diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 2d560ad..5b92b46 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name = "LegolasFlux"
 uuid = "eb5f792d-d1b1-4535-bae3-d5649ec7daa4"
 authors = ["Beacon Biosignals, Inc."]
-version = "0.2.0"
+version = "0.2.1"
 
 [deps]
 Arrow = "69666777-d1a9-59fb-9406-91d4454c9d45"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9a8b927..c8414fa 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -71,7 +71,9 @@ a schema extension of the `legolas-flux.model` schema:
 using Legolas, LegolasFlux
 using Legolas: @schema, @version
 @schema "digits-model" DigitsRow
-@version DigitsRowV1 begin
+@version DigitsRowV1 > ModelV1 begin
+    # re-declare this ModelV1 field as parametric for this schema as well
+    weights::(<:Union{Missing,Weights})
     epoch::Union{Missing, Int}
     accuracy::Union{Missing, Float32}
     commit_sha::Union{Missing, String}
@@ -81,6 +83,12 @@ end
 Now I can use a `DigitsRowV1` much like LegolasFlux's `ModelV1`. It has the same required `weights` column and optional `architecture_version` column, as well as the additional `epoch`, `accuracy`, and `commit_sha` columns. As a naming convention,
 one might name files produced by this row as e.g. `training_run.digits.model.arrow`.
 
+When writing out a `DigitsRowV1`, I'll pass the schema version like so
+```julia
+write_model_row(path, my_digits_row, DigitsRowV1SchemaVersion())
+```
+so that later, when I call `read_model_row` on this path, I'll get back a `DigitsRowV1` instance.
+
 Note in this example the schema is called `digits.model` instead of just say `digits`, since the package Digits might want to
 create other Legolas schemas as well at some point.
 
diff --git a/examples/Project.toml b/examples/Project.toml
index 142443c..d6545d5 100644
--- a/examples/Project.toml
+++ b/examples/Project.toml
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ LegolasFlux = "eb5f792d-d1b1-4535-bae3-d5649ec7daa4"
 MLDatasets = "eb30cadb-4394-5ae3-aed4-317e484a6458"
 StableRNGs = "860ef19b-820b-49d6-a774-d7a799459cd3"
 Statistics = "10745b16-79ce-11e8-11f9-7d13ad32a3b2"
+Tables = "bd369af6-aec1-5ad0-b16a-f7cc5008161c"
diff --git a/examples/digits.jl b/examples/digits.jl
index d1e4ad9..1bb4ca0 100644
--- a/examples/digits.jl
+++ b/examples/digits.jl
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ using Flux: onehotbatch, onecold, crossentropy, throttle
 using Base.Iterators: repeated, partition
 using Legolas, LegolasFlux
 using Legolas: @schema, @version
+using LegolasFlux: Weights
 using Tables
 
 # This should store all the information needed
@@ -163,10 +164,9 @@ output2 = m2(input)
 
 path = joinpath(pkgdir(LegolasFlux), "examples", "test.digits-model.arrow")
 # The saved weights in this repo were generated by running the command:
-# Legolas.write(path, [row], Legolas.Schema("digits.model@1"))
+# write_model_row(path, row, DigitsRowV1SchemaVersion())
 # We don't run this every time, since we want to test that we can continue to deserialize previously saved out weights.
-table = Legolas.read(path)
-roundtripped = DigitsRowV1(only(Tables.rows(table)))
+roundtripped = read_model_row(path)
 @test roundtripped isa DigitsRowV1
 @test roundtripped.config isa DigitsConfigV1
 
diff --git a/examples/test.digits-model.arrow b/examples/test.digits-model.arrow
index 43cc445..6916714 100644
Binary files a/examples/test.digits-model.arrow and b/examples/test.digits-model.arrow differ
diff --git a/src/LegolasFlux.jl b/src/LegolasFlux.jl
index 4075b94..e5ffb82 100644
--- a/src/LegolasFlux.jl
+++ b/src/LegolasFlux.jl
@@ -95,27 +95,34 @@ end
 #####
 
 """
-    write_model_row(io_or_path; kwargs...)
+    write_model_row(io_or_path, row[, schema=ModelV1SchemaVersion()]; kwargs...)
 
 A light wrapper around `Legolas.write` to write a table
 with a single row. `kwargs` are forwarded to an internal
 invocation of `Arrow.write`.
 """
-function write_model_row(io_or_path, row; kwargs...)
-    return Legolas.write(io_or_path, [row], ModelV1SchemaVersion(); validate=true, kwargs...)
+function write_model_row(io_or_path, row,
+                         schema::Legolas.SchemaVersion=ModelV1SchemaVersion();
+                         kwargs...)
+    return Legolas.write(io_or_path, [row], schema; validate=true, kwargs...)
 end
 
 """
-    read_model_row(io_or_path) -> ModelV1
+    read_model_row(io_or_path) -> Legolas.AbstractRecord
 
 A light wrapper around `Legolas.read` to retrieve
-a `ModelV1` from a table with a single row, such
-as the output of [`write_model_row`](@ref)`.
+an `AbstractRecord` from a table with a single row, such
+as the output of [`write_model_row`](@ref)`.  The schema version
+is inferred from the `Arrow.Table` (as with `Legolas.read`).
 """
 function read_model_row(io_or_path)
     table = Legolas.read(io_or_path; validate=true)
-    rows = ModelV1.(Tables.rows(table))
-    return only(rows)
+    # because we used validate=true above, we know that we can extract a usable
+    # SchemaVersion from the table.
+    sv = Legolas.extract_schema_version(table)
+    RecordType = Legolas.record_type(sv)
+    row = only(Tables.rows(table))
+    return RecordType(row)
 end
 
 include("functors.jl")
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index ae90da3..f0b896b 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 using LegolasFlux
 using Test
-using Flux, LegolasFlux
+using Flux
 using LegolasFlux: Weights, FlatArray, ModelV1
 using Flux: params
 using Arrow
 using Random
 using StableRNGs
-using Legolas: @version, @schema
+using Legolas: Legolas, @version, @schema
 function make_my_model()
     return Chain(Dense(1, 10), Dense(10, 10), Dense(10, 1))
 end