Connecting Prior Knowledge to New Concepts

You already know a lot of things. You know how stories usually work. You know what many words mean. You know facts about animals, weather, and your own life. When you meet a new, harder idea, you do not start from zero. You use the knowledge you already have to help you understand the new one.

This is called connecting prior knowledge to new concepts. It is like building with blocks. You do not throw away the blocks you already placed. You stack new blocks right on top of them to build something taller and stronger.

Connecting prior knowledge to new concepts means you take facts, skills, and ideas you learned before and use them to understand something new and more difficult. The new idea is not a totally separate thing. It is built out of smaller pieces you already understand.

For example, you already know what a main character is and what a setting is. If you read a longer story with two settings and three characters, you are not learning a brand new skill. You are using your old knowledge of "character" and "setting" and stretching it to fit a bigger, more complex story.

New concepts can feel confusing at first. But most new concepts are really just old ideas put together in a new way. When you notice the old parts inside the new idea, the new idea feels much easier.

Say you are reading a nonfiction book about the solar system. Last year you learned that the Earth orbits the Sun. This year the book talks about how every planet orbits the Sun at a different speed. You already know what "orbit" means, so your brain does not have to learn that word again. It can focus all its attention on the new part: that different planets move at different speeds.

Using old knowledge this way saves your brain extra work. It lets you focus on what is truly new, instead of relearning everything from scratch.

You can use these steps any time you face a new concept, whether it is a harder story, a tricky word, or a new topic in class.

Step 1: Pause and ask. Before you start, ask yourself, "What do I already know that is close to this?"

Step 2: Name the old piece. Find one fact or skill you already have that matches part of the new idea.

Step 3: Spot the new part. Figure out exactly what is different or added compared to what you already knew.

Step 4: Combine them. Put the old piece and the new part together to form your new, bigger understanding.

This skill also works for hard vocabulary. Suppose you already know the word "port" means a place where ships load and unload. Now you meet the new word "transport." You can connect the part "port" to your old knowledge and guess that "transport" has something to do with carrying things from place to place. You used an old piece to unlock a new word, instead of needing someone to tell you the whole meaning.

You can try this with any new word. Look for a smaller part you already know inside the bigger word, then use that clue along with the sentence around it.

Prior Knowledge: Facts, skills, and ideas you already learned before today.

Concept: A general idea or rule, such as "orbit" or "main character."

Connection: A link between something you already know and something new.

Combine: To put two or more pieces of knowledge together to make one bigger idea.

Background Knowledge: Everything you have learned and lived through that helps you understand new things.

Word Part: A small piece inside a longer word, such as "port" inside "transport."

Complex: Made of several smaller parts put together, so it takes more thinking to understand.

Clue: A small piece of information that helps you figure something out.

Before you read a new chapter book or watch a video on a new topic, stop and write down two things you already know that might be related. Then, after you finish, write one new fact you learned and explain how it connects to what you already knew.

When you meet a long or tricky word, break it into smaller parts. Check if any part looks like a word you already know. Use that part as a clue to guess the meaning, then check if your guess makes sense in the sentence.

Related lessons

• Activating Prior Knowledge Experience