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Copyright © 2009 by Corwin Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without
the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in
critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse
Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales
promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions
can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales
Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY
10018 or [email protected].
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction: From Potential to Performance
I
would like to thank the many educators, colleagues, friends, and
family members who supported me as I made my way through
the idea generating, field testing, and writing stages of this
book. I would like to recognize the work of educators who have
influenced this material and in particular Richard Paul, Lorin
Anderson, David Krathwohl, Robert Marzano, Matthew Lipman, Carol
Ann Tomlinson, Sandra Kaplan, Eric Jensen, and Mel Levine.
I would like to thank the following teachers who field tested the
graphic organizers at the elementary, middle, and high school levels:
Terrance Gould, Melissa Antrim, Jen Blair, June Lajeunesse, Leah
Matvay, Danae Secunde, Marianne Stephenson, Cindy Thorne,
Heather Chambers, Doreen Carson, Ed Disy Melanie Ekstedt, Janice
Fickett, Celeste Frisbee, Joshua Gagnon, Kristen Gentile, Katie Knox,
Michael Levine, and Lynn Mercier.
I would like to thank my colleagues who provided support when
this book was still in manuscript form. They are Dr. James Curry, Dr.
Diane Heacox, Karen Shible, Pam Lester, Ira Waltz, and Dr. Cecilia
Boswell.
I would like to thank the Skyhorse Publishing team who enabled
this book to come to fruition. I am grateful to Alison Sharp for her
commitment to the book. Thank you to Carol Collins for her editing
efforts and her help in structuring the book. I would like to thank
Brett Ory for her assistance and feedback. I would also like to thank
copy editor Taryn Bigelow for her ability to edit with an eagle eye.
Her comments were invaluable in moving the book into its final
stage. I would also like to thank the production editor, Veronica
Stapleton, for her guidance and support.
Thank you to my family and friends who were incredibly
supportive of me while I was writing this book. Their love and
support helped me on my journey and continue to enrich my world.
PUBLISHER’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Skyhorse Publishing thanks the following reviewers for their contributions to
this work:
Sarah Miller
Resource Teacher
Baldwin County Schools: Orange Beach Elementary
Orange Beach, AL
Jennifer Sinsel
Science Teacher
John Marshall Middle School
Wichita, KS
Joseph Staub
Resource Specialist Teacher
Thomas Starr King Middle School
Los Angeles, CA
Brigitte Tennis
Head Mistress and Seventh Grade Teacher
Stella Schola Middle School
Redmond, WA
Robert E. Yager
Professor of Science Education
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
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About the Author
E
ducators are and I hope always will be concerned with their
students’ level of achievement. We believe an overarching goal
in education is to help all students move from potential to
performance. To this end, we have spent millions of dollars and
hours conducting scientifically based research studies to find the
magic answer to the age-old question: What can we do to help our
students achieve? What can we do to bring students up to grade
level or challenge them beyond grade-level expectations? How can
we help students achieve all they can achieve?
I have come to realize that one basic problem exists. Our
definition of achievement is relative: What one person says is an
acceptable level of achievement another thinks is unacceptable.
Sometimes a student has an exceptional personality or a singular
talent, but can’t achieve academically. In school, such a student is
viewed as unsuccessful. The student feels like a failure. In fact, from
a purely academic viewpoint, their grades and their inability or
unwillingness to meet state standards verify this. In school, it is
what you do academically that counts. But we cannot separate who
the learner is and what the learner does, because achievement
affects self-esteem and self-confidence, and self-esteem and self-
confidence affect achievement. Achievement cannot be easily or
narrowly defined or measured.
TRENDS IN ACHIEVEMENT
In the search for answers, many educational fads have come and
gone. In the 1970s, “thinking skills” was the latest fad. Educators
claimed that teachers weren’t asking their students to think deeply
about content. The fear was that students were learning information
at a rote level, quickly forgetting what they learned or never really
learning it at all. The thinking skills movement took hold and “high-
level verbs” became the rage. Bloom’s Taxonomy became the
guiding light and teachers classified their questions accordingly.
