Week 9: Graphic Organizers in the Student Tool box

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
-Chinese Proverb

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
-Thomas Carruthers

One of the things that frustrates me to no end is the lack of consistency in what our students learn. This week I had a conversation with one of the teachers who is on the RAD team and she told me that our students are lacking in every area of literacy. How can that be? What have we been doing right and/or wrong to get to this point? There is no continuum for teaching literacy strategies to students. There should be a plan so that all teachers are on the same page to teach students strategies that students can put in their learning tool boxes that they use throughout their learning life.

Hyerle states that graphic organizers give students the tools to decipher text and transform it to information that they can use to manage "the relations of information". Students are currently drowning in information as they use Google to find information. Graphic organizers can help students to see the relationships between information and transform it to knowledge and eventually to wisdom. As the student constructs their graphic organizer, she constructs understanding as she works as an academic trades person, a word smith and an ideas smith. Once a student has learned to use a Story Map (Bruehl p.11), she can use this graphic organizer again and again in English and also in Socials to show the interdependence of historical events. A student can use the Character Analysis grid (Bruehl p.153) for a character in a short story, a movie, a historical figure, or to analyze their own behaviour for Planning Class.

Graphic organizers are especially useful for students to generate ideas before teachers challenge them to write. For some students writing is like climbing Mt.Everest and we have to give them crampons to dig their feet in and some ropes to support their climb up the writing exercise. Students are bombarded with so many visual images in their day to day life but they lack visual literacy skills. I like using variations of the strategy You Ought to Be in Pictures (Bruehl p. 149-50) to generate deeper reflections on historical events. The guided imagery helps students to place themselves in the historical period instead of having it be something that happened so long ago. I encourage Socials teachers to use excerpts of historical fiction to make historical events more vivid for their students. Instead of just pictures, teacher can show students scenes from films or documentaries with the sound muted and students can write and act out a script based on the scene.

Some teachers in my school are using Power Notes(Bruehl p.95-98) and concept maps to help students to organize relevant concepts and information. The challenge for ESL students is how to take notes when you are still trying to comprehend what the teacher is saying. I seriously do not know why more students don't run screaming from our schools screaming their head off in frustration. We as teacher natter away and give students no scaffolding for what we are saying. A Science teacher in my school gives students clear outlines when they have to take notes and she prompts students to essential information. Later she posts the notes and extra material to her blog that students can refer to. If I was an ESL student, I would want to kiss her for doing this. I am a visual learner and I find it challenging to listen to someone and take notes cold so I can only imagine how an ESL students feels like.

We have to be careful to make sure to use graphic organizers that meet learning objectives for students. When strategies like Think/Pair/and Share allow students to diversify their thinking by working with others this is a good educational fit. I would hate to see them become the new "worksheet". Even my five year old daughter knows how boring worksheets are when she asked me how many worksheets I have to do for this course. When I taught English, I would present several strategies to students for generating writing ideas. Students then could choose what strategy works best for them as a learner. I like to tell students that they wear different hats when they are writing: a brainstorm/generation hat and an editing hat. Students often edit as they are generating and they have to learn to not to listen to the editing/critical voice in their head in the fragile moments of a birth of an idea. We need to teach students how to learn and give them the skills to become autonomous learners.

Resource for Information Literacy Skills:
I love the Information Literacy Skills from Manitoba and IntegrationStation!
http://www.retsd.mb.ca/site/staff/staffmain.html

Excerpt form website:

Information Literacy Skills: Kindergarten - Grade 12

National award winner of The Canadian Association for School Libraries' Angela Thacker Memorial Award

Information literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning.This continuum was created to ensure that the students of RETSD acquire the skills necessary for lifelong learning and "to ensure students and staff are effective users of ideas and information" (Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning). When used in conjunction with “The Integration Station”, it provides the basis for effective library programming. Download the interactive pdf document (6.1MB).

Not sure how to navigate this resource? View the online tutorial (Flash 5 or newer).

Information Literacy

The IntegrationStation is a website providing support for teachers integrating technology skills into the information literacy process. The different steps involved in the information literacy process are explained as well as how technology can be integrated to facilitate each step of the process. Downloadable worksheets are available as well as links to other valuable resources. Go there now!