Building Background Knowledge Using Culturally Diverse Children’s Literature

This paper explains the importance of background knowledge to reading comprehension including theories such as The Schema and Cognitive Load Theories. It also provides the benefits of using culturally diverse children’s literature with students and selecting books based on their funds of knowledge. When reading aloud to students, how do teachers build background knowledge during pre-and-during reading activities. This paper provides four examples of children’s culturally diverse literature and how teachers can select vocabulary and question students with the intention of a deeper, more meaningful understanding.