Whether
or
not
teachers
know
the
term
schema
theory,
they
often
implement
teaching
practices
that
are
based
on
this
theory.
These
practices
may
develop
essential
background
knowledge
or
encourage
students
to
connect
their
prior
knowledge
to
the
ideas
in
the
text.
Before
students
read,
teachers
may
ask
students
what
they
already
know
about
a
topic.
Teachers
may
demonstrate
an
abstract
concept
such
as
directing
a
small
group
of
chemistry
students
to
stand
in
a
circle
around
a
table
and
roll
marbles
toward
the
center,
demonstrating
collisions
of
atoms
or
molecules.
To
facilitate
students’
connections
of
text-‐based
concepts
to
their
background
knowledge,
teachers
may
provide
students
with
a
skeletal
hierarchical
graphic
organizer
to
which
they
add
information
while
reading.
Culturally
Relevant
Pedagogy
Culturally
relevant
pedagogy
was
identified
and
named
by
Gloria
Ladson-‐Billings
(1995)
to
describe
the
pedagogy
of
excellent
teachers
of
African
American
students.
Three
components
to
this
successful
teaching
are:
academic
excellence
(high
expectations),
cultural
competence
and
respect
through
building
on
and
valuing
students’
cultures,
and
critical
consciousness
that
encourages
students
to
question
the
status
quo
that
often
privileges
some
over
others.
Though
Ladson-‐Billings’
(1995)
examples
of
effective
teaching
are
often
met
by
comments
such
as
“but,
that’s
just
good
teaching”
(p.
159),
or
shock
that
her
suggestions
are
“like
some
rather
routine
teaching
strategies”
(p.
159),
she
asks
“why
so
little
of
it
seems
to
be
occurring
in
the
classrooms
populated
by
African
American
students”
(p.
159).
Those
who
study
classrooms
with
Latinos
or
Native
Americans
point
out
the
same
problem.
Remedial
reading
classes
that
focus
on
skills
and
strategies
rarely
consider
students’
cultures.
Instead,
they
tend
to
operate
from
a
bottom-‐up
framework
that
identifies
a
hierarchy
of
reading
skills
that
must
be
mastered
before
students
can
progress.
Culture
does
not
play
a
part
in
this
framework.
Motivation
to
Read
Common
sense
and
personal
experiences
inform
us
about
the
importance
of
motivation.
We
are
less
likely
to
do
something
–
be
it
cleaning
our
desk,
cooking
dinner,
or
walking
the
dog
–
if
we
are
not
motivated.
Yet
in
remedial
reading
classes
or
low-‐level
content
area
classes,
we
tend
not
to
consider
students’
intrinsic
motivations.
Intrinsic
motivation
comes
from
within
the
learner.
Students
who
are
intrinsically
motivated
read
because
they
want
to:
they
read
for
curiosity,
for
challenge,
and
for
involvement
with
ideas
in
texts
(Guthrie,
2004).
The
more
they
read
the
better
readers
they
become
and
thus
develop
self-‐efficacy
(i.e.,
the
ability
to 4