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 Taking It Forward

Introduction

 Additional Resources
Philosophy Reference page
Abstract Constance Weaver on Schemata
Thesis Preparation Synthesis of Guided Reading
Thesis Investigation Definition of Terms

 

Constance Weaver
and the
Restaurant Schema

Most Western adults understand what happens at a restaurant, from prior to arrival at the restaurant until departure (i.e., making reservations, arriving, being seated, getting the food, eating, paying).  But the restaurant schema is more complicated than that.  Adults recognize how each of the events in going to a restaurant plays our differently in specific restaurants, such as truck stops, fast food restaurants, cafeterias, ethnic restaurants, family restaurants, cocktail restaurants, and expensive restaurants.  Even within these categories, adults have very well differentiated knowledge; thus, many adults know what differences to expect at a variety of ethnic restaurants, such as Greek, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Thai establishments.  This schematic knowledge is very important in getting through the restaurant event, with our expectations about what will happen leading us through a visit to a restaurant.  Thus, while no one who knows about fancy Hungarian restaurants is surprised when a violinist shows up at the table, imagine the surprise if that were to occur at a McDonald's or Pizza Hut.

 

More pertinent here, when a child enters a McDonald's and encounters a menu, the child's reading of the menu is going to be colored by expectations based on prior knowledge of the restaurant.  Thus, in McDonald's, a six-year old, when asked to read the top line on the menu over the counter, might say, "Big Mac," immediately.  In contrast, if the words Big Mac were presented to the child at home on a piece of paper, the child might not be able to read them.  The context cues that trigger schematic knowledge are very important in reading, according to the whole-language perspective.  Indeed, in the tradition of Smith and Goodman, Weaver (1994) makes a strong case that context cues and the schemata they trigger are prime players in reading.  Because whole-language educators believe that schemata play a large role in comprehension, their approach is often thought of as a top-down approach.  That is, the reader first gets the top level, big ideas, which inform his or her understanding of parts of the text.  In contrast is the bottom-up approach, which involves analyzing individual letters to produce individual words that are combined to construct the meaning of the text.
Taken directly from Michael Pressley, Reading Instruction that Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching. p.23.
 

 

 

 

 

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