Teachers help make new concepts accessible to students by using an opinion survey and short writing assignment to make predictions and introduce themes in the stort,

Reading is a complicated process that requires comprehension and interpretation. Teaching reading at the high school level involves understanding how schemata help construct meaning. Schemata can be defined as “a mental codification of experience that includes a particular organized way of perceiving cognitively and responding to a complex situation or set of stimuli.” So, this identifies how people systemically perceive and process the world around them.

Teachers should maximize how students use their individual schemata to understand what they are learning. Then, they can help make new concepts more accessible to students and create a learner centered environment.

Help Students Access Prior Knowledge

Teachers help students establish connections between old and new information by linking new information to previously existing schemata. One way to construct this bridge is for students to access prior knowledge in order to improve their understanding of new concepts and how they relate to the larger ideas. English teachers can easily accomplish this when beginning a new novel in class such as The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton [Puffin, 1995].

Lesson Initiating Activity

Start by having students complete an opinion survey which touches on important themes that will be elucidated in the novel. Ask students if they agree or disagree with the following statements related to theme.

Loss

• Loss of someone you love can never be overcome.
• If you lose someone, you will give everything up just to keep another person you love.

Family

• There is nothing more important than family.
• Family comes in many forms.

Freedom

• Freedom is when no one tells you anything, and you can just do what you want.
• Too much freedom can bring trouble.

Poverty

• There is a lot of poverty in this world, but people can rise up by being good and smart.
• Money isn’t everything.

Social Class or Status

• Status really isn’t important at all. You should be comfortable with who you are.
• Social class separates people from people, but it really doesn’t matter to people what class they are in.

Innocence

• Everyone loses his innocence with age.
• Innocence is something that all people have inside.

Use Prediction to Prepare for Reading

Then, instruct students to write a two-paragraph Quickwrite response exploring two key themes in the novel. By calling upon what they already know, students will gain interest and anticipation for a new unit while developing bridges between new information to currently existing schemata.

Paragraph One: Introduction Quickwrite

Think about the ways people are separated from one another into different groups. Write a paragraph considering the following:

• How does this apply in a school setting?
• How do groups of students differ from other groups of students?
• What are the criteria to belong in certain groups?
• Who makes the decision for a person to belong to one group or another?
• How do you feel about the way people are grouped together or apart?

Paragraph Two: Make a Prediction

Now write another paragraph predicting what this novel will be about. If you have already read this novel, write a brief summary of how the title applies to the story.

Once students have completed these assignments, they will be prepared to study the novel.