Faculty Development activity

1. Introduction to
 Making sense of the curriculum
 Reducing the cognitive demand of the learner
Patrick Hruz, Asst. Director of Education , Keystone Technical Institute

2. What are graphic organizers?
• Think – Pair – Share - what are some of the different types of
graphic organizers?
• http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-
content/uploads/pdf_activities/independent/IA_Graphic_Or
ganizers.pdf
• https://www.google.com/search?q=list+of+types+of+graphic
+organizers&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=901&source=lnms&tb
m=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju7euugOrPAhVm_4MKHTn6Dr
4Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=graphic+organizers

4. What are graphic organizers?
• Show the organization or structure of concepts, as well as the
relationship between concepts.
• Spatial arrangements depicting the information’s structure
reduce the cognitive demands on the learner.
____________________________________________________
• Our job is NOT merely to “tell” the information, our job IS to
teach it!
• It is our job, by choosing to be educators, to be proactive in
our planning, not reactive when a student is struggling to
learn!

5. Why use graphic organizers?
• Students are more likely to understand and remember the
content you are teaching.
• Graphics help students separate what is important to know
from what might not be as essential.
• It reduces the semantic information processing demands and
you can often address the content in more sophisticated or
complex ways.

7. Isn’t this just putting information
into little boxes?
• To do this – the students have to engage in powerful
information processing and higher order thinking skills such
as:
Using cues to recognize important information
Making decisions about what is important or essential
Consolidating information and identifying main ideas and
supporting details

8. Is there research supporting the
use of graphic organizers?
• An extensive body of research exists that supports the use of
graphic organizers.
• They can be effective when used in conjunction with a wide
array of teaching styles.
• They can be used to improve learning and performance of a
wide array of students – from intellectually gifted to those
with disabilities.

11. When should graphic organizers be
used?
• When you are teaching any content.
• However, graphic organizers allow you to teach more than just
the content. You are also teaching processing skills, patterns
for organizing information, analytical and critical thinking
skills, as well as communication skills.
• When the need to develop “depth” of understanding.

14. More to come…..
• Graphic Organizers Part 2 –
• What do they look like?
• How do I create or find them?
• What is it really like for the students?

15. Conclusion…..for now…..
• Teaching is not just sharing information and hoping the
student can learn it…..teaching is finding ways to help your
student learn it!