believe this is the next critical step in professional development and teacher training.

But what can teachers, who were never given this instruction, do in the meantime? 

Several years ago, I watched a webinar about this topic (unfortunately, I can no longer find the link). The webinar addressed this same topic - how do teachers educate themselves on the knowledge-building content they are asked to teach? The speaker recommended starting with a short, accessible book that gave a broad overview of the topic. Then, each summer break, find more comprehensive, in-depth resources to build on that knowledge year after year. He focused mainly on reading books. But with the resources we have available to us, this could also include podcasts, online courses, and teacher institutes. The idea is to start small and build on that knowledge year after year. 

One of the knowledge-building units I teach in second grade is the War of 1812. Frankly, this was a war I knew only by name. The first year I taught it, I had very little interest in it, knew nothing of its importance in American history, and expected my students to find it boring and irrelevant. I was completely mistaken. It was one of my students’ favorite units that year. They loved the pirates, Francis Scott Key being captured and watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry, the giant American flag that inspired the writing of our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, Dolly Madison bravely saving George Washington’s painting, the USS Constitution deflecting cannon balls, and the battlecry “Don’t Give Up the Ship!” I was shocked by their excitement about the content. But I realized my initial prejudice was based solely on my ignorance of the content, not the content itself. I had never learned about the War of 1812 in all my school career. After that first year, I decided to change that. 

I started out reading blog posts and watching videos published by the American Battlefield Trust. Over the summer I read The War of 1812: A Forgotten History by Donald R. Hickey. I attended The American Battlefield Trust Teacher Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and visited several historical sites specific to the War of 1812. The next year I decided to take a deep dive into the Battle of New Orleans, one of the final battles of the war. I read Andrew Jackson by H.W. Brands. I did research on my own family history and discovered that two of my ancestors had fought in that battle. Last summer, I traveled to New Orleans, where I toured battle sites and discovered the exact location where my ancestors had fought.

Similar to my students, the War of 1812 has become one of my favorite units to teach, especially because of my personal family connection to the war. I am no expert on the War of 1812, and there is so much more to know. But because of the knowledge I have gained, I now appreciate its significance in American History, and I get excited to share this bit of history with my students. And while I share only a surface level introduction at a second grade level, I am helping them build that schema or that “Velcro” they will need at the secondary level and beyond to build deep and rich knowledge.

Teachers have access to countless resources for building their individual knowledge, but I believe that professional development in knowledge-building content areas is just as essential as training in foundational reading skills. Teachers are often expected to teach content they were never taught themselves, yet this knowledge is just as critical as understanding how to teach foundational reading skills.