Thursday, November 20, 2014

Week 11- Assignment 2

After reading the article, the strategy I chose is the Graphic Organizer. I’ve always learned well through the use of a graphic organizer as a student and, as a teacher, I find to be very effective as well.  It is very visual strategy that really takes the information being learned and organizes the content in a clear and concise manner. It basically demonstrates relationships between facts, concepts or ideas. In the thinking and writing process, the graphic organizer helps identify the subtopics and areas of focus within a broader topic and breaks it down for the students, making it easier to understand and identify. There are many forms of graphic organizers such as concept webs, maps, tree diagrams, and Venn Diagrams. This strategy can be used in many ways. It can be used to helps students with brainstorming, classify ideas and examine relationships, and helps students structure their writing by organizing the information the have in a visual way. They can also be used to compare and contrast information from a story, figuring out cause and affect, and any other skill that requires making visual associations and identifying connections. I  feel this strategy is one if the best and most effective as it can be used for any subject and discipline (think teaching the Food Web in Science or cause and effect situations in History…) and can help all type of learners, like ESLs, when used as a visual scaffold. Its way of organizing information and any research the students may be collecting makes it easier for students to follow along and comprehend.



This article discusses how graphic organizers assists students in activating prior knowledge, gaining an insight into text structure, identifying as well as connecting the main ideas of a text resulting thus in better recall and retention of information. It does mention , however, the research sows that in order for graphic organizer to be effective, students have to be properly taught regarding construction of  a graphic diagram and teacher have to model how to use them as well.


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