Learning to access your schema – what you already know – about something is an important skill to a thoughtful reader. To thoughtfully read something, you must compare what is in your current schema file about a subject to what is being communicated by the text. Many times this is a background activity and may seem inconsequential but it is crucial – it impacts all of our other types of thinking.
As the boys and I were working through this idea of schema over the last couple of weeks, it dawned on me that we could learn to sort through and access our files by playing a simple game. Since we love games and play is such an effective way to learn, I decided we would try it right away and you can too!
The rules of the game are simple. One player is going to describe something one clue at a time. The other players quickly mentally sort through their schema files to find that concept and guess what the initial player was describing. If no one guesses correctly, the describing player gives another clue. Now, the guessing players use both clues to attempt to take a guess. This back and forth continues until either 20 clues have been given without a successful guess or until a player guesses correctly.
Want an example? I thought maybe. Below you can find an interaction from when we played this game this morning.
Me: Your first clue is electronic.
Kids (remember there are four of them so there will be four answers unless there was a repeat): Phone? iPad? TV?
Me: Nice guesses but none are correct. Your second clue is digital.
Kids: Clock? Camera? Are you sure it isn’t your phone?
Me: I’m sure, still none correct. Case.
Kids: It’s your phone. I already said iPad. We need another clue.
Me: Read.
Kids: KINDLE!!!
Me: Excellent. Since everyone guessed at the same time, everyone gets 17 points!
I guess I should tell you how points go now shouldn’t I? Points are given out based on how many clues have been given before the person guesses what is being described. After the first clue they guesser would get 20 points. After the second, 19. After the third, 18 and so on.
We played five rounds this morning and everyone accumulated their points for a grand total after all five rounds so we could find a winner. I think that everyone would have happily played for a good bit longer but the groceries were being delivered and I needed to put things away.
Accessing our schema files and using them to inform our thinking is a gateway to accessing our schema files and using them to inform our thinking as we are reading. It strengthens the neural pathways creating a highway that is easier to navigate than the complicated side-streets of lesser known pathways. In simpler terms, a game creates an environment where we can make something easy to repeat when the stakes are raised. It is also a way to add some extra fun into our day while we think about what we know about an incredible variety of things.
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