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Goochland County Public Schools

Navigation: What is an Advance Organizer? | How do I use Advance Organizers? | What are the Different Types of Advance Organizers? | Technology Benefits | Using Imagery Knowledge | How to Tap into Imagery Knowledge | Creating Graphic Organizers | Computer Based Tools

Using Advance Organizers

Educational researchers have shown that the activation of prior knowledge is critical to learning of all types. You can view (and print, if you like) this information, organized in a cluster map.

The theories and research-backing described in this outline is derived from my notes from chapters 6 & 10 from Classroom Instruction that Works by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock.

What is an Advance Organizer?

• an instructional unit that is used before direct instruction, or before a new topic; this is sometimes called a hook, set induction, or anticipatory set
• popularized by David Ausubel, first in 1968
• introduced in advance of direct instruction
• presented at a higher level of abstraction than the information presented later
• designed to bridge the gap between what the learner already knows and what she needs to know
• use of advance organizers has shown, through several research studies, to improve levels of understanding and recall

How do I Use Advance Organizers?

• should focus on what is important, and essential
• "higher level" (more abstract) organizers produce deeper learning than "lower level" (more concrete) advanced organizers (analysis, synthesis vs. knowledge, comprehension—see Bloom's Taxonomy)
• different types of advanced organizers produce different results

What are the different types of Advance Organizers?

• Expository
  • simply describes the new content
• Narrative
  • presents new information in a story format
• Skimming
  • skimming material before reading can be a powerful organizer
• Graphical Organizers
  • effective with all types of organizers: pictographs, descriptive patterns, concept patterns, etc.

Benefits of Technology Used with Graphic and Advance Organizers

• Fluid and Dynamic
  • Diagrams can be easily manipulated and updated
  • Diagrams can be begun through a teacher template and completed by the student
• Resource Saving
  • using a digital medium saves in paper and copier costs
  • teachers can review student cues with a computer sometimes easier than using paper
• Organizer can extend into the Direct Instruction
  • saved organizers can be used throughout a lesson, or for review at a later time
• Organizer can Adapt Easily into Notetaking and Summarization
  • the graphic organizer can serve as a model for later organizational skills students may complete

Using Imagery Knowledge

Allan Paivio's Dual-Coding Theory of Information Storage [link 1, link 2, link 3] proposes that knowledge is stored in two forms:

• Linguistic Form
  • most widely used in schools today
  • involves writing and speaking
• Nonlinguistic, or "imagery" form
  • mental pictures
  • physical sensations: smell, taste, touch, sound, kinesthetic associations
  • explicitly engaging students in the creation of nonlinguistic representations stimulates and increases activity in the brain

How to Tap into Imagery Knowledge

• a variety of activities produce imagery representations:
  • creating graphic representations
  • making physical models
  • generating mental pictures
  • drawing pictures and pictographs
  • engaging in kinesthetic activities
• Imagery Activities should elaborate on knowledge
  • students understand a topic in greater depth
  • students can recall information more easily

Creating Graphic Organizers

Graphic Organizers combine the linguistic and non-linguistic modes of information storage

• Descriptive Patterns
• Time-Sequence Patterns
• Process/Cause-Effect Patterns
• Episode Patterns
• Generalization/Principle Patterns
• Concept Patterns

Other Imagery Methods

• Physical Models
• Mental Pictures
• Drawing Pictographs
• Engaged Motion—Kinesthetic Activity

Examples of Graphical and Advance Organizers

The following examples pair an advanced and/or graphical organizer with a Virginia SOL. These are all designed with the following guidelines:

• The activity is not the major focus of the lesson in itself
• If used as an advanced organizer, more abstract concepts have purposely been included.
• A variety of methods can be used to implement advanced and graphical organizers, including computer technology

Example 1

SOL 3.11—Science
Resource: Web Link: Energy.gov Kids Zone

Students covering this SOL investigate different types of energy sources, consider renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, and identify uses of energy. A lesson on this topic could involve a visit to the site linked above, where student essays are published on these topics.

