Graphic Organizer resources

MMM

9-15-14

G is for Graphic Organizer

Students learn over half of what they know from visual images.

Mary Alice White, Teachers College at Columbia University (1999)

In keeping with our monthly theme of precision partnering and graphic organizers...

This upcoming summer is my twentieth high school reunion in Baker City, Oregon.  It'll be great to see old friends and how they have changed over the years.  I'm sure I'll have a tremendous time as I attempt to recognize some folks that I haven't seen for 20 years.  

A facebook post mentioning the reunion started me thinking about my school days.  I was a decent student who made average grades.  From what I can remember, most of my teachers lectured, and I spent most of my time not listening very well.  If my teachers used graphic organizers or visual aids, especially those used today, I sure don’t remember them. So my questions to you are:  (a) When you present information to your students verbally, how much of it do they retain?  (b) If your students see and hear the information, do they have a better comprehension of the material?

As a former Social Studies teacher, I used to require students to bring in a current event article with a brief written summary on occasion.  There were some great summaries and some not so great.  A teacher recently shared a document she created that allows a student to breakdown their article so that her students have a better understanding of what they are reading. 

This organizer can be used in several classes, but what about something for assisting students with vocabulary?  I've seen a drama teacher, whose students often copied words and their definitions from the whiteboard and were expected to be prepared for tests on these vocabulary words.  The graphic organizer below allows students to become actively involved with the vocabulary on many different levels.  You can offer students a chance to share their sentences, clues, or what the word isn’t.  This allows students to not only recognize the new words, but also understand them.

Word	Dictionary Definition	My Definition or Clue	What the Word Isn't	Sentence

The purpose of graphic organizers is to assist students with understanding the material being taught.  There are a variety of organizers available for your use; limit the number you use to those that are most effective for your purposes. 

Resources

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/graphic-organizers-reading-comprehension

Here is a great Adv. Org for GOSSIP:

G•O•S•S•I•P

GOSSIP is an instructional strategy that can be used at different points during the lesson.  It can be used as a way to activate background knowledge about a specific topic or for summarizing or synthesizing information.  GOSSIP stands for go out and selectively search for important points (Close, 2009) and follows the idea of real gossip.

Putting the Strategy into Action:

●     Students are provided with a concept or question to find out more about.

●     Students spend a few minutes generating their own ideas in one box on their paper. 

●     Students then go to a first person and each share what is important.  They write this information in one of the boxes.

●     Students move onto to two different people, asking what is important and sharing their own ideas intertwined with the gossip they heard from preceding partners.

●     After gathering ideas from multiple partners, students move back into their working groups and share their new information.  (This can be done in pairs, small groups, or as a whole class.)

G•O•S•S•I•P

(Go Out and Selectively Search for Important Points)

My ideas	Partner 1 ____________
Partner 2 ___________	Partner 3 ___________
Reflections:	Goal(s):

Happy teaching & learning to all; have a great week

Eric

Kudos to J. Zoul for modification from above posting

Videos to check out!:

What is RTI (2 min)

Graphic Orgs (2:30 min)

Creating a Rural PLC? (6 min)

Articles you might want to check out:

Dispelling-the-myths: The-truth-about-student-engagement

Check-for-understanding

Calendar of Future Events:

Sept 17--Drewsey& Pine Creek visit
Sept 19--Indistar Training @ Harney ESD sponsored by ODE
Sept 25--Google Hangout PLC
Sept 26--Achievement Compact/Report Card rural gathering
Sept 26--Last day for Report Card submission

Sept 30--Last day to pull down assessment funds from EGMS

Oct 3-4--CCSS Science training @ ESD--flyer from robbinsc@harneyedu.net
Oct 15--Achievement Compacts Due