Cues, Questions & Graphic Organizers

When to Use

Use during lessons to help students develop understanding of new content and deepen understanding.

DOK Level: 2-3

(depends on its use: to deepen understanding or plan transfer of learning)

Recommendations for Classroom Practice

• focus on important information with cues and questions

• use explicit cues

• ask inferential questions and

• ask analytic questions

Examples

• use a KWL chart to connect prior knowledge to what they need to learn

• Use cues to hint at what students are about to experience before reading

Scaffolding Students

The teacher needs to scaffold learning until the students are not copying from the teacher's example. Instead, they need to be trained to know when the tool will help them and why it is useful. Eventually, students are given information and encouraged to select a graphic organizer that will allow them to represent the information.

Assessing Student Impact

• Rubrics are one tool you can use to gauge students' progress.

• Analytic questions lend themselves to student assessment.

Sample Inferential Questions that Requires Students to Make Inferences

• How is a thing usually used? (How are firefighters used? )

• How does the action change the size or shape of a thing? (How does a flood change the size and shape of a riverbank?)

• What people are usually involved in this event? (What people are usually involved in a barn raising?)

• How long does this event usually take? (How long does a corn harvest in Iowa take?)

Benefits

• "Visually organized information can help students see connections between the ideas and information they are learning."

• Organizers allow students to put information into their own words.

• Students can choose an organizer to aid in their understanding of content.

The Why

McRel- Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers

Video of Elementary Application