The organizer used here is skimming. Students skim the webpage for a limited period of time, then discuss answers to questions in small groups. Questions to consider? "How can we (personally) save energy on a typical school day? Why do we keep using more energy each year? How could we save money at home?

Example 2

SOL K5—Science
Resource: Teacher-Created AppleWorks Template

Students in Kindergarten must identify the different forms of water: solid, liquid, and gas. The organizer in this case is drawing. The teacher designs a template in AppleWorks drawing mode by creating three Paint areas. Students will use the computer to draw a picture in each area that includes one of the three states of water. Colors around the box are used to identify which state of matter goes where, and a helpful graphic from AppleWorks' clippings was added to give the students some "inspiration."

This activity could also be printed out, and drawing and coloring could take place on paper. The act of drawing is kinesthetic.

Download the AppleWorks Template

Example 3

SOL 2.8—Social Studies
Resource: Acting Out, iMovie; Play money

Students in the second grade must discriminate between barter exchange and money exchange for goods and services. This organizer is multi-part. First, a teacher might act-out, or role play with a student, a trade for his pencil. Later, when the student needs the pencil, he can "buy" it back from the teacher using play money.

Next, at a different time, students in small groups will act out the differences between exchange through the use of barter and money. Skits will be recorded by the teacher on video tape.

Finally, at a later stage, students will edit the footage of video set up for them on the computer using iMovie. Students can use voice-overs in the editing process to define the difference between bartering and money use. This activity is kinesthetic and involves the manipulation of multimedia (imagery knowledge) to discriminate between the two types of exchange.

The video product may be used in a student portfolio assessment by the instructor, if so desired. A pictograph (as seen above) may be used to show the sequence of events required to produce a video, if so desired.

Example 4

SOL 6.8—Science
Resource: Inpsiration or AppleWorks, MS Office

Students in the sixth grade investigate life processes of organisms. This activity encourages students to think abstractly, and would make an excellent advanced organizer after some study of SOL 6.8 had taken place.

This is an adapted Process/Cause-Effect Organizer
Download the Inspiration Template

Three life processes are listed in this diagram, obviously these will be studied this day in class. Without life processes we would die. How do humans adapt when these processes are in jeopardy?

Students will fill-out the "preventions" in the diagram, providing the answers such as "antibiotics, adoption," or "IV fluids." Students can produce this diagram, or complete a teacher-generated template, using a variety of software. Inspiration makes this type of diagramming a breeze. Inspiration also comes with many pre-made graphic organizer templates.

Example 5

SOL 4.3—English/Language Arts
Resources: Inpsiration or AppleWorks, MS Office

ENG SOL 4.3 requires students to know the differences between synonyms and antonyms and to know what homonyms are. This graphical organizer is a concept pattern organizer.

Download the Inspiration File

This graphic organizer can be used in many different ways—as an informal assessment tool, as a cue tool, as an advance organizer, or a collaborative activity. Concept Pattern Organizers begin with a concept in the center (synonyms and antonyms). Characteristics branch-away from the main concept. Under each characteristic (in this case, a definition), examples branch away. Students may fill in any number of parts on this diagram, or, fit the words into a diagram themselves.

The use of more abstact pairs here (terrible, wonderful; serious, silly) qualifies this as an advance organizer.

Computer- Based Organizational Tools

• Appleworks
  • Drawing and Painting
  • Presentations
• Inspiration/Kidspiration
  • Outline Mode
  • Diagram Mode
• iMovie
  • Manipulation of Digital Pictures and Digital Video
  • Filming of Digital Video
• iPhoto
  • Kinesthetic Activities Captured
  • Pictographs
• Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
  • Organizational Charts
  • Drawing Tools
• Internet and Web-Formatted Media
  • Quicktime Streaming Video
  • Teacher-Supplied Web Documents
  • Information Gathering for Advanced Organizers (charts, skimming)
  • Write Design Online Website
  • Teach-o-logy Website
  • California SCORE Graphic Organizers
  • PS Print's Collection of Graphic Organizer Templates