The article, “Role of the Reader’s Schema in Comprehension, Learning, and Memory,” by Anderson (1984) analyzes the Schema theory by explaining it, providing evidence to support it’s ideas, and offering suggestions for how teachers can implement it into the classroom. In order for students comprehend, schema must reflect the relationships between the different elements. Since Schema theory is largely based on personal experiences, cultures, and perspectives, there are many ways that a reader could interpret a text.
There have been six functions of schemata that have been identified in effecting learning and remembering. Schema creates folders of stored information, determines what information should receive more attention, and creates a basis for generating inferences. Schemata also allows the reader to develop an order of importance for storing the new content, guides the reader for the information to recall, and help the reader to fill in gaps by inferring. Research shows that fluency and comprehension recall are higher and more accurate when there is greater schema (Anderson 1984). Culture is another factor that plays into schema development and comprehension. The more relevant the text is to the readers’ culture, the more likely they will learn and retain the information.
Accessing students’ background knowledge is crucial for comprehension. There are many ways teachers, including myself activate and build the schema of our students in order to increase their comprehension. One way I do this is by having students turn and talk to share what what they know about a new topic. I may show them a picture, short video or sound clip, or bring in a prop to get their minds thinking. We then share our ideas and record them in a graphic organizer. After determining what students know, I will find additional videos, props, songs, or related texts to expand their understanding of the idea. Our first story in Ready gen this year was a bout a penguin who gets lost and meets other Arctic animals while looking for home. To build student scheme, I showed them videos of penguins, where they live on the map, pictures of their homes, and real life pictures. We then made connections by discussing our homes and waddling like a penguin.
Theory to Practice 