GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

The use of Graphic Organizers is a strategy to help students acquire, remember, and integrate subject-specific vocabulary and key words. A cursory amount of research on the topic reveals that Graphic Organizers are recognized in a variety of educational and business literature sources as a way to not only expand vocabulary, but to promote the understanding of concepts and the relationships between, and interconnectedness with, other ideas and theories. Most importantly, they are a way to demonstrate learning; an alternative to a written assignment or oral presentation.

There are a variety of Graphic Organizers, including Venn Diagrams, T-charts, and the Frayer Model. Three hopefully useful models for the purpose of bringing together a wide variety of concepts, skills, and experiences, and the associated subject-specific vocabulary, include the Mind Map, the Concept Map, and the Word Web.

The Word Web strategy, as it could apply to a summative portfolio, simply asks students to recall new vocabulary learned during a course and takes the idea beyond simply making a list to grouping words according to relationships with other words.

The Mind Map strategy as it would apply to a summative portfolio asks students to use images as well as words, and to organize words according to a hierarchal structure to more accurately reflect the relationship of the subject specific concepts and vocabulary. A Mind Map could be seen as a combination of a flow chart and a Word Web, or an expansion of the work done to create a Word Web.

The Concept Map expands further on the Mind Map because it requires the creator to define the relationships between words and concepts. Concept Maps are often defined as not necessarily including visuals and graphics, although there is no need to exclude images if it helps with concept attainment and the expression and demonstration of understanding. Words and concepts are organized and connected with arrows or lines, but written on the arrows or lines are more words or phrases which define how or why the connection is important.

The Word Web organizes a list of vocabulary according to themes, the Mind Map organizes a Word Web further by organizing concepts in a flow chart fashion according to their relationships, and Concept Maps take this one step further by defining the nature of the relationships. A choice of one of these different strategies is perfect for a portfolio because they allow students to demonstrate learning and at the same time differentiate for different ability levels. Also, it will not be obvious that accommodations are being made. Students could be instructed on how to create a Concept Map, with the teacher taking into consideration that some students will submit what best fits the definition of a Mind Map, and others will simply create a Word Web.

Time may allow the teacher to help a student develop a Word Web into a more complex Mind Map, or even Concept Map, and thus enrich the student’s understanding of the material covered in the unit, or in this case, the experiences, concepts and knowledge hopefully gained in the Exploring Technologies course.

All three strategies are defined in more detail throughout the rest of this document.

MIND MAPS

A Mind Map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

Learn about Mind Maps by looking at this . . . Mind Map! See it up close at: http://www.novamind.com/images/Gallery/MindMappingBig.jpg

Global Warming http://media.learningfundamentals.com.au/combating-global-warming-map.jpg

View this mind map on the topic of Time Management at:

http://pkab.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/timemanagement.jpg

Art and Design (http://resourcebank.sitc.co.uk/Resources/EA/ArgyllBute/ObanHigh/IanGowdie/IaGo_J001ArtdepMindmap.jpg)

How to Create a Mind Map: Start with a Key Word or Theme in the middle of the page. Include a clear and

strong visual image that depicts key word or theme. Work outward from the centre with ideas relating to the Key Word or Theme. Use color to depict themes, associations and to make things stand out. Anything

that stands out on the page will stand out in your mind. Use arrows, icons or other visual aids to show links between different elements. Don't get stuck in one area. If you dry up in one area go to another branch. Put ideas down as they occur, wherever they fit. Don't judge or hold back. Be creative. Creativity aids memory.

Some mind map templates:

http://www.mymindmap.net/pdf/Mind_Map_Template_Mulit_Rounded.pdf

http://w ww.mymindmap.net/

pdf/

Mind_Map_Template_Mulit_Nodes.pdf

Start in the middle of the page with the word

TECHNOLOGY

What else comes to mind?

Possible prompts:

What software have you learned? What equipment have you used? What activities have you tried? What skills have you acquired? What does Technology mean to

you?

CONCEPT MAPS

A Concept Map is a diagram showing the relationships among concepts. Concept Maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as

linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts. The label for most concepts is a word or phrase, although sometimes symbols or images can be used.

Concepts can be connected with labeled arrows, in a downward-branching hierarchical structure. The relationship between concepts can be articulated in linking phrases, e.g., "gives rise to", "results in", "is required by," or "contributes to".

Concept mapping can be done for several purposes:

to aid learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge to generate ideas to design a complex structure such as a long text, or large web site to communicate complex ideas to assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding.

A Concept Map of the Seasons:

A Concept Map about Birds

A Concept Map about . . . Concept Maps!

How to Create a Concept Map

1. List the important concepts of the topic for your concept map. If you have a vocabulary list for the topic at hand, this is usually a good starting point. If no vocabulary list is available, brainstorm for ideas.

2. On a blank sheet of paper, write the main concept and circle it.

3. Write down other concepts that relate to the main concept. These are your secondary concepts. Circle them and link each one to the main concept. An arrow is drawn to link the concepts, with the arrow head pointing in the direction of the secondary concept. This will help with organization. Make sure to leave some space between each secondary concept in case you need to add several links to a particular concept.

4. Somewhere along each linking arrow in your concept map, write any helpful “connecting” words if you need to, such as ‘made up of’, ‘contains’, or ‘have’. This will help make the concept map information clearer.

5. If you need to create links from your secondary concepts to tertiary concepts, do so. Keep adding new ones until all the concepts in your vocabulary or brainstorming list have been used. Remember to keep the concept circles simple; write just the keywords that are needed.

6. The last step in how to create a concept map is to look it over to see if there are any more connections between concepts to be made. If there are, then I link them with an arrow. Using a differently colored pen or pencil for these links will reduce any confusion later on.

WORD WEBS

Word Webs are a way of teaching students to see how words and concepts can be defined and related to other words and concepts. Creating word webs can be done as a whole class, small group or individual activity.

The key word or concept is placed in the center of the page and students brainstorm words that relate to the key word or concept and categorize the words.

Word webs can help students remember vocabulary and concepts, and see connections between topics and ideas.

Creating a Word Web

1. In the center of a blank piece of paper the person constructing the web writes one word and circles it.

2. For five to ten minutes after writing the center word and circling it, the person making the web free associates, writing other words and phrases that come to mind. No attempt is made to make sense of the connections that come to mind. Each new word or phrase is connected--either to the original, circled word or to one of the subsequent ones.

3. Words can be connected by arrows or lines. They can be circled, enclosed within other shapes, or written along an arrow.

Word Web Template

Shapes Word Web