Introducing Schema to Kindergarteners

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Introducing Schema to Kindergarteners
First Lessons 5.2

• Kensington Elementary
• April 29, 2008
• Wendy Seger
• Cornerstone Literacy Fellow

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The Pre-Visit Classroom Meeting

• Wendy was invited to the classroom of
  kindergarten teacher, Mary Gonnello, to model how
  to introduce the concept of schema to early
  primary students. Another kindergarten teacher,
  Beth Krok, was participating as well as SPS CPDT
  and Cornerstone coach, Laurie Butt.
• Before starting the lesson, Wendy met with the
  participants and gave them the focus page with
  post-its and the classroom visit protocol page
  for watching a lesson. She explained that she
  and the students would be participating in a
  reading workshop. They were instructed to focus
  on the childrens response to the lesson and take
  notes, especially during the time when the
  students worked on their own after explicit
  instruction.

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Before the lesson started, Wendy made sure the
students knew the stopping signal (hand raised
for silence) and how to turn and talk, as these
students are demonstrating for their classmates.
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Introducing the Concept of Schema.

• To introduce the concept of schema, Wendy
  decided to demonstrate with the students how they
  already use what they know, feel, and remember to
  identify objects and ideas and make connections.
  By covering up a picture of something well-known
  by most students, Wendy created anticipation for
  the lesson, known as the crafting component of
  the workshop.

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• A picture of a puppy is covered so that the
  children can be guided to use their schema to
  recognize this familiar animal.

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Wendy and the students are charting the ways in
which they used their schema to identify the
puppy.
During the read aloud, Wendy stops during the
lesson to explain her thinking and how she
connects to the text.
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Turn and Talk occurs during the explicit
instruction of the strategy so that the students
will remember what they are learning in the
lesson and be able to use this strategy when
working independently.
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After the explicit modeling the use of schema to
understand the text, Wendy prepares the students
to practice this strategy on their own. She
shows them how to use the post-its to record
their thinking and sends them out to work.
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During the composing meaning component of the
workshop, students may work alone or with other
classmates.
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The teacher, Mary Gonnello, is conferring with
one of her students.
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Examples of student thinking, their schema for
the text, written down.
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And more examples of student thinking and writing
about the text.
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For this first time, the students work
independently for about 15-20 minutes. Then they
return to the rug for the reflection component of
the workshop in which they will return to the
concepts introduced during crafting and check to
see how well they were able to apply what they
learned.
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• While the students worked independently, Wendy
  moved around the room and worked with students as
  they applied this strategy. She located three
  students she would invite to share their thinking
  and problem solving with their text.

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Post-Visit Lesson Feedback

• After the conclusion of the workshop, Wendy and
  the participants left the classroom in the
  capable hands of a paraprofessional and convened
  in a quite spot to reflect on their notes, look
  at the student responses, and write down their
  feedback using the tri-colored method used in a
  lesson study. Then they shared their notes with
  each other and organized them onto a large chart.

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The teachers write their feedback about what went
well, their questions, and their suggestions.

• Students becoming aware of schema
• Students making connections
• Students using picture details to understand
  story
• Students using new vocabulary to explain
  (connecting) (schema)

• How to know where (how many times) to stop and
  model schema?
• How do you help students with limited vocabulary?
• Time frame-can you fit this into one lesson?

• Icons for schema and connection-students hold up
  when appropriate
• T-chart for the story students state their
  schema and the connection to the story on the
  chart

Wow!
Could you explain?
What if we?
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Mary and Beth hold up the feedback chart
displaying the components of lesson study that
were used to the assess student learning in this
lesson.
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Following the lesson, Wendy completes the anchor
chart by gluing the students post-its to the
chart so that the students can anchor their
learning to this visual. Mary will prominently
display this chart where the children do their
work since they will revisit it in the days ahead.
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Concepts to Remember from this Lesson

• Reading Workshop
• Crafting
• Composing Meaning
• Reflection
• Schema

Turn Talk Conferring Anchor Chart