Schema

“Role of the Reader’s schema in comprehension, learning, and memory” by Richard C. Anderson seeks to explain schema theory to improve instructional outcomes for students. It provides the reader with evidence that helps to support the theory and offers advice on applications and design of instructional materials to activate schema. The article does a great job with giving examples on how information can be interpreted differently based on different schema that an individual may have. The schema that an individual has to help them comprehend information depends on their culture. The individuals age, sex, religion, nationality, and occupation all play a major role in how they will learn and remember information and ideas that they read in a text. The article explains that’s there are six functions of schemata: schema provides ideational scaffolding for assimilating text information, facilitates selective allocation of attention, enables inferential elaboration, allows orderly searches of memory, facilitates editing and summarizing, and permits inferential reconstruction. These functions help us to better understand the complexities of applying schemata.
Working in an inner-city school, I have a very culturally diverse group of students. The most important take way after reading this article was how mindful I need to be when I expose my students to different types of literature. To give them the skills necessary to comprehend what I am having them read, I need to build their schema. I can do this by asking questions and having classroom discussions where everyone can share their experiences and knowledge on the topic. Pictures and diagrams would be another tool I could utilize to not only activate their prior knowledge but lead the way for students to develop questions that they may have on the topic. I also plan on using graphic organizers such as KWL charts to have the students make connections with what they already know and ask the questions for what they want to learn more about.