If I asked you to travel to a grocery store that you had never been in before, would you be confident to navigate the aisles and find what you need? Could you locate the bread, a pound of roast beef. a single Snickers candy bar (my favorite!)?
Absolutely! Regardless of the the grocery store chain or the location of the city, you can get around in a grocery store because you have background or schema for the way grocery stores are organized.
The same thing holds true for reading. Our schema for the way a text is organized greatly impacts and influences the way we "get around" in that text. Helping students understand that there are things they can count on in every genre to guide them towards meaning is a key element of effective comprehension instruction.
Listen in, while we use our schema of Fiction Text Structure and the Elements of Plot to find our way to meaning in this exciting historical fiction story!
