The Influence of Prior Knowledge and Teacher Lesson Structure on Children's Production of Narratives

Abstract

The Elementary School Journal Volume 85, Number 5 ? 1985 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0013-5984/85/8505-0004$01 .00 In the past several years, reading practitioners have begun to develop instructional programs that acknowledge the importance of prior knowledge in learning to read (Herber 1978; Pearson & Johnson 1978; Ringler & Weber 1984; Schank 1982). These attempts to account for prior knowledge in the curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation of reading are based on a variety of empirical studies that have identified various conditions under which prior knowledge influences readers' comprehension (Anderson, Spiro, & Anderson 1978; Bransford, Barclay, & Franks 1972; Pearson, Hansen, & Gordon 1979). By identifying these conditions, reading practitioners are able to structure classroom lessons so as to either maximize or mini-