Foldables for the Middle/High
School Classroom
By Lori Sutherland
What are foldables?
Foldables are three-dimensional, interactive
graphic organizers that can help your
students to organize, remember, review, and
learn information. They are also a
learning/assessment tool for teachers.
What concepts can foldables
be used for?
From vocabulary words to content specific
concepts that are hard to teach, foldables
give students the opportunity to become
more involved in their learning with a handson approach to your curriculum.
Sample Usage:
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Introducing new vocabulary words
Introducing a new skill, topic, or concept
Before a chapter, lesson, story, etc.
During the lesson
After completing the chapter, lesson, story, etc.
Guided Instruction or Guided Reading
Writing process
Review
Anytime- daily
Why use foldables in my class?
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Foldables can increase achievement and
interest levels in any content area for all
middle/high school students, regardless
of age.
Why use foldables continued...
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Fun & motivating, hands-on approach to learning.
As a study guide.
Note taking to help organize information.
Reach all learners (Visual, Kinesthetic, Spacial, etc.).
Students retain information.
Alternative assessments.
Replace the use of worksheets/reduce copy counts.
Projects.
Integration of subject areas, including the arts.
Improve student note-taking skills.
Hold students accountable for content specific
knowledge.
Research tells us that graphic
organizers, such as foldables:
Help students focus on text structure as they read by:
 providing tools used to visually represent relationships in text
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helping students write well-organized summaries of text (Putting
Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching
Children to Read)
Students are actively engaged in the instructional process and
learning as they create foldables:
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Classroom Instruction That Works: Research Based Strategies
for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert Marzano
strategies are integrated (identification of similarities &
differences, summarizing & note-taking, nonlinguistic
representations, questions, cues, and advanced organizers, etc.)
Marzano’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Note Taking research...
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Effective note taking can make the difference between passing
and failing ( Hughes & Suritsky, 1994)
Independent note taking increases active participation in the
learning process, leading to improvement in memory of
information ( Ruhl & Suritsky, 1995)
Listening and then receiving notes is not as effective as taking
one’s own notes. (Carrier, 1983; Hartley, 1983; Katayama &
Robinson, 2000)
Graphically organized notes teach more than just the facts as
they increase student involvement with the information,
increasing higher order thinking (Robinson et. al., 1998)
Students had a 34 percentile gain when taught how to
summarize information and take effective notes. (Robert J.
Marzano, Classroom Strategies that Work)
How should we use foldables?
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Teacher directed, modeling
Guided practice
Alternative assessments
Independent practice-students can
create their own folds/projects
Bloom-Marzano Hybrid Taxonomy: North Carolina Thinking Skills Levels
Knowing
Organizing
Applying
Who did?
Categorize...
Give an
instance
which ___
When was?
Classify...
What is?
Where?
How is __
like or
different?
Identify...
Contrast...
Describe...
Compare...
Match...
Recall...
Put in
order...
Reorganize
__ by __
Represent
__ by __
How would
you use...?
Since you
know __,
how would
you...?
How would
you
illustrate...?
How is __ an
example of
__?
Analyzing
What are the
attributes of
__?
What
evidence is
there for __?
What are the
parts of __?
How do the
parts relate?
What are the
main ideas?
What is the
conclusion?
What
caused?
Generating Integrating Evaluating
How many
ways can
you think of
to __?
Create a
plan to __
Summarize..
What would
happen if?
Generalize
about __
Predict...
Elaborate
on...
How can you
combine __
and __?
What are
your
standards?
Is __
reliable?
What is most
significant?
Evaluate...
Judge...
If you were
__, how
would you
__?
What can
you infer?
Imagine...
Give a
synopsis...
Verify the
claims of __
How
effective was
__?
Let’s look at some samples:
Basic folds and terminology:
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Hamburger
Hotdog
Taco
Burrito
Valley
Mountain
Shutter
Accordion
Foldables Basics:
Foldables Basics continued:
Foldable Resources on the Wiki
for you:
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http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us/C_i_resources/Foldables.htm
http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks.html
http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#la
ng_arts
http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/Academic_Resources
/Best_Practices/introduction%20to%20foldables.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactiint/flipbo
ok/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hefYUxaoNa8
http://www.ateacherstreasure.com/2011/10/treasured-tipfoldables-factory.html#5_4,2_
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/06/07/the-best-teacherresources-for-foldables/