But soon, some teachers protested: If we spend too much time
focusing on thinking skills, content will be compromised. There won’t
be enough time to teach content. Articles began to appear in
educational journals with titles such as “Content Versus Thinking
Skills.” The debate continued for years.
The thinking skills movement took a back seat, staff development
no longer focused on thinking skill models, and teachers sometimes
used Bloom’s Taxonomy to address high-level thinking objectives,
while others no longer thought much about it. State tests continued
to focus on low-level thinking and teachers went back to targeting
this level of thinking because that is what the tests were designed to
evaluate. Textbook companies targeted low-level thinking in the
name of reaching all students. Only their enrichment activities
focused on high-level thinking. Many teachers stopped questioning
whether this level of achievement was acceptable.
When the thinking skills movement passed, the learning styles
movement took its place. Researchers such as McCarthy, Dunn and
Dunn, Meyers Briggs, and others were now telling us that if we just
looked at the student’s style of learning, we could vary our
instructional strategy to accommodate it. Thus, learning styles
became the key to achievement. About this time, Howard Gardner
(1993) came out with his multiple intelligences. Teachers were now
excited about this new way to classify learners. Teachers began to
allow students to show what they knew in a variety of ways
according to their intelligences. Brain research supported the notion
that students learn through a variety of pathways. Neuroscience
confirmed that the brain is affected by stress, emotion, and physical
activity and that this also affects our ability to learn; therefore,
teachers were encouraged to promote active learning rather than
passive learning. The stage was set for the differentiation
movement.
Among the variety of instructional strategies that became popular
at this time, one that held great promise was the graphic organizer.
They were easy to use and everyone liked them. They seemed to be
a great aid for the many visual learners in the classroom, as well as
a useful way to help all students organize and review information. A
plethora of graphic organizers emerged, with formats ranging from
simple to complex. Teachers liked using them because they provided
students with structure. In fact, some teachers became graphic
organizer junkies: They used them a lot and were always searching
for a new graphic organizer to complement a lesson.
Graphic organizers were, and still are, engaging and useful tools.
They enable students to be successful with information they would
otherwise have struggled to learn. They’ve also raised awareness
among teachers that students have a variety of needs that can be
met through a variety of graphic tools. It became apparent that one
graphic organizer will not work in all situations, just as one type of
instruction will not suit all students.
DIFFERENTIATION: ANOTHER FAD?
Fast forward to the last ten years or so, when differentiation has
become popular. The term originally described the types of
curriculum modifications teachers made for gifted and talented
students. Teachers were trained to modify the content, process,
and/or product of a lesson to meet the needs of the gifted learner.
Soon, however, differentiation made its way into the regular
classroom, as an instructional approach that targets the needs of all
students.
Excitement mounted. Could this be the answer to the
achievement question? As many schools jumped on the
differentiation bandwagon, staff development focused on changing
teaching habits—and the results were mixed. Effective change in
classroom practice requires careful support and ongoing staff
development. After providing one- or two-day workshops or even
one-week trainings, many school districts were discouraged when
their teachers slipped back into old habits of whole class instruction.
But in districts that had the finances and commitment to set up long-
term goals and extended training programs, more teachers effected
significant changes in their teaching styles and many schools
experienced an overall increase in student achievement.
I believe differentiation is here to stay because the wide variety
of needs of the children in our classrooms is here to stay. No longer
do we have classrooms where everyone speaks English as a first
language, and no longer are these students necessarily low-
performing students. Research conducted by the National
Foundation for American Policy shows that 60 percent of the nation’s
top science students and 65 percent of the top mathematics
students are children of recent immigrants (Friedman, 2005, p. 270).
