Mary Anna Thornton

CEP-810

May 16, 2008

Meaningful Application of Word in Education:Using Graphic Organizers and Product Guides

The Problem of Practice

This document is made up of a graphic organizer and a product guide. I use these, one after the other, early in the process of teaching students how to write a five-paragraph essay. The main “problem of practice” that these documents address is:

1)The natural tendency of inexperienced students to think and write in an idiosyncratic free-form manner.

2)The difficulty of teaching students the technique of organizing their thoughts and then, their writing, into a conventional, logical, sequential format.

A secondary “problem of practice” that these documents address is the difficulty that inexperienced writers seem to find with reviewing their work critically and then revising it. A tertiary “problem of practice” is the resistance that students exhibit to these processes; many find these tasks tedious and unappealing.

Looking at instruction in general as opposed to writing instruction specifically, graphic tools like these are highly effective in teaching students a critical task: how to self-direct and self-assess rather than depend solely on teacher instruction and feedback. (So the “problem of practice” from this perspective would be the student’s dependence on the teacher.)

Why this Document Makes a Difference

The graphic organizer makes a difference by:

1)Breaking down into clear steps the complex task of organizing thoughts and words into the conventional five-paragraph essay format.

2)Providing scaffolding for inexperienced students: the structure of the essay is already depicted graphically and students just fill it in with their own thoughts and words.

3)Reducing the tediousness of the task by providing a simple guide that allows students to create a satisfactory product relatively quickly.

The graphic organizer product guide makes a difference by:

1)Teachinginexperienced students to review work critically by providing a guide that leads them through the task.

2)Reminding students a second time of the critical elements of the five-paragraph essay.

3)Helping students identify changes that could improve their document.

4)Lightening up (the smiley faces) a task many students see as dull.

Both documents make a difference by:

1)Allowing beginners to work in a relatively independent and self-directed manner.

2)Teaching students how to self-assess rather than depending on teacher feedback.

3)Reducing the time it takes students to grasp the concept of five-paragraph essay organization.

4)Making it significantly more likely that a student will create a successful product on a first attempt.

5)Allowing the teacher to interact with the student in a more positive manner: the student produces a fairly good product and the teacher has many opportunities to givespecific positive reinforcement. If the student needs redirection, the teacher can simply refer gently to the guiding documents, for example saying, “Oh, look, that box is still empty, you must have accidentally missed that,” or “Why don’t you check over this line in the product guide again?” This type of cue is more effective and less demoralizing than direct criticism. Maintaining a high level of student morale is critical to learning.

The Strategy for Using this Document

The actual steps used with these documents depend on the particular class. With a less experienced group of students, I model the use of both documents by slowly and explicitly completing one in front of the class. Often I pick an easy and somewhat silly topic, even with older students, to lighten things up. If the class picks up right away on how to do it, then they can participate and add their ideas. After the demonstration, the students fill in their own graphic organizers on a topic of their own choice in small groups or individually. I circulate and observe, and either move the class on to the assessment piece, or go back and review how to fill in the graphic organizer if it seems necessary. A more experienced group of students who are already somewhat familiar with the 5-paragraph-essay format might be able to quickly review and fill in the graphic organizer without so much instruction.

Once students fill in the graphic organizer completely, they move on to assessing their work with the graphic organizer product guide. If this is working right, students usually will spontaneously say,”Oops!” or hit their foreheads with their hands and say, “I can’t believe I forgot that!” or give other signs that they are actually analyzing their work based on the product guide. I then ask students to create a better draft of the graphic organizer based on their analysis. A more mature group that gets along well might be able to manage this assessment in pairs, but I am careful to use peer assessment only if the classroom climate and relationships, and the social and verbal skills of the students, suggest that no one’s feelings will get crushed.

The Strategy for Assessing Student Work with this Document

When I assess, I focus most on students’ engagement with the task, although I also assess the actual quality of their product. I make clear to the students that they are practicing some very important tasks: first, how to set up properly for writing a five-paragraph essay, and, second, how to assess and correct their work independently, based on objective criteria. I point out to them that that’s what “real life” after school is all about: you don’t have a teacher following you around all the time telling you if you’ve done something right or wrong. I emphasize that I expect to see sincere engagement in these tasks, andI assure them that, as long as they really engage with the work, the quality of their product will come along in time. I collect and assesstheir first draft organizer, product guide, and second draft organizer. For this type of everyday classroom practice, I assess and assign a grade to studentsbased on their level of engagement in the task. I assess the quality of the graphic organizer and product guide not to assign a grade to it, but instead to find out for myself how well the student is grasping the task and how much more instruction and practice they are likely to need.