MODULE 2: CONTENT-AREA LITERACY Adolescent Literacy Unit 3, Session 4

USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO OVERCOME TEXT DIFFICULTY Organizers for Before, During, & After Reading

Essential Questions  Module 2 Question  What role can content-area teachers play in helping adolescents acquire general and discipline-specific literacy skills?  Unit 3, Session 4 Questions  How 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? 3Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

When We Think of Graphic Organizers Comparison / Contrast 4Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

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? 6Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Warm-Up  Following the tenets of schema theory, students need help:  Activating background knowledge  Bridging between new and known information  Condensing, summarizing, incorporating information 7Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

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.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) First Linesgraphic  List – Group – Label (graphic) List – Group – Labelgraphic  Double-entry Journals (graphic) Double-entry Journalsgraphic  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? 9Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

 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 10 Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Hands-On/Minds-On  Review the Different Types of Organizers  Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002): Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002)  Descriptive/Thematic Map  Network Tree  Spider Map  Problem/Solution Map  Sequential Episodic Map  Fishbone Map  Compare/Contrast Map or Matrix  Continuum Scale  Series of Events Chain 11 Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

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13Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

Hands-On/Minds-On  Review the Different Types of Organizers  Adlit.org: Adlit.org  Anticipation Guide  Collaborative-Strategic Reading/Learning Logs  First Lines  Frayer Model  List-Group-Label  Possible Sentences  Concept Maps 14Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4  Double-entry Journals  Inquiry Chart  Jigsaw  Power Notes  Story Maps  Exit Slips  Frame 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-Up  Questions 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 classes  When connected to specific content-area purposes  When modeled for students  When used as tools, not as products  When constructed/adapted/revised by students  When modified to suit disciplinary purposes  When modified to suit individual students’ needs 18Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

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? 19Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4

References  Adler, C. R. (2004). Seven strategies to teach students text comprehension. Adlit.org.Seven strategies to teach students text comprehension  Adlit.org Strategy Library — Graphic OrganizersGraphic Organizers  Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002). Graphic Organizers.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.Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy 20Module 2: Unit 3, Session 4