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Graphically Organizing the "Big6"™By Miguel Guhlin
"The best ideas," wrote Seneca, "are common property." If you use the
Web on a regular basis, then chances are that you've dug for oil on common
ground. Three ideas have come together in project-based curriculum
development in Texas:
- Project-based learning in the form of WebQuests
- Graphic organizers
- The Big6™
Our students are engaged in problem-solving investigations every day.
We can help them by using Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz's "The Big6™
Skills." Click here to read about the Big6™ and graphic organizers (also
known as concept maps or webs).
If the best ideas are common property, then the answers to the
following questions will give you a leg up on how to integrate
project-based learning via the Internet, the Big6™, and graphic organizer
software into the teaching and learning process. The questions are listed
as follows:
- What are WebQuests?
- What are graphic organizers?
- Why use graphic organizers with the Big6™ in the context of
WebQuests?
- Why do teachers and students get excited about all this?
- How do you get started?
What Are Webquests?
To paraphrase Dr. Judi Harris, "Information is public. It doesn't
become knowledge until we make it private." WebQuests focus students on
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information as students work
collaboratively to solve a real world problem or complete a task. Each
team member assumes roles that best represent some aspect of reality.
Students engage in problem-solving investigations to construct their own
knowledge.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, when we work with new ideas, we must
repeat them "over and over again," until we have put them in language
plain enough "for any boy to comprehend."
Shared on the Web, we can find the realistic product in language that
is comprehensible to children. WebQuest creator Dr. Bernie Dodge refers to
the process of comprehension as the "active learning flow." You can read
more about his work at the WebQuest Page.
| |
Inputs |
Transformations |
Outcomes |
| Active Learning Flow |
- references, articles
- images, sounds
- news reports, press releases
- experts
- dynamic data sources
- project / field reports
|
- comparison / contrast
- concept creation
- analysis
- synthesis
- evaluation
- problem solving
- decision making
- policy formation
|
- oral presentations
- written reports, letters, etc.
- creative writing
- videoconferencing
- audioconferencing
- Web publishing
|
|
Students gather information from a variety of inputs, transform
information into knowledge, and then demonstrate their knowledge to
others through Web pages, presentations, or dioramas. The Big6's
steps of task definition, information-seeking strategies, use of
information, synthesis, and evaluation can make the information
problem-solving component of the WebQuest-the process-more
meaningful for students.
What Are Graphic Organizers?Note taking can be an arduous,
boring task, whether you are listening to a lecturer or are reading
a text. Tony Buzan developed a note-taking method that is designed
to satisfy the needs of the whole brain (left and right cortex).
This new method would include not only words, numbers, order,
sequence, and lines, but also color, images, dimension, symbols.
Buzan did this because the human brain works primarily with key
concepts in an interlinked and integrated manner. He therefore
thought that our notes and word relations might also be structured
in this manner. The advantages of graphic organizers are as follow:
- The main idea is more clearly defined (central idea).
- The relative importance of each idea is clearly indicated
(proximity to central idea).
- The links between key concepts will be immediately recognized.
- Adding new information is easy.
- Individuality of maps aids recall.
- The open-ended nature of the map will enable the brain to make
new connections more readily.
Graphic organizers are different maps, or frameworks, on which
students can hang new ideas. Some of the common graphic organizers
include fishbones,
compare-and-contrast matrices, Venn diagrams, spider maps, cycles,
and series chains or time lines. The key is that students build
their own maps so as to reflect how new information links to their
existing theory, or schema, of the world.
Why Use The Graphically Organized BIG6™ Process With
Webquests?The Big6™ is a systematic approach to information
problem solving. As such, it provides students with the support they
need in the midst of the transformation component-which usually
appears in the WebQuest process component as a summarizing act-of
the active learning flow. If we combine the Big6 with graphic
organizers, students are able to see how problems have different
causes or pieces that have to be dealt with before they can begin to
develop a solution. In developing their presentation in the
synthesis process, they can put together a storyboard map.
Why Do Teachers And Students Get Excited About All
This?WebQuests and their creation are powerful learning
experience for teachers, providing a framework for developing
curricula that are multicultural and connected to real life. As we
encounter new experiences or information, we work with existing
schema to make them all fit together in a way that makes sense. This
makes the previously abstract now concrete. Students can be artistic
in their production of graphic organizers that represent their
understanding of content. This allows them to represent and
demonstrate their comprehension in a pictorial way. Click here to
see online
examples of actual student work with graphic organizers.
How Do You Get Started?
- Familiarize yourself with the various graphic organizers that
are available.
Inspiration is a great
software program to use for creating graphic organizers with your
students.
You can follow the process for introducing
graphic organizers to your students shared by David Hyerle, the
author of Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge (1996). A
companion program to the idea of thinking maps is Thinking Maps
software.
- Present at least one good example of a completed graphic
outline.
- Model how to construct either the same graphic outline or
the one to be introduced.
- Provide procedural knowledge.
- Coach the students.
- Give the students opportunities to practice.
- Become familiar with the Big6 and how graphic organizers fit
into each of the steps (realize that the steps don't have to be
taken in order). The following table provides an
overview.
|
| BIG6 SKILL |
GRAPHIC ORGANIZER |
| Task Definition
1.1 Define the problem
1.2 Identify information needed. |
Chain of Events: Use to plan problem-solving process.
Fishbone Mapping: Use to identify problem causes and
interrelationships between them and the problem.
Cycle: Use to show interactions between events. |
| Information-Seeking-Strategies
2.1 Determine all possible sources
2.2 Select the best source |
Clustering: Use to generate ideas about possible sources
of information. |
| Location and Access
3.1 Locate sources
3.2 Find information within sources |
Compare and Contrast: Use to compare and contrast
information sources.
Spider Map: Use to explore a topic and identify main ideas
and details. |
| Use of Information
4.1 Engage
4.2 Extract |
Continuum: Use to develop time lines and rating scales or
to show historical progression.
Compare and Contrast: Use to compare and contrast
information sources.
Venn Diagram: Use to identify similarities and
differences. |
| Synthesis
5.1 Organize information from multiple sources
5.2 Present the result |
Problem and Solution: Use to identify a problem and
consider multiple solutions and possible results.
Storyboard: Use to map presentation or Web page. |
| Evaluation
6.1 Judge the result
6.2 Judge the process |
Interaction Outline: Use to judge the problem-solving
process and the interactions between team members.
|
Work with a team of teachers to develop a WebQuest that includes
actual student samples of work. Creating Web-Based
Lessons offers templates and WebQuest concept maps for your
use.
Use graphic organizer software such as Inspiration.
ConclusionWorking with WebQuests, the Big6™, and graphic
organizers can seem complicated, but remember that the emphasis is
on curriculum development, not any particular program's technical
requirements. As students, teachers work together to use graphic
organizers and the Big6™ to enhance the information problem-solving
component of real-life situations. In doing so, they assume and
share ownership of some uncommon ideas. And it is uncommon ideas
that sometimes lead to the best ideas.
ReferencesBecknell, K., & Alexander, M. (May-June
1999). Jason and the Big6 on the Web: A media specialist and
computer applications instructor join forces. The Big6 Newsletter.
Vol. 2, No.5, pp.1, 12-14.
Buzan, T., & Buzan, B. (1996). The mind map book: How to use
radiant thinking to maximize your brain's untapped potential. New
York: E.P. Dutton. Available at Amazon.com.
Hyerle, D. (1996). Visual
tools for constructing knowledge. California: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Thomas, J. (1998). An overview of project-based learning.
California: Buck Institute for Education.
E-Mail: Miguel Guhlin
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