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by Rebecca McKay
Director, Literacy and Professional Development

Toni Morrison considers the use of schema in reading and concludes the reader is an artist. In O: The Oprah Magazine, Morrison says, “The words on the page are only half the story. The rest is what you bring to the party.” (Morrison, 2006, p.174).

This statement certainly supports the Cornerstone Framework and the Interactive Model of Reading which forms the basis for the framework.  Few would argue with this premise or the scholarship of Toni Morrison, but the difficulties in planning and developing schema units of study that impact student achievement are numerous but not insurmountable.  This year Cornerstone Literacy and Leadership Fellows join together to focus efforts on closing the achievement gap. This article supports the premise that closing the achievement gap is dependent upon teachers who are knowledgeable of schema as a cueing system.  Schema is the ultimate content when coaching to close the achievement gap

Schema: What is it?
Google schema and hundreds of hits pop up. The excerpt below, one of the reliable sources, defines schema:

“Schema theory, now widely accepted as playing a key role in reading comprehension, is based on the assumption that the reader's prior knowledge directly impacts new learning situations. While schema theory has existed in various forms since the 1930's, it has recently re-emerged and has been redefined as an important concept in reading instruction. Reading theorists view schema theory as a "framework" that organizes knowledge in memory by putting information into the correct "slots," each of which contains related parts. When new information enters memory, it not only must be compatible with one of the slots, but it must actually be entered into the proper slot before comprehension can occur (Nist & Mealey, 1991). If we accept this notion, reading shifts from a text-based activity to an interactive process in which the reader constructs meaning by interacting with the text. According to reading specialist John McNeil (1992), schemata are the reader's "concepts, beliefs, expectations, processes — virtually everything from past experiences that are used in making sense of reading. In reading, schemata are used to make sense of text; the printed word evokes the reader's experiences, as well as past and potential relationships" (p. 20).” (Ariesta, 2001, p.1)

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