Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 1
Running Head: ADVANCED ORGANIZERS: IMPACT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
AND WELL BEING
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being
Survey of Instructional Strategies
EDU 6526
Summer 2010
Patrick Moriarty
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 2
“If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say
this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner
already knows.
Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.”
David Ausubel
After having taught for the last seven years, it is only now that I feel I am
beginning to master certain aspects of my teaching. However, there are still areas
where I need to improve my practice so as to insure the best possible education for
my students. As an English teacher, the responsibility bestowed upon me to help
students learn to read and write is emphasized more each year. Considering this, I
constantly search for new methods and strategies to improve student achievement.
Recently I have come to understand the importance of using advance organizers to
help students – especially struggling students – organize information. It is for this
reason that I have decided to direct attention to the value of advance organizers; I
believe advance organizers are one of the key instructional strategies for improving
a student’s ability to read and write, therefore allowing him/her to achieve at a
higher level.
Advance organizers are ordered frameworks that introduce students to the
essential ideas they will be learning. They were designed to help students organize
information and help students activate prior knowledge (Marzano, Pickering &
Pollock, 2001, p. 111). The psychologist David Ausubel – credited for the
development of advance organizers – believed that “the most effective way of
increasing learning and retention of meaningful verbal materials is by manipulating
the organization, stability, and clarity of the concepts relating to new material that
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 3
already have been established in the learner’s cognitive structure” (Harris &
Cooper, 1985, p. 87). If educators want to effectively improve students’
achievement, they need to find a way of tapping into a student’s schema before new
material is presented. However, students will need a means of organizing their prior
knowledge so as to connect it to the new material; advanced organizers allow for
this arrangement.
All too often students find it difficult to make meaning from expository and
narrative texts; particularly, students with learning disabilities often have trouble
processing new information. A learning disability usually affects a student in more
than one area. “Given the lack of background knowledge and the inability to
organize the information, it may be difficult for a student with learning disabilities
to retain this newly learned information” (Dye, 2000). In my experience I have
found that different types of organizers are more valuable for these different
learners. I have been most successful with expository organizers which “function to
provide the learner a conceptual framework for unfamiliar material” (Dell’Olio &
Donk, 2007, p. 394).
When I teach literature on the Cultural Revolution in China, students usually
know very little. I provide them with the basics of Mao’s rise to power and his
intentions with his reeducation campaign. We then begin reading Balzac and the
Little Chinese Seamstress and students are able to discuss the characters’ motives
and actions based on what they have learned about Mao and his campaign. The
three main characters become obsessed with literature, but find it difficult to locate
because Mao has banned the reading of Western literature. Normally, students –
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 4
especially those with learning disabilities – would find it difficult to draw
connections between the importance of literature – freedom in having the right to
read – and an oppressive leader banning it. Through the use of the organizer,
students not only learn the important information about this time in China’s history,
but it helps students “notice important across-concept relations that are not as
apparent when viewing linear forms of notes” (Robinson, D.H., Odom, A.B., Hsieh,
Y.P., Vanderveen, A., Katayama, A.D., 2006). Students learn important historical
events while at the same time draw connections with thematic concepts. This is
helpful in that the goal of reading is to derive meaning from the text. So the
expository organizer has allowed students to draw those connections, connections
that would be difficult not only for students with learning disabilities, but for all
students.
Of course, it is important to remember that choosing the appropriate
instructional method should be based on the instructional goal. Advance organizers
are not designed to be used for every lesson. It is up to the teacher to decide when
an organizer will be most effective based on the structure of the discipline and the
content of the lesson (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007).
Graphic organizers are another form of advance organizers that can be
effective in helping students with academic achievement; specifically students with
learning disabilities. Marzano, Pickering & Pollock, (2001) describe graphic
organizers as a nonlinguistic representation and state “It has even been shown that
explicitly engaging students in the creation of nonlinguistic representations
stimulates and increases activity in the brain (see Gerlic & Jausovec, 1999)” (p. 73).
