Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

Sherri Helterbrand's presentation on "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers", prepared for Bright Local Schools Summer Academy, August 1, 2012

1. Cues, Questions &
Advance Organizers

2. Participant Outcomes
Participants will:
Understand the purpose and importance
of ques, questions, and advance
organizers
Identify ways to implement ques,
questions, and advance organizers in the
classroom
Review examples of ques, questions, and
advance organizers

3. Post a thought
Work as a group at your table
Take a sticky note and jot down all the
Marzano strategies your group can recall.
Listen to and view cues and questions to
activate your prior knowledge.

4. Cues and Questions
One strategy has 4 different forms: compare, contrast, create
metaphors, create analogies.
How can you use a strategy that deletes trivial and redundant
material?
When a student provides active participation how might this
behavior be repeated?
Reinforce the home school connection through…
Graphic organizers
Pair and share, knee to knee, who’s your shoulder partner?
Describe what the learners will be able to do today and how well
they achieved it afterwards.
What strategy would involve inductive and deductive reasoning?
Expository, narrative, skimming, and graphic

5. Average
Effect
Percentile
Category
Size (ES) Gain
No. of
ESs
Identifying similarities and differences 1.61 45 31
Summarizing and note taking 1.00 34 179
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition 0.80 29 21
Homework and practice 0.77 28 134
Nonlinguistic representations 0.75 27 246
Cooperative learning 0.73 27 122
Setting objectives and providing feedback 0.61 23 408
Generating and testing hypotheses 0.61 23 63
Questions-cues-advance organizers 0.59 22 1,251

6. How can I possibly remember all of
those strategies?
I saw Robin helping Nathan
coach some gifted children.

7. Questions and Cues
Discussion questions:
What makes a good question?
How do you currently use cues in your
classroom?

8. Cues and Questions
Heart of classroom practice
Account for 80% of what occurs in a classroom on a
given day
Involve explicit reminders/hints about what students are
about to experience
Activate background knowledge
Aid students in process of filling in missing information

9. Generalizations based on research:
2.Should focus on what is important not unusual.
3.Higher level questions produce deeper learning.
4.Increasing wait time increases depth of answers.
5.Questions are an effective tool even before a
learning experience.
Research and Theory about
Questions and Cues

10. Research and Theory about
Questions and Cues
Generalization #1:
Should focus on what is important, not unusual.
•Unusual may be interesting but can distract from
what is important
Generalization #2:
Higher level questions produce deeper learning.
•Causes students to restructure info

11. Sample Lower Level Questioning
Based on Bloom's Taxonomy, Developed and
Expanded by John Maynard
I. KNOWLEDGE (drawing out factual answers,
testing recall and recognition)
II. COMPREHENSION (translating, interpreting
and extrapolating)
III. APPLICATION (to situations that are new,
unfamiliar or have a new slant for students)

12. Sample Higher Level Questioning
IV. ANALYSIS (breaking down into parts,
forms)
V. SYNTHESIS (combining elements into a
pattern not clearly there before)

VI. EVALUATION (according to some set
of criteria, and state why)

13. Now You Practice…
Think about a topic you teach.
Write questions you could ask students
that would engage the students in each of
the 6 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

14. Research and Theory about
Questions and Cues
Generalization #3:
Increasing wait time increases depth of answers.
• Should be several seconds
• Gives students more time to think
• Increases discussion and interaction
Generalization #4:
Questions are an effective tool even before a learning
experience.
• Develops framework

15. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on
Questions and Cues
a.Use Explicit Cues
b.Ask Questions that Elicit Inferences
c.Use Analytic Questions

16. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on
Questions and Cues
a.Use Explicit Cues
Preview of what about to learn
Activates prior knowledge
Should be straightforward
Examples:
Tell what lesson is about
Tell what standards/benchmarks will be covered

17. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on
Questions and Cues
a.Ask Questions that Elicit Inferences
b.Use Analytic Questions

18. Two Categories of Questions
Inferential
Help students fill in
gaps from a lesson,
activity, reading
Analytic
Often require students
to use prior
knowledge in addition
to new knowledge to
analyze, critique
information

19. Inferential Questions
Answer is implied
Read between the lines
Student fills in gaps
Use prior knowledge
Use new knowledge

20. Inferential Questions
Four categories:
3.Things and people
4.Actions
5.Events
6.States

21. 1. Things and People
What effect does the fairy godmother’s visit
have on Cinderella’s life?

22. 2. Actions
How did Cinderella feel after the ball?

23. 3. Events
What is the significance of the ball?

24. 4. States
The fairy godmother changed Cinderella’s
outside appearance. What changes probably
occurred in the way she felt inside?

