When Biology Meets a Box of Kleenex!

Reading is often treated as an isolated skill—something that can be developed through decoding exercises, comprehension strategies, and structured literacy routines. But the reality is that reading comprehension is fundamentally tied to knowledge. Students struggle to read not just because they lack skills, but because they lack the background knowledge that makes comprehension possible. This issue is even more pronounced for non-native speakers, who not only navigate the challenge of a second language but often lack the foundational knowledge needed to make sense of academic texts.

I see this firsthand in my biology classroom all the time. I once asked a group of students what a group of cells form. Confidently, they replied, “Tissue!”—which, to be fair, was correct. But as I watched one student translate tissue into their native language for a classmate, I noticed the second student hesitate before signing back to them as if he was blowing his nose into a tissue. That was the moment I realised they had completely misunderstood. They weren’t thinking of biological tissue at all—they were picturing paper napkins. At that moment, it didn’t matter how strong their reading skills were—without knowing that biological tissues make up organs, they had absolutely no way of understanding the text in front of them. And if they had come across the word "tissue" in a textbook without any prior knowledge? No amount of rereading or skimming would have helped. No knowledge, no comprehension.

This is not just a vocabulary problem that can be solved by looking up a definition—it is a knowledge problem. If students don’t know what something is, they cannot infer, visualise, or make connections, no matter how many reading strategies they’ve been taught. This is why comprehension strategies alone fail to bridge the gap. Background knowledge is not just helpful—it is essential.

Despite this, many schools have moved away from knowledge-rich instruction, favouring generic reading skills over structured content learning. But comprehension cannot be taught in a vacuum. Students need systematic exposure to history, science, and literature to develop the mental frameworks that allow them to make sense of what they read. Without this, they are left guessing, patching together disconnected fragments of understanding, and struggling with even moderately complex texts. The impact is particularly severe for non-native speakers, who are often expected to engage with academic material in a language they have not yet fully mastered. Without a strong foundation of subject knowledge, their reading comprehension is limited, not because they lack language ability, but because they lack the context to interpret what they read.

The solution is clear: bring knowledge-rich curricula and structured textbooks back into the classroom. Well-designed textbooks provide coherence, depth, and cumulative knowledge-building in a way that fragmented worksheets and skill-based lessons do not. They expose students to new concepts in a logical sequence, reinforcing understanding over time. A student who learns about tissues in a proper biology course will never mistake them for napkins again. They will have the necessary mental scaffolding to connect new ideas to prior learning, making reading easier and more meaningful.

If we want students to read well, we must also give them something worth reading about. The more they know, the more they will understand, and the more they understand, the more they will want to read. As McCarthy & McNamara (2021) put it, “Knowledge begets reading, which begets knowledge.” The cycle of reading and learning is self-reinforcing—but it only works if we recognise the central role that knowledge plays. Reading comprehension is not just about words on a page; it is about the ideas behind them. It is time to rethink our approach to literacy and give students the knowledge they need to truly understand the world around them.