Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work (3rd Edition) by Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey

Author:Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey [Fisher, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pearson HE, Inc.
Published: 2011-04-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Picture This: Graphic

Organizers in the C lassroom

Daniel arrives at Alice Lin’s physics classroom a few minutes after the bell rings for dismissal. Twice a week Ms. Lin offers help after school for any of her students. Daniel has come because he is having difficulty understanding the relationship between work and potential and kinetic energy. He did not do well on Ms. Lin’s “daily checkup” (her term for a 10-item ungraded self-assessment she gives each day), so Daniel has scheduled time to meet with his teacher for some tutoring. Ms. Lin and Daniel talk for a few minutes and she realizes that although he knows the definitions, he doesn’t yet understand the concept.

Ms. Lin takes a blank piece of paper from the printer and begins to draw a graphic organizer (see Figure 6.1). As she and Daniel talk, she adds more details.

She then asks Daniel to explain it himself, using the impromptu organizer as a guide for his description. Twenty minutes later, Daniel leaves with the graphic organizer in hand, confident that he’ll do well on tomorrow’s daily checkup.

Graphic organizers are a popular tool for promoting and extending student un-

derstanding of concepts and the relationship between them. These visual displays of information, often arranged in bubbles or squares with connecting lines between them to portray conceptual relationships, are commonly found in many secondary classrooms. Howe, Grierson, and Richmond (1997) surveyed teachers to find out what content area reading strategies they perceived as being most useful. Whereas 82% recommended that graphic organizers like concept maps should be used

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