25. Activity
With a partner, write 2 questions about
one of the below topics that could be
used to help students make inferences
about the topic (can probe about things &
people, actions, events, or state of being).
MagnetHypoglycemia
Designing a BuildingValentine’s Day

26. Two Categories of Questions
Inferential
Help students fill in
gaps from a lesson,
activity, reading
Analytic
Often require students
to use prior
knowledge in addition
to new knowledge to
analyze, critique
information

27. Analytic Questions
Require students to analyze and critique the
information
Require them to use prior knowledge
Require them to use new knowledge
Designed around highly analytic thinking and
reasoning skills
Have more than one answer

28. Analytic Questions
Three Skills:
2.Analyzing Errors
3.Constructing Support
4.Analyzing Perspectives

29. 1. Analyzing Errors
If you assume “good wins over evil” as the
logic of this story, how might this reasoning be
misleading? Use your knowledge of the world
to guide your thinking.

30. 2. Constructing Support
You are Cinderella. What is your argument
with your stepmother about why you should
go to the ball?

31. 3. Analyzing Perspectives
Why would someone consider the stepmother
to be good? What is your reasoning to
support your answer?

32. Check Your Understanding
Create a Venn diagram with your table partners
that shows similarities and differences
between inferential and analytic questions.

33. Advance Organizers
An Advance Organizer is an organizational
framework teachers present to students
prior to teaching new content to prepare
them for what they are about to learn.
Discussion question:
When have you used advance organizers in
your classroom?

34. When to use Advance
Organizers
Group projects
Interactive lessons
Lectures
Homework assignments
Class work assignments
Other content area instructional activities
Almost every activity in the general education
and special education classroom

35. Generalizations based on research:
2.Should focus on what is important not unusual.
3.Higher level advance organizers produce deeper
learning.
4.Most useful with information that is not well
organized.
5.Different types produce different results.
Research and Theory about
Advance Organizers

36. Research and Theory about
Advance Organizers
Generalization #1:
Should focus on what is important not unusual.
•Unusual may be interesting but can distract
from what is important
Generalization #2:
Higher level advance organizers produce deeper learning.
•Causes students to restructure info

37. Research and Theory about
Advance Organizers
Generalization #3:
Most useful with information that is not well
organized.
• Organizes information within a learning structure
Generalization #4:
Different types produce different results.
• 4 Types

38. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on
Advance Organizers
Use all 4 types of advance organizers
1.Expository
2.Narrative
3.Skimming
4.Graphic
Not the only types
Advance organizers come in many formats

39. Jigsaw II
Each group will research one of the advance
organizers: expository, narrative, skimming,
and graphic organizers.
Each person in the group will have a product
to share. (definition, examples, nonlinguistic)
Use the graphic organizer to take notes.

40. Expository
Describes content
Written or oral
Can include text and/or pictures
Helps see patterns
Example:
Neurons are nerve cells that transmit nerve signals to
and from the brain at up to 200 mph. The neuron
consists of a cell body (or soma) with branching
dendrites (signal receivers) and a projection called an
axon, which conduct the nerve signal.
The axon, a long extension of a nerve cell, and take
information away from the cell body.
Myelin coats and insulates the axon increasing
transmission speed along the axon.
The cell body (soma) contains the neuron's nucleus
(with DNA and typical nuclear organelles). Dendrites
branch from the cell body and receive messages.

41. Narrative
Story format
Makes personal connections
Makes seem familiar
Example:
Before beginning a unit about the experience of
immigrant groups who moved to the U.S., Mr.
Anderson told the story of his grandfather,
who immigrated from Sweden.

42. Skimming
Preview important information quickly by noting what
stands out in headings and highlighted information
Pre-reading questions or SQ3R (survey, question, read,
recite, review) can be helpful before skimming
Example:
When beginning a new lesson, gives students 60 seconds to skim
an article paying close attention to headings, subheadings, and
the first sentence of each paragraph.
This helps students become aware of what information they will be
learning when they read the article more carefully.

43. Graphic Organizers
Type of nonlinguistic representation which
visually represents what the students will
learn
Examples:

44. Graphic Organizers-More Examples
Find words that rhyme:
Inverted Triangle (going
from general to specific):

45. Count off by 3’s
In your group discuss:
 Teachers say they don’t have time to develop cues,
questions, and advance organizers. What would you say to
them?
Person #3 rotate to a new group and summarize your group’s
discussion. Then discuss:.
 How could you model the use of these 3 strategies?
Person #2 rotate and summarize. Discuss question:
 What are “look fors” in the classroom for effective use of
these strategies?
Partner Activity

46. In conclusion
Before learning new information, teachers should
help students retrieve what they already know about
a topic or “activate prior knowledge”.
Cues, questions and advance organizers are three
common ways that a classroom teacher helps
students use what they already know about a topic to
learn new information.
Cues give hints of what is to be learned.
Analytical and inferential questions asked of students
before learning help fill in the gaps and provide a
focus for learning.
Narrative advance organizers, skimming, and graphic
organizers help students focus on important
information by providing a mental set.