Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

New Teacher Boot Camp

Suzanne Whisler

ESU 4

January 31, 2014

Goals for our session . . .

•Examine how to use . . . • Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers to help students interact with new knowledge

•Explore ways to weave technology into the instructional strategies

Educational researchers have shown that the activation of prior knowledge is critical to learning of all types.

~ (Marzano, 2001, 2007)

What will I do to help students effectively interact with new

knowledge? 

What’s in your toolbox?

From…

To…

CategoryAve. Effect

SizePercentile

gain

Identifying similarities and differences 1.61 45

Summarizing and note taking 1.00 34

Reinforcing effort and providing recognition .80 29

Homework and Practice .77 28

Nonlinguistic representations .75 27

Cooperative learning .73 27

Setting objectives/providing feedback .61 23

Generating and testing hypotheses .61 23

Questions, cues, and advance organizers .59 22

How can teachers use cues, questions, and advance organizers to activate prior knowledge?

Previewing

• Any activity that starts students thinking about the content they will encounter

• Helps students activate prior knowledge• Particularly useful for students who don’t

have a lot of background knowledge about the topic

• The activation of prior knowledge is critical to learning because it helps students understand new information, predict what might be coming, and clarify misconceptions.“Educational researchers have shown that the activation of prior knowledge is critical

to learning of all types.” ~ (Marzano, 2001, 2007)

Previewing

• Cues

• Questions

• Advance Organizers

– The research on using advance organizers

is significant. 3 to 29 percentile gain.

– The research on using cues is also

significant. 3 to 32 percentile gain

How do you use cues in your classroom?

– Brief teacher summary

– Hints

– Video Clip

– Photos

– Preview Questions

– Quick Draw

– Skimming

Cues

Do a Quick Draw

• Do a Quick Draw to activate prior knowledge or to access what they already know.– For example, beginning a unit on mammals with first

graders- Ask all students to draw two animals, one that is a mammal and one that is not a mammal.

– Another example…as you begin studying a frog, ask students to quickly sketch an outline of the frog and then to draw the major organs, paying attention to their location, size, and shape.

Use Skimming

• A good previewing practice• Think aloud how to skim with your students• Use text features

– Headings, pictures, captions, bold face words

• Ask yourself questions as you look at text features

• Briefly predict what you think the passage is about

Technology Tools for Cues• Videos

– BrainPop http://www.brainpop.com/educators/home/– Learn 360 http://www.learn360.com/Default.aspx?

Pageid=371217– Watch Know Learn http://www.watchknowlearn.org/– Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/– National Geographic Education http://bit.ly/zBFHyP– YouTube www.youtube.com

• Quiet youtube• Photos

– Getty Images http://bit.ly/zME8dz– Google Images www.google.com

AdvanceOrganiz

ers

Advance Organizers

• Focus on what’s important

• Organize information

• Help students maneuver through text

• Enhance comprehension

• Aid in transfer of knowledge

K-W-L

What do you know?What do you want

to know?What did you learn?

Getting ready to learn…..

The film “A Country in Conflict” describes the conditions of the North and South prior to the Civil War and the events leading up to the Civil War.

What do you already know about the Civil War?

While watching the film. Think about:

•What were the political, economic, and social conditions that existed in the South and North before the Civil War?

•How did the differences between the North and South lead to war?

•Could the differences have been resolved using another means other than war?

What did you learn as a result of watching the film?

Graphic Organizers Presented in Advance

Graphic organizers also provide students with guidance on what the important information is in a lesson or unit.

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.

Technology Tools for Advance Organizers

• Interactive Graphic Organizers

http://bit.ly/AeWMYM

• Teach-nology

– http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/

graphic/

• Sample Anticipation Guide

– http://bit.ly/anticipationguide

• Suzanne’s Diigo Links http://bit.ly/xHRaP9

Anticipation Guides

See the wiki for examples of advance organizers and anticipation guides

http://esu4instructionalstrategies.wikispaces.com

Teach Back

• Work in pairs

• One person is teacher, one is student• Teacher: Explain why previewing new

knowledge is critical and one way you can preview new knowledge with students.

