Many students struggle with organizing ideas and note-taking, whether this is preparing for class or major assignments. One tool that instructors can provide for students are organizers. These can be used in many different ways - prior to class, preparing assignments, during class, and for formative assessment. Some examples of different organizers are included below.
Advance Organizers
Advance organizers are tools that are used to prepare students for upcoming instruction. Advance organizers can be used to orient students to new topics, to outline what students need to do to prepare for class, and to help students plan and get organized. According to Bryson (2013), well-designed advance organizers do three things:
• “direct [students’] attention to what is important in the new materials,
• highlight relationships among ideas to be presented, [and]
• remind students of important related information they already have.” (p. 19)
Advance organizers can be created in many different formats. An advance organizer could be text-based such as a list of guiding questions to think about while reading a chapter in a book. An advance organizer could also be visual in nature (e.g., Venn diagrams, mind maps, charts, graphs). Here are a few examples of activities/templates that could be used as advance organizers:
• Frayer Model – The Frayer Model is an advanced organizer for developing understanding about vocabulary or general concepts. This technique requires students to apply their knowledge by writing definitions, generating examples and non-examples, giving characteristics, and/or drawing illustrations. This information is placed on a chart that is divided into four sections to provide a visual representation for students.
• Class Preparation Note – The class preparation note is pretty self-explanatory. As students prepare for class (e.g., read the textbook, complete an activity, etc.), they record what they have learned. The exercise not only helps guide and focus students as they get ready for class, but it also generates a useful study guide to be used later on.
• K-W-L – This strategy can be used to help students engage in prior learning about a particular topic. Prior to instruction, the students answer the first two questions (K-W) about the topic. This allows them to activate prior knowledge and to get mentally focused for the upcoming instruction. After instruction, the students answer the last question (L) to review what they have learned.
Bryson (2013) suggests that when advance organizers are thoughtfully planned and effectively used by students, the students will come to class having previewed the essential content that will be addressed, knowing what things they will need to take notes on (and which things they already understand), and being able to participate meaningfully in activities and discussions (p. 21).
Note-Taking Templates
Many students struggle with the best way to take notes - truthfully, there isn't "one" best way, but rather the best way that works for the individual student in that individual course. There are a few templates that can be used for note-taking during classtime.
Skeletal Outline (also called Guided Notes) - a Skeletal Outline is just like it sounds - it's a basic "skeleton" of the concepts covered during class. Students can use this to fill in the details or identify main points. These can also be used to help organize papers or presentations.
Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are commonly used in K-12 to help students organize thoughts and ideas to prepare for major assignments, like papers and presentations. They can be used in higher education too! One idea is to give students an option of using either a template for a draft or a graphic organizer. Here are a few examples of graphic organizers:
Florida State also has a collection of graphic organizer examples by subject area.
References: