As a teaching body we are all going to have to adapt our techniques in the planning, delivery and support of our students in the preparation for 100% linear examinations. Developing the use of graphic organisers in the classroom is a brilliant way to do this. With linear examinations approaching fast, we are going to have to adapt and alter our approach to ensure that the students are fully confident in the structure of the examinations, the content, and most importantly how they transfer their knowledge into the format of the examination to maximise their marks.
Graphic organisers are a brilliant way to support students in these techniques. For Literacy coordinators they are also a way of showing teachers from other subjects that they are consistently using valued techniques to promote literacy in the classroom – sometines without even realising it.
The key to using graphic organisers well is in the development of student independence, they lose their impact if as a teacher you just put it up on the screen for them to copy. If some students need support, put them into groups or pairs, ensuring the weaker student gains some support from the grouping. If you have a lower ability group – differentiate your approach, start with a simple activity that will give them some confidence in the task, they will be capable enough to produce something.
Use ICT – there is a new APP calles SHOWBIE where students submit their project/presentation/work through your ipad, you can give them written or spoken feedback, and they can use this advise to improve their work. Once this is completed, encourage students to present the outcomes to the class, and talk through the process, as well as the content.
Examples of Graphic organisers:
Timelines – When you need students to note and record the chronological order of events – this can then be expanded to what happens within the events themselves.
Tables – When you want students to draw comparisons between ideas/events/processes. To encourage independence, let the students create the concept of how to construct the table, don’t give them this as a support unless they need it!
Graphs – You can monitor all kinds of events on a graph – in a novle you can refer to Labov’s narrative theory and decide whether the novel you are reading follows his theorectical pattern – abnd then decide whether this is a good or bad reflection on the actual text.
Spider grams – Always useful when recording a series of ideas to expand on, or return to, particularly when presenting an argument.
Flow charts – To describe a process, or classify an object
Labelled diagram – Describes an object
Mind map – Consolidate and map learning – use colour as a memory trigger, develop independence.
My personal favourite is the mind map. I was allocated a Maths lesson to support as part of a whole school process of observing and learning from other subjects. As I was one step behind the kids as far a Maths was concerned I was sceptical about my level of contribution. The singular most positive outcome was the chance to establish a working relationship with the Head of Maths, the teacher of this class. I could not help but admire his capability of inspiring and maintaining the interest of the students – in what I considered the dullest of topics. As part of this overlap, he also asked me to trial the – new at the time, 1998! – concept of mind mapping. It worked brilliantly, and I have used it in many different guises ever since.
My favourite usage is as a tool for revision. The example I will use is ‘Othello’ – you can fit the whole play onto an A3 sheet! Give the students the following instructions:
Red = Themes – Note when the key themes are explored in particular scenes.
Orange = Character – include key scenes, and references to when they are described in the play
Green = Imagery (Green eyed monster as a trigger here…) – include key lines
Purple = Plot – Map main events – and the order they take place
Blue = Setting – chart when setting changes
THEN – get the students to make notes and revise the play by completing the mind map themselves. This is how they will get to learn it – you know it, it isn’t a test of your knowledge, it is an opportunity for them to show their independence. This technique can be applied to all kinds of novels – as well as clusters of poems from the anthologies at GCSE and A Level. You can also let them select their own colours – allow them some ownership in relation to both approach and content.
A brilliant and engaging way to revise a text. Much more creative than just reading a study guide and making notes as you go, there is no surer way of destroying the love of a text!
On a recent Pedagoo Teachmeet we were given a brief lecture by Kamil Trebiatowski and he shared with us his PowerPoint on how to use the graphic organiser as a means for supporting EAL students. Click here and it will take you to one of the presentations he gave to mainstream staff about how to use graphic organisers in the classroom. He puts many of the techniques and theories into a format that I think will be of use to all teachers, in all subjects. In this PowerPoint he explores:
- Cummin’s framework quadrant
- Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development – ZPD theory
- Mohan, Knowledge and Structures
- Substitution tables
- Dictogloss – reading and collaborative techniques
- Directed Activities Related to Texts – DARTs
My personal favourites for use in English are DARTs. I have a personal mission to re-establish the use of DARTs in teaching, and especially English teaching, so there will be a whole series of blogs to follow dedicated to this. There are a series of DART techniques that will need to be swiftly reintroduced into English teaching to ensure students have the necessary skills to approach and fully access the new style linear examinations. To support this Everything English are in the process of completing a whole series of resources for our online shop where DARTs will play a major part of our approach to teaching, and differentiating by source.
Overall, if you want to improve literacy, standards of English, and most importantly develop the independence of your students, encouraging the use of the graphic organisers in its many forms is definitely the way forward.