Mr. Christopherson’s students are in the early stages of their research papers on animals. They have chosen the animal they will research, and today he has been helping them understand and think about a variety of types of sources they might use for their projects. Now, the time has come to create the WEB they will use to organize their thinking while they do their research. He gives everyone a large, bright orange piece of paper, stressing the important role this web will play throughout the entire research project, and cautioning that they will want to take care to store it in a safe place until the conclusion of the projects.
Mrs. C goes to the board and begins to demonstrate step by step how to portion the paper into the sections of a web, and then how to label each section with a note related to content they will place there. He gives them explicit categories for sorting their information; “What does the animal look like?” “ Where does it live?” “What does it eat?” “What about the babies or young?” “Who are the enemies of this animal?” etc.
As Mr. C demonstrates the students follow closely, preparing their papers. When they are done, he challenges them to think about where they could store this web so that they will be able to easily access it each day. This is the first research paper of this type for these students, and the web will give them clear support and direction on how to sort through and record important facts from the sources they choose for their research.
Just as it is essential for us to carefully teach children how to organize their desks, their tables, and their lockers through modeling and example, we must teach them to organize their thinking. Thanks, Mr. C, for taking the time to do just that through use of a graphic organizer. Graphic organizers are one of the “big shovel” strategies, proven to be highly effective for improved achievement.
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