Foldables for the Middle/High School Classroom

By Lori Sutherland

What are foldables? Foldables are three-dimensional, interactive

graphic organizers that can help your students to organize, remember, review, and learn information. They are also a learning/assessment tool for teachers.

What concepts can foldables be used for?

From vocabulary words to content specific concepts that are hard to teach, foldables give students the opportunity to become more involved in their learning with a hands-on approach to your curriculum.

Sample Usage: Introducing new vocabulary words Introducing a new skill, topic, or concept Before a chapter, lesson, story, etc. During the lesson After completing the chapter, lesson, story,

etc. Guided Instruction or Guided Reading Writing process Review Anytime- daily

Why use foldables in my class?

Foldables can increase achievement and interest levels in any content area for all middle/high school students, regardless of age.

Why use foldables continued... Fun & motivating, hands-on approach to learning. As a study guide. Note taking to help organize information. Reach all learners (Visual, Kinesthetic, Spacial,

etc.). Students retain information. Alternative assessments. Replace the use of worksheets/reduce copy counts. Projects. Integration of subject areas, including the arts. Improve student note-taking skills. Hold students accountable for content specific

knowledge.

Research tells us that graphic organizers, such as foldables:

Help students focus on text structure as they read by: providing tools used to visually represent relationships

in text helping students write well-organized summaries of text

(Putting Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read)

Students are actively engaged in the instructional process and learning as they create foldables:

Classroom Instruction That Works: Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert Marzano strategies are integrated (identification of similarities & differences, summarizing & note-taking, nonlinguistic representations, questions, cues, and advanced organizers, etc.)

Marzano’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Note Taking research... Effective note taking can make the difference between

passing and failing ( Hughes & Suritsky, 1994) Independent note taking increases active participation

in the learning process, leading to improvement in memory of information ( Ruhl & Suritsky, 1995)

Listening and then receiving notes is not as effective as taking one’s own notes. (Carrier, 1983; Hartley, 1983; Katayama & Robinson, 2000)

Graphically organized notes teach more than just the facts as they increase student involvement with the information, increasing higher order thinking (Robinson et. al., 1998)

Students had a 34 percentile gain when taught how to summarize information and take effective notes. (Robert J. Marzano, Classroom Strategies that Work)

How should we use foldables?

• Teacher directed, modeling• Guided practice• Alternative assessments• Independent practice-students can

create their own folds/projects

Bloom-Marzano Hybrid Taxonomy: North Carolina Thinking Skills Levels

Knowing Organizing Applying Analyzing Generating Integrating Evaluating

Who did?

When was?

What is?

Where?

Identify...

Describe...

Match...

Recall...

Categorize...

Classify...

How is __ like or

different?

Contrast...

Compare...

Put in order...

Reorganize __ by __

Represent __ by __

Give an instance

which ___

How would you use...?

Since you know __,

how would you...?

How would you

illustrate...?

How is __ an example of

__?

What are the attributes of

__?

What evidence is

there for __?

What are the parts of __?

How do the parts relate?

What are the main ideas?

What is the conclusion?

What caused?

How many ways can

you think of to __?

What would happen if?

Predict...

Elaborate on...

If you were __, how

would you __?

What can you infer?

Create a plan to __

Summarize..

Generalize about __

How can you combine __

and __?

Imagine...

Give a synopsis...

What are your

standards?

Is __ reliable?

What is most significant?

Evaluate...

Judge...

Verify the claims of __

How effective was

__?

Let’s look at some samples:

Basic folds and terminology:

Hamburger Hotdog Taco Burrito Valley Mountain Shutter Accordion

Foldables Basics:

Foldables Basics continued:

Foldable Resources on the Wiki for you: http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us/C_i_resources/

Foldables.htm http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks.html http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/

index.shtml#lang_arts http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/

Academic_Resources/Best_Practices/introduction%20to%20foldables.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactiint/flipbook/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hefYUxaoNa8 http://www.ateacherstreasure.com/2011/10/treasured-

tip-foldables-factory.html#5_4,2_ http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/06/07/the-best-

teacher-resources-for-foldables/