Cues, Questions,
and
Advance Organizers
Classroom Instruction that Works:
Research-Based Strategies for
Increasing Student Achievement by
Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock
Review HYIS
• Frayer Activity
• What strategies are you using in core? With
your intervention students (tier 2)? With the
other students while you are working with
your intervention students?
Video….
Cues, Questions, and Advanced
Organizers……
• Before learning new information, teachers should
help students retrieve what they already know
about a topic or “activate prior knowledge.”
• The activation of prior knowledge is critical to
learning because it helps students understand new
information, predict what might be coming, and
clarify misconceptions.
• Cues, questions, and advance organizers are three
common ways that a classroom teacher helps
students use what they already know about a topic.
Research Results: Cues and Questions
Name of Study
Focus
# of Effect
Studies
Percentile
Gain
Cues
6
16
Walberg, 1999
Questions
14
10
Redfield and Rousseau, 1981
Questions
7
28
Wise and Okey, 1883
Questions
5
14
Cues
38
20
Stone, 1983
Cues
83
27
Bloom, 1976
Cues
11
39
Crismore, 1985
Cues
231
23
Hamaker, 1986
Questions
100
27
Guzzetti, Snyder, and Glass, 1993
Questions
and Cues
11
29
Ross, 1988
The Research
• Teachers form 6 groups
• Each group reads the research about one of
the 6 strategies: cues, questions, expository
advance organizer, narrative advance
organizer, skimming as an advance
organizer, and graphic organizers presented
in advance
• Each group presents their research on a
poster (definition, examples, non-linguistic)
• Use the graphic organizer to take notes
Cues
• Cues involve “hints” about what the students are
about to experience.
• Cues and questions should focus on what is
important as opposed to what is unusual.
•
Use Explicit Cues:
–
–
–
–
Preview of what students are about to learn
Activates prior knowledge
Should be straightforward
Teacher can elicit from students what they already
know about a topic.
***Classroom Examples?
Questions
• Questions perform the same function as cues.
• The teacher may write a list of questions on the
board to provide a focus for learning new
information.
1. Should focus on what is important not unusualCues and questions should focus on what is
important as opposed to what is unusual
2. Use Bloom’s: “Higher level” questions produce
deeper learning than “lower level” questions
3. Increasing wait time increases depth of answers
4. Questions are an effective tool even before a
learning experience
***Classroom Examples?
Advance Organizers
An organizational framework teachers can present
to students prior to teaching new content to prepare
them for what they are about to learn.
Advance organizers take the surprise out of what
is to come, help students retrieve what they already
know about a topic, and focus them on new
information.
Students are able to see the connections and/or the
relationship between pieces of information.
Expository Advance Organizers
• An expository advance organizer may
simply provide students with the meaning
and purpose of what is to follow.
• On the other hand an expository organizer
may present students with more detailed
information of what they will be learning
especially the information that may be
difficult to understand.
***Classroom Examples?
Narrative Advance Organizers
-A narrative advance organizer takes the form of
a story. Here the teacher provides the essential
ideas of a lesson or unit she plans to teach by
telling a story that incorporates the ideas.
-Stories can make something distant or unfamiliar
seem personal and familiar.
-Stories can stimulate students’ thinking and help
them make personal connections to new
information
***Classroom Examples?
Skimming as a Graphic Organizer
– When a teacher asks students to skim learning
materials, he/she provides them with the
opportunity to preview the important information
that will encounter later by focusing on and
noting what stands out in headings, subheadings,
and highlighted information.
-Preview important information quickly by noting
what stands out in headings and highlighted
information
-Pre-reading questions or SQ3R (survey, question,
read, recite, review) can be helpful before skimming
***Classroom Examples?
Graphic Organizers
Presented in Advance
• Graphic organizers also provide students with
guidance on what the important information is in a
lesson or unit.
• They visually represent information students are
about to learn.
• They give students direction and also provide a
visual representing of the important information.
• It is easy to see what is important and the
relationships between the ideas and patterns in the
information where they exist.
***Classroom Examples?
In Conclusion
• Before learning new information, teachers should help
students retrieve what they already know about a topic or
“activate prior knowledge.”
• Cues, questions, and advance organizers are three common
ways that a classroom teacher helps students use what they
already know about a topic to learn new information.
• Cues give hints of what is to be learned.
• Analytical and inferential questions asked of students
before learning help fill-in the gaps and provide a focus for
learning.
• Narrative advance organizers, expository advance
organizers, skimming, and graphic organizers help students
focus on important information by providing a mental set.
WORKTIME
• Go to tech4hyis.pbworks.com
• Use the handout to find specific strategies
you can use with your students (in core or
tier 2)
• Record your next steps and how Kiser can
help you (turn in to Kiser!)