MSD of Steuben County webinar tells parents: build students' background knowledge to boost reading

Jonathan Winslow, Director of Elementary Education for MSD of Steuben County, and teachers and partners urged parents at a district webinar to build children’s background knowledge to improve reading comprehension.

Winslow said the district is emphasizing the “language comprehension” side of reading and urged parents to help children connect texts to real-world knowledge before reading. “Background knowledge is essential for reading comprehension,” Winslow said, quoting education researcher Nell K. Duke.

The webinar distinguished two classroom approaches: activating background knowledge (helping students recall what they already know about a topic) and building background knowledge (front-loading information students need to understand a text). Winslow and first-grade teacher Megan Crankshaw described classroom practices such as using pre-reading discussion prompts, videos or photos, focused student research and topic-centered field trips to prepare students for texts.

“Megan Crankshaw, a first-grade teacher at Hendry Park Elementary School, encouraged families to have meaningful conversations and to ‘strive for 5’—that is, aim for five back-and-forth exchanges when discussing a child’s learning to deepen understanding and language development,” Winslow said as he introduced her remarks.

Crankshaw advised parents to use open-ended questions, read aloud regardless of a child’s reading level, and look for everyday learning moments—grocery shopping, cooking and nature walks—to expand children’s knowledge and vocabulary. She recommended short, age-appropriate podcasts and audiobooks, games such as I Spy and 20 Questions, and library programs to broaden experience and language.

Tammy Mosier, 4‑H youth development extension educator for Purdue Extension in Steuben County, described hands-on opportunities the extension offers to supplement classroom learning. Mosier said research-based teaching methods used by 4‑H increase retention: “Where 4‑H and youth development come in with Purdue Extension is this 90%,” she said, explaining the model of learning by seeing, saying and doing.

Mosier outlined 4‑H participation details and local programming: annual fees of $20 for grades 3–12 and $5 for kindergarten through second grade; projects ranging from animal science to entomology, Legos/engineering and other topic-based clubs; and county and regional trips to expose youth to experiences beyond their hometowns. She encouraged parents to contact Purdue Extension for club information and said materials about county 4‑H offerings were sent home earlier in the school year.

District staff highlighted free, on-demand resources parents can use at home, including Discovery Education virtual field trips, the Indiana Learning Lab (created by the Indiana Department of Education) and the Lexia reading program used in classrooms. Winslow demonstrated that the Indiana Learning Lab includes a Parent and Family Support Hub with age- and subject-filtered resources, and directed families to imlearninglab.com. Crankshaw also pointed parents to the Carnegie Public Library of Steuben and the Epic reading platform as local resources.

The presentation cited a research example showing that students familiar with a topic (baseball, in the cited study) performed better on comprehension questions about that topic than better readers without topic knowledge, underscoring the district’s emphasis on combining decoding instruction with knowledge-building.

The webinar closed with logistics: participants were asked to enter a chat to be entered in a drawing for two gift cards; Winslow said the district will distribute a feedback form and will send calendar invites for the next webinar on Feb. 18, which will focus on vocabulary. Staff also posted contact information for Purdue Extension and offered to share program graphics and materials by email.