Advance Organizers

• An advance organizer is a simple device that

serves to orient students to the concepts they
will work with during the learning experience.
The term “advance organizer” was originally
coined by David Ausubel. In his opinion, the most
important aspect of an advance organizer is that
they allow the learner to connect what they
already know to the topic under investigation.
– In Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano (pp. 75-
83 and 117-120) discusses the benefits of four
different types of advance organizers – expository,
narrative, skimming, and graphic.
 Graphic Organizers
• Graphic organizers present a visual display
that illustrates the relationships between
facts, terms, and/or key ideas under
investigation.
• Graphic organizers are sometimes referred to
as concept maps or concept diagrams
 Which One, When?
• Use advance organizers to scaffold students’
understanding of the topic before the hands-on
activity
– Advance organizers are “big picture” and make
connections between students’ prior knowledge and
the topic for investigation
• Use graphic organizers after the hands-on activity
to help students integrate new understanding
into the larger “schema” of the topic
– Graphic organizers are more detailed and show the
relationship between key concepts in the lesson
 Ed Ellis “Think Sheets”
• FCPS MS Science teachers have a ready-made
resource from which to select graphic organizers!
• The Think Sheets created by Ed Ellis are available
to all MS Science teachers and are most likely
found on their computer desktop.
• The Think Sheets file contains many, many types
of graphic organizers that can be used “as is” or
modified to fit a specific topic.
• Please ask your school’s SBTS for help in locating
this file
• Some samples of what’s available follow -