GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

TEXT DIAGRAM

Display the structure of the text

Aim to help the student by setting out the relationships between parts of the text and showing what each part contribute to the whole.

A text diagram made by the teacher imposes the teacher´s view of the text.

A structure may be imposed that is not entirely present in the text.

Labelling boxes involves the use of abstract terminology that may cause more poblems than it solves.

Sometimes it is harder to understand a text diagram than to understand the text itself.

It is sometimes difficult to get the students to understand what you mean by your diagram.

Words of Caution

Using text diagram

Text diagrams can relate to longer texts (The chapter of a book)

The point about text diagram is that the person who devises it must first understand the text and find a way of representing this understanding so that it will help less skillful readers.

Advanced students who have worked with text diagrams made by other people can devise diagrams themselves.

Work in text diagrams can be varied in these ways:

In whether or not metalinguistic labels are used.

In the number of boxes that are completed for the student and hence the number he has to fill in himself.

In whether the labels or the contents of the boxes are supplied (in random order)

If they are supplied, in whether the student simply has to write the number of the correct sentence/phrase in the box.

Boxes can be labelled with alternatives from which the student has to choose.

Two (or more) alternative text diagrams may be offered. (Student choose the one that best represents the text).

Text diagrams can be used as the basis for written work.

Graphic Organizer

Visual representations that communicate the logical structure of educational material (Armbruster 1994)

They can be used as teaching strategies both in class and in academic texts.

There are a wide variety of organizers.

Provides a global coherent structure of a theme.

They are two-dimensional, structured by columns and rows.

There are two types of synoptic charts: simple and double column.

The simple ones are elaborated in a somewhat free form.

The double column are made based on certain predetermined organization patterns (armbruster, ob.cit.,Harrison, 1994)

To build a simple, it is enough to know what is the central information to highlight. Identifying themes or concepts.

To help students understand the logic of the table, it is necessary to take into account aspects such as:

Analyze which is the best distribution for its understanding.

That the key issues that are interesting to review are marked in some way so that they are distinguished from the variables.

Follow the conventions that govern us in western writing, this is to write from left to right, from top to bottom and from the simple to the complex.

Double columns follow a certain organizational format based on the relationships they represent.

Columns can express the following relationships:

Causes/consequences

Like / dislike

Theory/ evidence

Problem / solution

Before / after

Actions / results

Another modality is the K-W-L of 3 columns.

First step: identify the theme

3 columns 2 raws

First column: "what is known", what is already known in relation to the subject.

Second column "what you want to know or learn".

Third column "what has been learned".

Filling in the table is done throughout the instruction process.

Recommendations for the use of synoptic tables

Do not use them indiscriminately, it must vary.

Two central questions would be the following:

1. What are the important categories, groups, or items of information associated with the topic to be represented?

How could such categories, groups or items be subdivided?

Teach students how to read, use and interpret them

Use summary tables in various ways: present them filled out, fill them out with the students, etc.

There are other graphic organizers widely used in schools and in texts that also serve to organize information: key diagrams, tree diagrams, and concept circles.