MODULE 2:CONTENT-AREA LITERACY

Adolescent LiteracyUnit 3, Session 4

USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO OVERCOME TEXT DIFFICULTY

Organizers for Before, During, & After Reading

Essential QuestionsModule 2 Question

What role can content-area teachers play in helping adolescents acquire general and discipline-specific literacy skills?

Unit 3, Session 4 QuestionsHow might the use of graphic organizers improve students’

ability to recognize, remember, and apply content-area concepts?

How can general graphic organizers be tailored to meet discipline-specific purposes and encourage disciplinary thinking?

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When We Think of Graphic Organizers

Comparison / Contrast

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But is This All There Is???

Comparison / Contrast

No More Venn Diagrams Please!!!

5

Warm-Up

We know that graphic organizers can help adolescents recognize and draw meaning from text structure (Session 3)…

But what other purposes can graphic organizers serve?

How can graphic organizers encourage disciplinary thinking, reading, and writing?

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Warm-Up

Following the tenets of schema theory, students need help:

Activating background knowledge

Bridging between new and known information

Condensing, summarizing, incorporating information

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Warm-Up There are many habits of mind that we are interested

in students adopting in the content areas.

There are roughly five categories of skills/strategies researchers have documented good readers using:

Asking questions Making predictions Testing hypotheses Summarizing Monitoring understanding & deploying fix-it strategies as

needed

Lee, C. D., & Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy. 8Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Warm-Up

Look at the following three Graphic Organizers:

First Lines (graphic)List – Group – Label (graphic)Double-entry Journals (graphic)

Given the tenets of schema theory, and the identified habits of good readers and writers (Lee & Spratley, 2010)...

How do these graphic organizers encourage research-based reading/writing instruction and learning?

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The key to using graphic organizers, both as teaching and learning tools, is…

CONNECTING

PURPOSES ORGANIZERS

What do you want students to know how to do?How can an organizer help them transfer skills to new

problems?

Connecting Purposes & Organizers

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Hands-On/Minds-OnReview the Different Types of Organizers

Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002):Descriptive/Thematic MapNetwork TreeSpider MapProblem/Solution MapSequential Episodic MapFishbone MapCompare/Contrast Map or MatrixContinuum ScaleSeries of Events Chain

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Hands-On/Minds-On

Review the Different Types of OrganizersAdlit.org:

Anticipation GuideCollaborative-Strategic Reading/Learning LogsFirst LinesFrayer ModelList-Group-LabelPossible SentencesConcept Maps

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Double-entry JournalsInquiry ChartJigsawPower NotesStory MapsExit SlipsFrame Routine

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Finding and Tailoring Organizers

Using a piece of content-area text…

Choose & “change” one or two graphic organizers to help:

Activate students’ background knowledge.

Focus on disciplinary concepts while reading.

Integrate new information with known information.16Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Wrap-UpQuestions to Consider:

Which organizers seem to fit best with particular disciplines?

Which disciplinary habits of mind do certain organizers promote?

What might you do to “tailor” classic organizers to suit your particular disciplinary objectives?

Which organizers seem useful across disciplines?17Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Wrap-Up

Things to Remember:

Graphic organizers can be powerful tools…When shared across content-area classesWhen connected to specific content-area purposesWhen modeled for studentsWhen used as tools, not as productsWhen constructed/adapted/revised by studentsWhen modified to suit disciplinary purposesWhen modified to suit individual students’ needs

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Further Study

Try introducing, modeling, or adapting one or more of the graphic organizers introduced in this session. Then note the following:

What happened? What worked well? What challenges did you encounter?

Which graphic organizers might your department/team/school adopt more widely?

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References

Adler, C. R. (2004). Seven strategies to teach students text comprehension. Adlit.org.

Adlit.org Strategy Library — Graphic Organizers

Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002). Graphic Organizers.

Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

Lee, C. D., & Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy.

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