The Lighthouse Diary #53: The Power of Visual Maps and Graphic Organizers

How many times has a visual map or graphic organizer saved me and my students from being stumped on a task? 

All the time!

A flowchart helped me and my student unlock complex steps for a Physics essay on wave theory, while overlapping circles identifying the relationship of man’s conflict with society in the anime Attack on Titan lent clarity on another student’s approach to discuss and analyze fascism. Both students have submitted their topic proposals and we await feedback from their respective subject teacher. What else did we realize? Knowledge is never isolated. 

A Physics paper on wave theory implies further research on water resources and natural energy. Fascism is driven by the desire to control and to be controlled. My students are taking notes on this intersection of knowledge with a recognition of relevant sources that they must look for and information they need to dig and mine.

Before the 10-15 minute consultation ends, I make them write a summary or a paragraph or two interpreting the visual map / graphic organizer we made together. In forthcoming sessions, we will go back to these maps and reflections to review and build upon what we are knowing.

This is Phase 1 of the research cycle. Phase 2 begins when feedback has been rendered. It is going to be a busy summer.

#teacherlibrarian #researchprocess #yalibraryservices #academicwriting

Read more posts on Graphic Organizers in Teaching Research Skills

Visualizing Information in Research

Mind Maps as Thinking Tools

The Learning Scientist

Reading Into Writing: On Character Development

In my reading and writing workshop this summer, I had my students pick books they want to read. I have four middle grade students and I meet them separately. In our meetings, we read, discuss and write our responses to their chosen book. We read aloud together. We think aloud together and in some cases, we argue. In the end, we learn together.

One of our favorite activities is the character map. We make a chart or a map of the character's journey. We use the Beginning-Middle-Ending framework as a final map but, in between reading of the chapters, we take note and become more aware of events, words and langauge that struck us while reading.

Here is a character map of "Lu" on Alvin, the main character in the middle grade novel, The Land Without Color by Benjamin Ellefson.

The simple character map was made over a period of six weeks. Lu and I discussed what Alvin is like with friends, with family and with strange people he met in the Land of Color. The discussion was done after reading the first parts of the novel. In one sentence, I asked Lu to write Alvin's remarkable characteristics.

Towards the middle part of the novel, after several slides and notes on our responses to the story, we took a pause and sorted out the exciting adventures Alvin was having at the Land of Color. I then aske Lu to write 2-3 sentences of the changes he observed of Alvin when interacting with other characters and in making decisions. A few days ago, we finished the book and as one of the closing or culminating activity, I asked Lu to describe what became of Alvin in the end. 

After making the character map, I challenged Lu to write one paragraph that shows the character development of Alvin. Using the sentences he wrote on the graphic organizer, he was able to write a description of Alvin.

My next activity for Lu is to improve the paragraph he has written.

BA Library Online: Thinking Skills and The Learning Scientist

This month in the Academy, we have been busy trying out the Skill Tree. What we found from our small group discussions is the interconnection of skills across subjects. Take for example, the skills in reflection and remembering or retrieval are essential in writing big and small research papers or essays. Some teachers have the strategy to teach this. What research is telling us is that new strategies can be employed to help learners become better thinkers.

As a response to my colleagues' questions and needs, I re-posted the thinking skills and strategies from The Learning Scientist. I am putting it up in the blog to share with you, my dear readers.

The Learning Scientist has rich resources to guide students, teachers, and parents in studying and in the development of thinking skills. Of the varied materials that are posted in the website, the Six Strategies for Effective Learning is acclaimed as the most practical and beneficial based on decades of research in Cognitive Psychology. The Six Strategies are Elaboration, Concrete, Examples, Dual Coding, Retrieval Practice, Spaced Practice and Interleaving. Try setting them up as routines to discipline the mind and to train the brain to think clearly.

As teachers, we can use the strategies to break content into bite size pieces making it easier to understand. We can match the thinking strategies with our favourite graphic organisers. Conversation between teacher and student when using a graphic organiser becomes more meaningful. For example, we can ask students to elaborate on the relationships or similarities of ideas, concepts, elements or issues that they identified in their Venn Diagram. By using dual coding (drawing and writing), cognitive skills like long term memory and the retrieval process are strengthened. Thus, making infographics, mind maps and doodling a big hit to learners.

The strategies can also be taken as skills that students can apply during study hall, group work, study groups and independent study. Once the strategies are introduced and modelled, becoming a part of classroom teaching in synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, students are more likely to follow through. Feel free to download the files and do visit the Learning Scientist website for articles, new books, podcasts, tips for parents and sharing of learning strategies that work!

 

Teaching Teens Research: Research as Thinking and Visualizing Information

My rough draft of the Hourglass framework

I like converting information and concepts into visuals. Big ideas can be understood better when presented and communicated into shapes, images and graphics. Also, I find the whole exercise of conversion as highly creative. It's fun.

My last two posts on the research model shows it as an hourglass. The first visual  shows the idea that research is a process. The second one has the Facets of Research by Wilison and O'Regan (2007). Both visuals represent the idea that research is thinking. A thought process.

The kind of thinking that comes into play in research is similar to an hourglass where the researcher begins with macro thinking. Looking at broader concepts and then, narrowing into specifics to tighten ideas that answer the research question and leading to an agreement, an amplification of the thesis statement, if not, then an application of findings into global and real world examples. For high school students, their first foray into research can be an overwhelming experience. Research is, after all, made up of global and unitary skills. It's complicated. 

What teachers and school librarians can do to help teenagers is to pare the global skills into sub-units and put together the units into one big, global thought process. School librarians who are not as involved as teachers in teaching and instruction still have a role to contribute by suggesting and recommending websites and resources in designing visuals and infographic and customizing graphic organizers. So, I am sharing what I discovered online. Here are web apps for designing texts into easy to understand visuals and sites where teachers and students can make amazing infographics.

I will start with my favorites. For infographics, head on to easel.ly and Infogram. For e-posters, look at Canva and Thinglink for interactive boards using photos as platform or information base. I have used Thinglink several times in book promotions and library campaigns.

Here are the new ones I discovered along the way. Haiku Deck is a presentation app like Prezi, except for the magnifying feature of the latter. For the use of graphic organizers to visualize ideas, head on to Creately.

Visualizing texts and ideas can be a lot of fun. Indirectly, when done on a regular basis, it is a study skill that promotes critical thinking, creativity and metacognition. With the use of web apps, technology has upped the notch of developing the said skills.