Adapting the implications of schema theory to the practical endeavors of the community college literature classroom can be readily accomplished within the framework of guided reading activities that prepare students for critical reading and analysis of short stories. Guided readings focus on what prior knowledge/experience and what aspects of story structure might be useful to students in creating some identification with a story and some sense of its organization. The guided reading activity (usually a list of questions and suggestions in outline form) directs the reader to note certain aspects of the story, hints at certain important relationships, calls for associations between story content and the reader's knowledge/experience (schemata), asks questions to stimulate further thought and active involvement with the story, and requires that conclusions be drawn and applications made to the "real world." (Examples of guided reading activity outlines are appended for Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party," Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde.") (BL)