To understand complex disciplinary texts, students need to possess a rich store of background knowledge. But what happens if students don't have that knowledge? In this article, Doug Buehl explores frontloading strategies that can bridge the gap between what students know and what they need to know to comprehend a disciplinary text. He outlines three approaches: providing a refresher of previous learning using quick writes and knowledge maps; sparking conversation using thought-provoking statements and prediction and anticipation guides; and making vocabulary predictions using vocabulary previews and an exploration of related words.