Using What Children Already Know To Make Connections

While observing in my field experience classroom last week I was pleasantly surprised to see students responding to a read aloud by the teacher. She was a little over halfway through the book when two students raised their hands. She asked the students if their questions could wait and one student said, “But I have a connection.” Though I have read a great deal about text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections the past few months, this was the first time I had seen students use this language in the classroom.

This reminded me of a piece written by Debbie Miller, Schema. Miller describes how educators can help their students take advantage of the knowledge they already have when it comes to making literacy connections. Miller’s appreciation for schema is apparent and her suggestions for classroom instruction are useful. She explains how a student’s ability to access background knowledge is crucial in the classroom. Students when learning any subject can use schema; however, it is essential to the connections children must make when learning literacy skills. The most exciting, yet possibly most intimidating aspect of schema is the fact that each student comes to your classroom with a different catalogue of background knowledge in his or her head. The possibilities seem endless when considering the wealth of knowledge that each student will bring to the classroom. As a future educator, this is truly exciting, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that this sounds quite daunting. Though the classroom will undoubtedly benefit from each student’s unique knowledge, being able to extract this knowledge and personalize literacy instruction for each student demands a unique talent that educators must possess if they wish to give their students the best education possible.

My current field experience classroom faces some unique challenges in regards to children’s schema. The classroom is made up of students from many different countries and many different cultural backgrounds. While I see this as a positive in many ways, it seems quite difficult having such culturally diverse schemas in one classroom. This being said, the children work together nicely and do find ways to use their unique backgrounds for the good of the classroom as a whole.