Excellence in Education:
Graphic Organizers
We’re all aware of
the research that says students should create graphic representations to
assimilate knowledge. Graphic organizers allow students to visually categorize
information, their student friendly and creating them enables students to
retain and remember the information. Additionally, when used as a study aid,
they’re a lot easier to look at and understand than notes or text.
Over the past week,
I’ve seen several graphic organizers used as
1.
a summarization
activity in preparation for a quiz (Venn Diagram)
2.
part of
a guided reading activity (a story strip)
3.
a means
of providing structure to a class-wide conversation (viewpoints-reactions-reflections)
4.
a
timeline of events
5.
a
pre-writing strategy (RAFT-Role, Audience, Format, Topic)
In teaching academic
coaching, I kept a binder of graphic organizers. Students were encouraged to
find/create their own graphic organizers to represent information from their
core classes. Through this process, I learned that it’s often best to allow
students to create their own graphic organizers because this requires them to
determine what graphic organizer best serves the class’s learning target.
Ideas for the Classroom: 1-3-6 Protocol
The 1-3-6 protocol
puts students in charge of their learning. Working both individually and in
groups students develop ideas and opinions about an reading or topic. Most
importantly, the students are responsible for their learning and are actively
engaged.
1.
Students
are given an article to read.
2.
Students
write their responses to the article. For example, you could ask students to
write the 5 most important facts from the article.
3.
Students
are placed in groups of 3 where they share their ideas. Each group
classifies/group their ideas and write a list on newsprint, an overhead, etc.
4.
Merge 2
groups (6 people now) and have the students share their ideas.
5.
Again,
groups of 6 write a list of their ideas and bring them together.
6.
Each
group of 6 shares their list with the whole group.
Obviously, this is
similar to think-pair-share, but by creating larger groups you can more easily
manipulate the flexible groups to meet the diverse needs of your students. For
example, in a think-pair-share setting, one student may do the majority of the
hard work while the other is passively engaged.
Other points:
1.
It need
not be an article. Students can be responding to an article, a topic, a video,
etc.
2.
A simple
graphic organizer can be created by you or by your students.
3.
To get
to a higher level, it’s important that students classify their information in
the group stages. Alternatively, students can evaluate/rank the ideas. In other
words, take this beyond simply summarizing.
4.
In a
class with tremendously, diverse students, you can assign and change roles. Some
possible roles: summarizer, discussion leader, note-taker, presenter.
Administrative Notes
Please don’t forget that current employees that are covered
by VRS
may elect to opt-in to the hybrid plan, but this ends on April 30.
With the snow days, we’ve fallen behind in positive
referrals. Please take a moment to nominate a student http://goo.gl/cZIXm7
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