Developing schema in young readers

This week the assignment in my social studies class was to develop a book discussion around a book selected off of the National Council of Social Studies Notable Trade Books for Young People list. I absolutely love social studies, so I would enjoy reading every book off of this incredible list, but for the sake of the assignment (and time!) I selected just one book. Each book on the list was listed with a small summary and I was able to make my selection by creating a connection through the brief summary. In Reading with Meaning by Miller, the author writes, "When you use your schema, it helps you use what you know to better understand and interact with the text." The book I eventually selected for my assignment was Life of Rice by Richard Sobol. Through my prior background knowledge or schema of Thailand, family connections, and travel, I felt a draw and immediate connection to the book because it is about the culture of rice in Thailand.

As a future teacher, helping children develop the ability to think and read at the same time is crucial so they can create connections to text and better understand what they are reading. Creating connections to text can be done in many ways. In the instance of the book I selected for my social studies assignment, I made a text-to-self connection when I initially read the summary of the Life of Rice.  By relating the text to a meaningful event in my life I was able to make a text-to-self connection. 

text-to-self connection

Developing several types of schema can help students deepen their understanding of literature. A teacher can help students build text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections, and text-to-world connections through various strategies. First, it is important for the students to realize the need to create connections to the story. Once the children understand that they can use what they already know during the story to interact and understand the text they can begin using their own schema in a multiple ways.

As a teacher, modeling different types of connections with text is a very important learning tool for students. In Reading with Meaning, the author states, "No matter how perfect someone else may tell you a book is, or how great a lesson they taught using it, it won't be perfect for you unless you can connect with it and put your personal stamp on it in some way." As a future teacher the books that I choose to model to my students must be meaningful to me and have true connections so that I am able to demonstrate real and authentic strategies.

As I reflect on the reading choices I have made in my past, I am overwhelmed by the amount of connections I see! So many of the reading choices I have made, if not all, are connected to my own background knowledge or schema. If I didn't use my schema when making literature choices, I would surely be dis-intersted in reading at this point in my life. As a future teacher, I hope I am able to instill the importance of connections and schema in my students through the use of literature that is authentic to me so the students may see how connections have truly enriched my reading experience throughout my life.