Building Background Knowledge, Bit by Bit

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep or drink not of the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain."
Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism

With all due respect, Alexander Pope might have gotten it wrong. Or at least he might have for those of us not in the habit of drinking at the Pierian spring. (In Greek mythology, the Pierian Spring was where the gods and goddesses would drink in knowledge about art and science. But most of us aren't functioning at the goddess (or god) level.) For mere mortals, a little learning can be a big help when we try to absorb new information from a text.

Having some background about the topic or issue under discussion can make a big difference in comprehension. It can make the difference between reading with ease and struggling to reconstruct the author's intended meaning. In other words, the more you bring to a text, the better off you will be. Will you be able to reconstruct the author's meaning without any background knowledge about the subject? Absolutely, but it will be slow going. Background knowledge speeds things up and makes your reading more efficient.

Now upon hearing this advice, you might be inclined to think, "Yeah, right, and how much time will it take me to get background knowledge about my chapter on the causes of the civil war or the history and origin of Tsunamis?" The answer is, not as much as you think. Reading just little snippets of information about the topic or issue under discussion can improve your comprehension. The question, of course, is how big do those snippets have to be. Not all that big actually. When readers bring background knowledge into play, they don't necessarily have all the details of the issue or event mentally in place. What they have is a broad general framework that allows them to, for instance, narrow the range of meanings words can evoke.

Readers who have a very general idea of how hotels take reservations, for instance, are not going to assume the wrong meaning for the word "book" in this sentence: "The receptionist said she would book the reservation." Similarly, a reader who knows that Appomattox was where Lee surrendered to Grant to end the civil war will have an easier time recalling the time sequence in the following excerpt, even if he or she has no idea what happened at Fort Sumter. The reader will automatically know that since Appomattox ended the war, the battle at Fort Sumter began it.

Following the battle of Fort Sumter in 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion caused an additional four states to secede and join the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun, and it would rage on until Lee met Grant in Appomattox on April 9, 1865

If I’ve convinced you to start building your store of background knowledge snippet by snippet, get started with the first item below, the Gettysburg Address. Consider as well writing me to suggest both topics and sources for other people, places, events, and ideas that are central to your textbooks.

Snippet-1

Watch this terrific YouTube video in which the actor Jeff Daniels makes the Gettysburg Address the emotional powerhouse Lincoln meant it to be.

Snippet-2

Read this brief description of how Lincoln came to deliver the speech.

The Gettysburg Address, written and delivered by President Abraham Lincoln, is one of the most famous speeches in American history. Lincoln wrote the speech for the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863. Four months earlier, the battle of Gettysburg had been a brutal and bloody turning point in America’s Civil War (1861-1865.) The battle of Gettysburg turned the tide in favor of the North. However, both sides, North and South Paid dearly in lives lost.

The need for a place to bury the dead became obvious when the people of Gettysburg realized that thousands of Union soldiers slain in battle were not properly buried. Heavy rains had descended on the field of war and dislodged some of the bodies interred in too shallow graves. It was the sight of bodies washed out of the earth that started the movement to create a Soldier's National Cemetary.

Snippet-3

The only known picture of Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address.

source.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lincolns_Gettysburg_Address,_Gettysburg.JPG