Should We Teach Strategies or Focus on Content Knowledge

For so many years, I've always wondered why reading texts and understanding it was difficult for me.  I used to think that because I was struggling with reading it had something to do with the fact that I was not proficient in English. Yet, it had nothing to do with English, it was because I lacked the background knowledge to understand what I was asked to read. This research explained to me that I never had culturally relevant texts to connect or draw background knowledge. Reflecting back, I didn’t have any background knowledge or experiences with the texts that were given to me to read. This makes me question my teachers, were they not aware of the importance of culturally relevant texts? Did they have little experience using books that relate to their students' cultural background? Did they not know how to implement such texts in their lessons? There are no excuses for not implementing culturally relevant texts because there is numerous research that explains the importance of it. Children are given numerous reading assessments throughout elementary school and could be doing poorly because they don't have culturally relevant texts to connect to. “I find that students tend to do poorly on reading assessments when they cannot relate to or bring background knowledge to the text they are asked to read '' (Reading Horizons, 2010). When teachers use culturally relevant texts, students have a better understanding of the books and, as a result, become more engaged in their reading. I’ve read and written numerous essays about education and children, in particular, the importance of children reading everyday, phonological skills, diversity, etc in college. I have a lot of background knowledge in education due to the fact that it is my major. Therefore, when I'm reading about education and children, I'm able to connect back to my background knowledge and experiences. When I understand texts more fully, as a result, I become more engaged in my reading. When I become engaged in my reading, it motivates me to read more.