COMPREHENSION STRATEGY LESSON PLAN 3

JMU Elementary Education Program

Dylan Barton
Cheryl Shelton, Wilson Elementary School, 2nd grade
Lesson on November 19, 2014, 8:35-9:10am
Submission on November 10, 2014

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Schema
B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
I will be doing this lesson with a small group of students in Power-Up, so I know their literacy
levels are about the same. These students have been practicing their reading and writing skills,
including predicting, asking questions, visualizing, checking for understanding while reading, and
thinking about what they are reading. In Power-Up they listen to a read aloud where they are guided
in all of these reading strategies, as well as rereading the read aloud stories on their own to practice
using these strategies. They have touched on schema a little bit by discussing any prior knowledge
they have of a topic before reading about it, so I know that they know the importance of doing this. I
will be working with a small group of students on activating prior knowledge and experiences, and
learning how to use their schema.
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand

Know

Reading can increase your

prior knowledge of a subject.

Key terms:
Schema: Thinking
stems, making
connections using
prior knowledge.
Prior knowledge:
information/knowledg
e you have about a
topic being studied,
before studying it.
Texts can relate to you, other
texts, and the world.

Do

Discuss real-life experiences

and knowledge that relate to
the text.

Make connections about the

text to you, other text, and the
world.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING

Objective
Reading can increase your prior knowledge of
a subject.
Key terms:
Schema: Thinking stems, making
connections using prior knowledge.
Prior knowledge:
information/knowledge you have about
a topic being studied, before studying
it.
Texts can relate to you, other texts, and the
world.

Discuss real-life experiences and knowledge

that relate to the text.

Make connections about the text to you, other

text, and the world.

Assessment
Discussion of new information gained from
the reading; sharing of what students wrote in
the Learn column of the worksheet.
Discussion of prior knowledge compared to
new schema developed after reading the story.

Discussion of how the story relates to the

students, other stories, theyve read, and the
outside world, recorded on large sheet of
paper.
Discussion of how the story relates to the
students, other stories, theyve read, and the
outside world, recorded on large sheet of
paper.
Final product of what is written on the paper
in terms of text-to-self, text-to-text, and textto-world.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

English 2.8/9
The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional/nonfictional
texts.
b) Relate previous experiences to the main idea.
F. MATERIALS NEEDED
Bears, Bears, Bears by Nora Winter
Large white paper
G. PROCEDURE
1. I will briefly review the story that we read in the previous lesson. I will ask students to go over
their worksheets with a partner to job their memory of what they knew about bears before
reading the story, what they predicted the main idea to be, and what information they gained
from reading the story.
2. I will draw a circle on a large sheet of paper. In it will be three other smaller circles (all within
one another). In the center, smallest circle I will write the title of the book. In the circle directly
outside of that one I will write Text-to-Self. In the next circle, Text-to-Text, and the final
one, Text-to-World. I will explain to the students the meaning of each of these. Text-to-Self is
how the text related to your own schema and experiences. Text-to-Text is how the text relates to
anything else youve read. Text-to-World is how the story relates to anything happening in the
world.
3. I will ask the students to provide examples for each of these sections, getting them to think
about as many connections as possible that relate to their schema of bears. How can you relate

to bears personally? Have you ever seen a bear, do you like learning about bears? How does this
book about bears relate to any other books youve read? Have you read books about bears
before, do you like reading books about animals/bears, do you read fiction or non-fiction books
about bears? Finally, how does this book relate to the world? Do we face any problems dealing
with bears, how do bears help us?
4. After we have filled in each circle, I will discuss with the students to concept of making
connections to something youve read, or topics that you know information about. I will tell
them the importance of schema when learning and how it pertains to making connections. I will
finish by explaining to them that these connections theyve made will enhance their schema.
H. DIFFERENTIATION
Because I will be working with a small group of students who read and write at the same level, I
wont have to differentiate too much. I will make sure each student understands the lesson before
moving on, and I will include each student in the discussion by asking appropriate questions. The
students will be sharing different information based on their personal schema, so I will make sure
everyone understands what each other is talking about. I will encourage the students to build off of
one anothers ideas and ask each other questions about what they are sharing.
For students who are struggling to make connections or understand the idea behind these
connections and how it relates to schema, I will ask them to think about what they wrote in the
Know column of their worksheet. I will relate this to one of the three categories for making
connections and ask them how they think any of their schema can fit into one of these categories. I
will provide them with extra attention throughout the activity, making sure to further explain things
for them. For the students who seem bored with the lesson, or are grasping the concept quicker than
others, I will have them to work with one of the students who are struggling to come up with ideas,
so they can build off of one another. These discussions will benefit both partners because the ones
who lack ideas will now have more ideas of ways in which they can connect to the text, and the
ones who have many ideas, can explain how they use their schema to fill in these categories, making
them realize the importance of schema in making connections to texts as they do so.
I.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Students might not understand the concept of making connections, and wont have any
information to provide.
o If this happens, I will give them better examples of how the text might relate to
each category, asking them to build off of that. I will also further explain the idea of
connecting the book to you, another book, and the world by providing a separate
example other than the text, such as a movie or television that the students are
familiar with.
Students might not understand how making these connections can relate to schema.
o If this happens, I will refer to the students worksheets and what they have written
in the Know section. I will make sure they understand that this is their schema
and it can be used to make connections. I will also refer to the Learn section and
describe how this is their new schema because it is new information they have
gained about the topic, which can also be used to make these connections.