As the clock struck noon on a recent Thursday, Class 2 students tidied their desks and made their way to the dark blue rug. “Who remembers what metacognition means?” asked Head Teacher Chelsea Sue, beginning their reading workshop.
“Thinking about thinking,” one girl responded. Students had discussed this notion—which supports literacy comprehension and critical thinking skills—in prior classes. A helpful poster hung in the back of the room reading, “Metacognition Thinking Stems: I’m seeing…, I’m noticing…, I’m feeling…, I’m thinking…, I’m wondering…”
“Yes! And what is that other related word that starts with an S…”
“Schema!”
Schema, the students had learned, is someone’s unique experiences or knowledge that helps them make connections and understand new information. “For example,” Ms. Sue reminded them, “I’m an only child but [Associate Teacher] Ms. Ross has a sibling, so her schema allows her to make deeper connections to stories with siblings.”
To further clarify this concept, Ms. Sue wrote “Carl Schurz Park” in big letters on the board. “Tell me everything you know about the park,” she instructed. The students rattled off several words and descriptions like swings, Manhattan, trees, play structures, park and Upper East Side.
Next, Ms. Sue made another column titled “City Creek Center” and asked students to do the same thing. After a brief moment of silence, one student said, “Maybe it’s in Manhattan?” Other students ventured guesses but soon they were out of ideas.
“City Creek Center,” Ms. Sue revealed, “is a mall in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is where I went to college. You don’t have schema for this but I do, so I can envision it and imagine similar places.”
With their “listening ears” on, Ms. Sue explained that the students’ job for the rest of the lesson was to read a story and make a note when they discovered something in the text that connected to their schema. The teachers passed out Post-it notes, adding, “You don’t need to have the exact same experience as your characters, but maybe you’ve been to a lake like the one in your story.”
The girls pulled their book bags out of their desks and began reading. Quietly, they began to scribble down instances on their Post-its.
With five minutes left before Spanish, the students returned to the rug to share some examples. “Stand up, speak loudly and clearly!” Ms. Sue said after calling on the first volunteer.
“My dad reads me stories at night, too,” the second grader said, referring to a scene in her book. “Which makes me feel happy so I think the character does, too.”
“I also have a piano,” said another. “I love the sound!”
The girls continued to offer responses that demonstrated the activation of their schema when reading up until they had to pack up and get their brains ready for Español!
