Advance Organizers
Advance organizers are organizational frameworks that students can use to prepare them for new information. Advance organizers help students retrieve what they already know about a topic and focus on the new information.
Examples of advance organizers
Instruct students to Skim
Skimming chapters in textbooks before reading is a powerful advance organizer. This prepares students for new information, to connect the information to what they already know and to proceed from there. Most students don't skim a chapter in a textbook or an article before they begin to read. They will pick up a book and start reading the text and not the titles, headings, picture captions, etc. Skimming allows students to understand how the author has prioritized information. By skimming titles, subheadings, bold-faced text, diagrams, summaries, and chapter questions before reading the text, students are essentially reading an outline of the content.
Think out loud when you demonstrate how to skim a textbook. Show students that the text provides an outline of the content, show them how to connect new information to prior knowledge, and show students how to focus on essential information. To deepen their learning even further, see SQR4.
Expository Advance Organizer
An expository organizer provides an outline of the content. This is used in Skimming. It is an introduction to the material being presented and can include outlines and introductory paragraphs at the beginning of chapters, outlines of key information of the topic, diagrams, etc. You can also provide these descriptions of important content orally or in written form at the beginning of chapters, etc.
Narrative Advance Organizer
Narrative advance organizers are stories that effectively help students make connections with the new content. The idea is to make something unfamiliar seem personal and familiar. Students can be asked to brainstorm a story that may relate to the topic, watch a movie, or watch a YouTube video that relates to the topic.
Source: Ormrod, J., Human Learning, 3rd ed, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1999.
Examples of advance organizers
Instruct students to Skim
Skimming chapters in textbooks before reading is a powerful advance organizer. This prepares students for new information, to connect the information to what they already know and to proceed from there. Most students don't skim a chapter in a textbook or an article before they begin to read. They will pick up a book and start reading the text and not the titles, headings, picture captions, etc. Skimming allows students to understand how the author has prioritized information. By skimming titles, subheadings, bold-faced text, diagrams, summaries, and chapter questions before reading the text, students are essentially reading an outline of the content.
Think out loud when you demonstrate how to skim a textbook. Show students that the text provides an outline of the content, show them how to connect new information to prior knowledge, and show students how to focus on essential information. To deepen their learning even further, see SQR4.
Expository Advance Organizer
An expository organizer provides an outline of the content. This is used in Skimming. It is an introduction to the material being presented and can include outlines and introductory paragraphs at the beginning of chapters, outlines of key information of the topic, diagrams, etc. You can also provide these descriptions of important content orally or in written form at the beginning of chapters, etc.
Narrative Advance Organizer
Narrative advance organizers are stories that effectively help students make connections with the new content. The idea is to make something unfamiliar seem personal and familiar. Students can be asked to brainstorm a story that may relate to the topic, watch a movie, or watch a YouTube video that relates to the topic.
Source: Ormrod, J., Human Learning, 3rd ed, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1999.