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 5
I use graphic organizers when teaching students how to write an analytical
essay. Beginning with thesis development, students first read about the importance
of a thesis and look at examples. They compare well written examples to poorly
written examples. Next, they try to formulate their own thesis, writing two parts:
the main idea and the evidence. From this point, students can develop their
introduction and integrate their thesis.
This is merely the beginning of a two week unit that I scaffold using multiple
graphic organizers. Part of Ausubel’s definition of an advance organizer is:
“its ability to “provide ideational scaffolding.” Ausubel believed that all
content areas have a structure or hierarchy. The advance organizer helps
students see the governing questions, issues and propositions that are
reflected in that hierarchy. If students understand the basic outlines of the
structure, they are able to fill in the “cracks” appropriately and effectively
with new and related information as it is presented to them” (Dell’Olio &
Donk, 2001).
Essentially, I provide students with the outline for each part of their essay:
introduction and thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion. This allows students to
fill in those “cracks,” making it easier for them to follow the structure of the essay.
My students with learning disabilities find that graphic organizers help them to
organize their thoughts, ultimately improving their academic achievement.
However, what role do these organizers play in the well-being of students?
In all honesty, I had never given much thought to an assignment, let alone an
advance organizer, fostering the well-being of a student. A student’s well-being, be
it mental, spiritual or physical is the most important expression a teacher can nurture
and support. Like other teachers, I have only encouraged a student’s emotional
well-being “by talking to [my] students about their behavior or by telling them how
Advanced Organizers: Impact on Student Achievement and Well Being 6
their inappropriate behavior needs to change in accordance with classroom rules and
schoolwide discipline policies” (Rock, 2004). Marcia Rock (2004) also points out
that “just as teachers use graphic organizers to effectively teach diverse academic
content, they can use them explicitly to help students learn prosocial patterns and
behavioral hierarchies that foster emotional competence.” Teachers have used a
variety of organizers to help students celebrate success, relate to ot her people,
communicate effectively, encourage motivation and curiosity, solve problems, and
build self-esteem and resilience (Rock, 2004). As educators, it is essential that we
are capable of helping students develop the skills that nurture emotional well-being;
advance organizers are an excellent method for promoting this.
Even with the experience of integrating advance organizers into my lessons
to promote academic achievement, I recognize and appreciate the powerful
influence they can have not only on achievement, but also on emotional well-being.
It is my intention to continue to educate myself on the different varieties and
different methods of applying these organizers. Education today is dealing with
greater diversity, employing teachers with greater challenges. The need to foster
multiple intelligences is an added challenge. If we hope to help every child succeed
academically and emotionally, we need to continue trying different instructional
strategies in different ways. Advance organizers are one strategy that has proven to
help students become more successful citizens in society.
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References
Dell'Olio, J. M. & Donk, T. (2007). Models of Teaching: Connecting Student Learning
With Standards. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.
Dye, G.A. (2000). Teaching exceptional children. Graphic organizers to the rescue!
Helping students link- and remember- information. Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 72-76.
Harris, T.L., & Cooper, E.J. (1985). Reading, thinking, and concept development:
Strategies for the classroom. New York, N.Y: College Entrance Examination
Board. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED263538)
Marzano, Robert, Pickering, Debra, & Pollock, Jane. (2001). Classroom instruction that
works. Alexandria, VA: Ascd.
Robinson, D.H., Odom, A.B., Hsieh, Y.P., Vanderveen, A., Katayama, A.D. (2006).
Increasing text comprehension and graphic note taking using a partial graphic
organizer. [Electronic version]. Journal of Educational Research, v100 n2 p103111 Nov-Dec 2006.
Rock, M.L. (2004). Graphic organizers: Tools to build behavioral literacy and foster
emotional competency. Intervention in School and Clinic. Retrieved August 14,
2010, from http://isc.sagepub.com/content/40/1/10