• Student: Listen to the teacher and ask questions for clarification.

• Switch roles

Questioning

Questions should . . . • Focus on what is important

• Promote high levels of thinking to deepen knowledge

–Infer

–Analyze

–Critique

Share Your Wisdom

• Work in your groups of 4.– Choose a facilitator for your group.

– Choose a reporter for your group.

– Every group member is a recorder!

• Read each research-based statement about questioning.

• Discuss the implications for your classroom.

– What are you currently doing in your classroom that addresses each statement?

– What additional strategies might you use?

• When time is called, the reporter should be prepared to summarize the conversation.

Teachers ask many questions. Most teacher questions are at the lowest cognitive level—known as

fact, recall, or knowledge.Implications:

– Sattes,B. & Walsh, J., (2005). Quality

questioning research-based practice

to engage every learner.

• Teachers asked an average

of 50.6 questions; students

posed only 1.8 questions in

a 30 minute period.– Encouraging teachers to encourage

children’s curiosity: A pivotal

competence. Journal of Clinical Child

Psychology, 8, 101-106.

• Teachers should plan their

questions before asking.

• Teachers should ensure that

questions match the

instructional objectives and

promote thinking.

• Teachers should purposefully

plan and ask questions that

require students to engage

in higher level thinking.

How do you use questioning before a learning

experience?• Questions perform the same function as cues.

• Provide a focus for learning new information.

Not all students are accountable to respond to all questions.

Implications:

• Teachers frequently call

on volunteers, and these

volunteers constitute a

select group of students.• Sattes,B. & Walsh, J., (2005).

Quality questioning research-

based practice to engage every

learner.

• Teachers should

establish classroom

norms that every

student deserves an

opportunity to answer

questions.

• All students’ answers

are important.

How do you ensure every student has an opportunity

to respond?

Every Child responds every time!

• “Smile if you’re ready.”

• “Nod if you’re on page 16.”

• “Hold your pen up and wiggle it if you have your

homework .”

• “If you agree with me on this, raise one pinky.”

• “If this concept makes sense to you, give me a

thumbs up.”

• “If you’re finished, turn your paper over.”

• “Hold up the handout if you have received one.”

Richard Howell Allen, Impact Teaching, 2002

– Paired Responses (A/B partner response)

– Choral responses

– Hand signals (thumbs up/down)

– Popsicle sticks

– Response cards

– Response technologies

– Random Name Callers

• http://www.barryfunenglish.com/tools/random-student-selector

More ways to get every student involved . . .

Have you done a Scoot?• Write content questions (enough so

there is one on every desk)• Give each student a response sheet

(depending on level, they can respond with A,B,C or single words or sentences)

• Each child goes to a desk and reads the question on the card and marks their response on their sheet.

• At the teacher’s signal, they move to the next desk.

Teachers typically wait less than one second after asking a

question before calling on a student to answer.

Implications:

• Teachers wait even

less time before

speaking after the

student has answered.

• Sattes,B. & Walsh, J., (2005).

Quality questioning research-

based practice to engage every

learner.

• Both wait times 1 and

2 promote student

thinking and foster

more students

formulating answers

to more questions.

Teachers often accept incorrect answers without probing; they frequently answer their own

questions.Implications:

• Sattes,B. & Walsh, J., (2005).

Quality questioning research-

based practice to engage

every learner.

• Teachers should seek to

understand incorrect or

incomplete answers

more completely by

gently guiding student

thinking with

appropriate probes.

3838

Probes for incomplete or incorrect….

1. Say more about that….2. Give an example….3. Tell me why you think that….4. I might agree but I need

more….

What will I do to help students effectively interact with new

knowledge? • Peruse the handout

– What strategies do you see me use

today?

– What strategies could you use in your

classroom?

In Summary…• 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.

• Advance graphic organizers help students focus on important information by providing a mental set.

Commitment:

•Jot down one new thing you will try in your classroom as a result of today’s discussion.

•Tell someone else what you plan to do.