In an age of inclusion, no longer are students with disabilities
separated from their peers. Advanced Placement classes are
promoting equal access at the high school level. Different languages,
different ability levels, different thinking styles, and different special
needs all contribute to the general call for differentiated instruction.
Graphic Organizers
Tools to Promote Critical and
Creative Thinking
G
raphic organizers provide teachers with tools to help students
on the road to higher achievement. Graphic organizers that
target critical and creative thinking verbs are vehicles to help
develop students’ cognitive abilities and provide formats for students
to process their thinking about content. Graphic organizer formats
also allow teachers to diagnose where students’ thinking has gone
awry. Teachers can pinpoint areas in which students’ thinking is
weak, illogical, or unclear. The structure and language of the
organizer allows teachers to be able to coach students and move
them beyond where thinking has fallen apart. Graphic organizers
provide new language that facilitates classroom communication, as
well as deepen understanding of the content that teachers work to
transmit.
For certain students, the use of graphic organizers is particularly
beneficial:
For students who easily fall victim to faulty reasoning, they are
an aid to the thinking process.
For students who have difficulty expressing their thoughts, they
provide a format for expression.
For students who have difficulty processing information, they
provide a structure within which to state content and support
for ideas.
For students who are visual learners, they provide a visual aid.
For students who ramble, they help focus the response.
For students who are English Language Learners, they can
enable the expression of depth of thought through the use of
limited written responses.
Voi siis kuvitella, mikä sotilaallinen ryhti oli nyt näillä Pitoun
kolmellaneljällä miehellä, joiden yllä oli oikeat asetakit ja
sotilashousut, ja kuinka keikarimainen asento heidän päälliköllään,
jonka pikku hattu oli kallellaan toiselle korvalle, kaulalaatta rinnalla,
»kissankäpälät» olkapäillä ja miekka kädessä.
Catherine oli kalpea, mutta onnellinen, sillä tänä aamuna hän oli
löytänyt kirjeen ontosta piilipuusta — Pitoun huolenpidon tuloksena.
Hän ei ollut nähnyt Catherinea sen jälkeen kuin oli jättänyt hänet
maatilan sairasvuoteelle, ja sanomme toistamiseen, että tyttö oli
hänen mielestään niin kaunis ja niin onnellinen, että hän vallan
haltioitui hänet nähdessään.
»Hyvä on.»
Kello tuli puoli kymmenen eikä näitä esineitä ollut vieläkään tuotu.
Pormestari hermostui.
»Ah, on kovin hauskaa, että olen vapaa», sanoi apotti, »on kovin
hauskaa, ettei minua voi pakottaa… Olette tosiaan liian ystävällinen,
herra pormestari.»
Billot jatkoi:
»No niin», jatkoi hän, »sanokaapa nyt, mistä johtuu, että kaikkien
toisten täyttäessä velvollisuutensa te yksin, te, joka olette valittu
muiden esikuvaksi, te yksin, kuuletteko, te ette täytä
velvollisuuttanne?»
Ihmisoikeuksien julistus
»Mutta, herra Billot», sanoi hän, »nyt meillä ei ole enää pappia!»
»IHMISOIKEUKSIEN JULISTUS
Billot jatkoi:
»5. Lailla ei ole oikeutta kieltää muita toimintoja kuin ne, jotka
vahingoittavat yhteiskuntaa. Mitä laki ei kiellä, sitä ei voida estää
eikä ketään voida pakottaa tekemään, mitä se ei säädä…»
Billot jatkoi:
»6. Laki on yleisen tahdon ilmaus…»
Billot jatkoi:
Billot vaikeni.
Sitten katettiin pöytiä porttien eteen. Rikas tai köyhä, kukin toi
annoksen, omenaviinipuolikkaan tai oluthaarikan, viinipullon tai
vesikulhon ja koko kansa otti osaa tähän suurateriaan Jumalaa
ylistäen. Kuusituhatta kansalaista aterioi saman pöydän ääressä,
veljeyden pyhän pöydän ääressä!
Ikkunan alla