Chapter 4: Cues, Questions, & Advance Organizers

Once educational goals have been established along with methods of giving feedback and recognition, it is time to design the means of facilitating learners in their acquiring and integrating of knowledge. it is recommended that advance organizers be used as an effective way of doing this.
One technological tool that can be used to create such organizers are Word Processing Applications. I particularly like this tool because it is so readily available and accessible on school computers. Nothing fancy or expensive is needed; all computers, both student and teacher, already have the software for Microsoft Works, PowerPoint, and Publisher--all tools that can be used to create advance organizers. In the library and language arts classrooms, these tools can be used to create expository advance organziers such as brochures to advertise novels. They can also be used to create narrative advance organizers in the form of articles or book reviews; graphic advance organizers can also be created by designing book covers or posters (akin to movie posters) that advertise the book. I also see potential in using a word processor's table-feature to create note-taking organizers. A template could be created that lists the important literary elements that need to be defined in a novel (e.g. setting, conflict, characters, etc.) that the students fill in as a novel or story is read.
There is also actual software that is designed to organize information: Organizing and Brainstorming Software. This technology tool is especially useful in allowing educators to give explicit cues to learners when introducing a new concept or beginning a new unit of study. The value of giving an explicit cue is that it essentially tells students what they are about to learn. Such software, such as Kidspiration, can be used to cue and question students, thereby effectively introducing a novel. My school's 8th grade language arts classes all read the novel Night as part of a unit on the Holocaust. Kidspiration could be used to cue students about the unit and then ask essential questions that prompt students to give their background knowledge on the Holocaust. As such software enables educators to give students a sense of what they are about to learn while offering visual aides and multimedia resources to address a variety of learning styles, it can be a very powerful tool in learning. The biggest obstacle that I see to implementing such software is that it may be cost prohibitive in some schools.