Schema and the Common Core!

I had a major AHA! moment about schema and the Common Core today.  Like many educators, I reflected at length about the Common Core and how it relates to what I believe works for kids-- namely, metacognition strategies!  I looked to Debbie Miller for guidance and found this great interview.  And, I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the first grade ELA standards to see how they fit with the various strategies.  

It really bothered me that schema was just not there!  I find schema-- connecting to your background knowledge-- to be such a valuable tool for understanding both fiction and nonfiction texts.  The ideas of what makes a meaningful connection have always been pivotal for first graders!  Meaningful connections help us comprehend what we are reading!

Here's the poster I have always used to show meaningful connections:

Today, my objective was, "We will use schema to describe the characters, setting, and major events in the story."  Here was the AHA!  How does schema help us?  Schema helps us understand the characters and events-- how they are feeling and what they are doing.  Schema helps us understand the setting!  It turns out that I've been teaching Common Core ELA standards all along:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.  Schema helps us master the standard!
Here is our final poster (after Day 2) of reading The Art Lesson by Tomie de Paola.

Here are some meaningful connections that helped us understand and describe the character, Tommy.  We made meaningful connections to our school art teacher, Mr. E, how we love to draw and paint at home, how we practice things to get better too, and how we always do our own work and don't copy.  :)

We made connections to the events too!  We made a text-to-text connection to a story called "Nat and Sam."  We connected to the character feeling disappointed.  And, we connected to making deals (don't we all make deals at home... if you finish your dinner, then you can have dessert!).

Finally, I feel like I am truly able to merge schema and give it focus by using schema to understand story elements.  This kept our schema more focused, so that we aren't having little firecrackers (connections that do not help us understand).  Success!