Reading Tool: Schema

 Using our schema to help us read and learn.
It's the file cabinet in our brains!

Schema is all of our background knowledge about the world.

Six and seven year olds don't have as much as we adults do, but they do have big files about their families, animals, and other things they have experienced so far in life.

When we bring our schema to the books we read, we "debug the book" by already having vocabulary and knowledge that will be talked about on every page. This makes the reading easier.  If we don't have schema about a book we want to read, then we have to slow down as readers in order to build schema and gather information to make a new folder in our brains.  Cool, huh?

First graders get this grown-up subject when I help them visualize it with the file cabinet in our room and my basic picture of our heads. 

At home, your child's schema can be activated by talking with your child about the books they read before, during, and after the reading.  So open those file cabinets and help your child create some new folders! Go to the library and enjoy talking about books with your child.