Organization of ideas is the arrangement of ideas, events, incidents, evidence or details in logical order found in a paragraph, story, report, letter, essay, presentation or speech for an intended audience.
There is a logical flow of ideas throughout a text. Ideas in the text are connected, follow a logical sequence and ideas support the main idea.
Writing has a focused, coherent order, connections between events and/or details, and closure.
Use your programs of study for curriculum outcomes related to print awareness.
Please refer to CESD’s Essential Outcomes work if you are using the previous Alberta Curriculum (Grade 7+).
Here is the New Alberta ELAL Curriculum, from the New Learn Alberta website, laid out like a scope and sequence.
Identify the purpose/genre of the writing (expository, persuasive, descriptive, narrative, poetic and technical) and intended audience.
Explicitly teaching students how to pre-plan their writing using: outlines, graphic organizers, visual planning tools, think/pair/share, oral conversations, think alouds, etc.
Teach students to organize their ideas in a logical or sequential order.
Model writing and revising – teacher models the process of thinking through the organization of ideas when writing and revising (ie. teacher think-aloud)
Teach students to:
write topic/thesis sentences followed by supporting details
structure paragraphs to best meet the purpose of the writing
Build thought/idea on the previous thought/idea
structure the ideas in an order that makes sense
end with a concluding sentence or paragraph
Use previously written student texts to practice the revision of organization of ideas
Writing Skills and Organization Videos
Graphic Organizers:
Opportunities to engage in conversation with adults and peers to help generate and articulate ideas
Graphic organizers and templates to facilitate the structure of text to support organization of ideas
Assistive technology
Extra time and instruction