Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers

Enhance students' ability to retrieve, use, and organize what they already know about a topic.

Generalizations From Research

 * 1) Cues and Questions should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual.
 * 2) “Higher level” questions produce deeper learning than “lower level” questions.
 * 3) Waiting briefly before accepting responses has the effect of increasing the depth of students’ answers.
 * 4) Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.
 * 5) Advance organizers should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual.
 * 6) Higher level advance organizers produce deeper learning than lower level advance organizers.
 * 7) Advance organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized.
 * 8) Different types of advance organizers produce different results.

Example Activities

 * Cornell Notes
 * Graphic Organizers
 * Rubrics
 * Frayer Model
 * Higher-Level Questioning and Wait-time
 * Web/Concept Maps

Recommendations & Ideas

 * 1) Use explicit cues
 * 2) Ask questions that elicit inferences
 * 3) Ask analytic questions
 * 4) Use expository advance organizers
 * 5) Use narrative advance organizers
 * 6) Use Skimming as a form of advance organizers (SQ3R)
 * 7) Use graphic advance organizers

Information presented above in the definition is from McREL, and generalizations from research, and recommendations & ideas is from Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (ASCD)(Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane E. Pollock).

Web 2.0 Connections
"Y" Under each category indicates that this tool can be used with this strategy.

"Free +" Indicates that the tool is free at the basic level, but that more advanced versions are available at a cost.

Category Key:

SD = Identifying Similarities and Differences CL = Cooperative Learning SNT = Summarizing and Note-Taking ER = Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition HP = Homework and Practice NR = Nonlinguistic Representation OF = Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback HYP = Generating and Testing Hypotheses QCO = Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers



Examples from teachers, students, classrooms, schools
Please click on the "edit" tab to share your examples here.

Contributor: Jenny

The book Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works provides an advanced organizer example that uses the open-source software: Stellarium

Contributor: