Thoughts about Schema

The shift from asking what students know and filling their heads with information to the

new found schema theory – asking what they already know and can bring to a text then using that to learn new information is important in the reading process.  As teachers we know we need to activate our students’ schema as they engage with text.  This will help them make connections and inferences with a text and create a higher level of thinking than if a student had no schema.  As I was reading through the chapters, I came across the idea that schema can be modified and built.  I really like thinking about schema in these senses because I feel that our schema is always changing depending on our surroundings and what we have encountered and learned.  We can change schema due to new information.  We as teachers can also build schema.  This is really important in the students I teach.  Most of my students lack schema and it is my responsibility to build that schema.  These students need to be able to build a new schema and make a deeper connection to text than they would have previously without that schema.   It is the student’s schema that lies within comprehension and as a teacher I need to make that for my students.

Schema is powerful.  It is our knowledge that connects the facts and ideas that surround text.  Without that there is no connections or inferences therefore, there is no comprehension or understanding. 

Schema is a foundation for reading.  Yes we need phonics and phonemic awareness and all of the important concepts to learn to read words, but to understand text and really become a reader we need prior knowledge.   We need to have experience about topics so we can relate to text in a personal meaning making way.

After listening to D. Pearson about the Common Core and prior knowledge here are my thoughts.  First, I so see how some teachers can over indulge in prior knowledge with students.  This meaning that more time is spent on hearing children’s stories than reading the text.  Yes I think it is an important part of the learning process to activate that schema but we cannot forget hat the text is also important.  I think that he brought up a good point that if common core leaves out this prior knowledge there will be trouble.  Just like D. Pearson said, it’s a cycle.  What we know affects what we read and then after we read again it adds to our schema.  We cannot take this out of the reading process but there needs to be a balance. If we want our students to reach that higher level thinking that Common Core possesses we cannot remove schema and bringing what we know to our learning.  Taking this away I feel will lose meaning and connections to learning. 

All teachers needs to active, modify or build upon their students schema.  We need to remember just how important it is in reading.  We need to be aware of what we know about the world around us and bring that to reading of text.  It is through our schema and a text that we make connections and inferences, therefore creating a higher level on comprehension.