Organise knowledge: Secondary

[On-screen text] Organising knowledge: What it is 

• Applying a sequenced teaching and learning plan, building from concrete to abstract ideas and applications. 
• Making meaningful connections between the intended learning objectives and students’ prior knowledge, skills and experiences. 
• Providing an overview of the topic or content and explicitly teaching the components of the topic to then relate back to the overview. 
• Creating opportunities for questions, sharing and testing knowledge, adjusting ideas and integrating new knowledge. 

[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to organise knowledge:  

• Integrate visual and textual or visual and verbal representations 
• Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud 
• Include examples and non-examples 
• Connect familiar with unfamiliar content 
• Build metacognitive knowledge 
• Encourage use of advance organisers.   

Chloe Rees, Year 11 Visual Communication Design teacher, Ballarat Clarendon College: It's really important that we are thinking about how we're organising knowledge because we want to take the cognitive load away from the students. We also want the students – during our reviews – to be able to quickly be able to recall the prior knowledge that they have and make those connections to the knowledge that is path, but also the knowledge that we're teaching in the lesson.  

[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content  

Chloe Rees: When I introduced our lesson today, I spoke to us about convergent thinking and thinking back to Unit 1, Outcome 1. And if we think back to Unit 1, Outcome 1, we use convergent thinking to be really critical in our thinking when we were making decisions around the lighting design that we were creating. 

[On-screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud  

Chloe Rees: We were critical in thinking about, ‘Are we meeting the needs of our target audience? Are we meeting the needs of the design brief?’ And when I'm thinking about those needs, I'm thinking about the purpose. I'm thinking about the final presentation format. I'm thinking about the context of where I will design. I'm also thinking – when I'm being convergent in thinking – the good design principles. 

Philippa Roso: Year 7 English teacher, Ballarat Clarendon College: Students, by nature, can be very interested in how this will affect them in their day-to-day life. If you can make it relevant to them and their understanding of the world as a literate citizen, it adds so much more power to the lesson, and they can relate to it so much more with the hook. And it also allows them to … With the way our curriculum builds on itself, the students can link back to previous subjects – like history or like science – where they already have a foundation or they've been introduced to the vocabulary at least, and not feel so foreign in it. And it gives them the confidence to, I guess, jump into the lesson with more gusto because it's not starting from scratch. 

[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content 

Philippa Roso: Now I'd like you to turn and talk to the person next to you. I want you to say 5 things that you use energy for in your day-to-day life. Go. 

Class: [Interposing voices.] 

Jess Lacey, Year 12 Chemistry teacher, Merici College: The review can be used for many different things. It can just be to remind students of content that they've covered before, but it can also be used to activate prior learning and allow them to make connections of the new learning to something that they've done in the past. So, the reason why I used structure and reactivity and had students recall information about alkenes in the daily review is so that they can basically apply that same skill with the new topic and they're making connections between the different types of reactions. Even though we're looking at different classes of molecules and we're looking at different reactions, in both cases, the way that they're structured determines their reactivity. And so that way of organising information is the same in both processes. 

[On-screen text] Integrate visual and textural representations 

Jess Lacey: And last one … Hannah. 

Student: They're weak pi bonds. 

Jess Lacey: Pi bond is weak, which means …?  

Student: That the bond’s easy to break. 

Jess Lacey: Good. Pi bond can be broken. Excellent. We're gonna see this same scaffold in today's lesson.  

Greg Ashman, Deputy Principal, Year 8 Teacher, Ballarat Clarendon College: One of the key things that we have to build an understanding around is thinking aloud when modelling. You will have noticed that every question had a worked solution. And it is, therefore, tempting to say, ‘Here's the question – have a go at the question, guys – here's the worked solution’ and that's a model. And models are great. Models are better than not having a model. So, if you want to show students how to solve a problem, if you give them a model, it's better than not giving them a model. But what adds an additional layer is modelling, which is when the teacher thinks aloud. There's some evidence to suggest it engages students’ empathy when they see another person trying to solve the problem. But also, the teacher can highlight specific things that they want to stress that just a flat model wouldn't do. 

Y minus y1, over x minus x1. That's where we got to, wasn’t it? We all got there. We're all fine with that. Yes? Then I said, ‘I want you to rearrange it so you've got y minus y1 equals.’ So, we need that bit on its own. And so we've gotta do a bit of a funny move here.  

[On screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud 

Greg Ashman: We've gotta multiply both sides by x minus x1. Why? Because if we multiply this by x minus x1, we'll have x minus x1, divided by x minus x1. In fact, I'll actually put that step in. So m times x minus x1. Yes? Because I've multiplied this by x minus x1. Equals y minus y1, over x minus x1, times x minus x1. And x minus x1 divided by x minus x1 – well, any number divided by itself is one, so that’s just one. So, we get to y minus y1 equals mx minus x1. And that’s the equation that we’ve been using. That’s the one I showed you and how we got to last lesson on this that we're using to find the equations of the lines. Right? 

Angela Gee, Year 12 English teacher, Wilsonton State High School: There are a range of strategies that I use in my classroom to help students organise their ideas during instruction. One that I really do also like that I did today was around non-examples and examples. So, we broke that down into the marking guide and what would be an example of a thesis statement that would be discriminating, versus what would be an example of a thesis statement that would just be referred to in that marking guide as a ‘statement of ideas’. 

There are essentially 3 levels here. There's discriminating, credible and a statement or some statements.  

[On screen text] Include examples and non-examples 

Angela Gee: So, this here would be a statement – ‘In Macbeth, leadership is seen as important.’ So that would be enough to get you a 2. So, ‘Through the representations of different kings in Macbeth, Shakespeare invites the audience to consider the importance of morality and leadership. Shakespeare demonstrates that true leadership requires more than power, bravery or even birthright, instead requires one to possess kingly virtues.’ Can we see how that's another step up again? Yeah. 

[On screen text] Build metacognitive knowledge 

Angela Gee: I want you guys to have a look at your own thesis statements you wrote just then. Okay? And I want you to grab out your marking guide. Have a look at these. One minute. Where do you think you're sitting? What can you do to get to that next level? 

Sue Hartshorne, Learning Specialist, Lake Colac School: Using visual representation is just one step beyond using your manipulatives. So, we will start with manipulatives and then move them into that visual representation. And then, like today, we move from a visual representation into using a mental model.  

When last time we did this, people were getting tricked when they were getting an equation that was something like this. Because we talked about how this one is a 3-digit, this one's a 2-digit number, so we can't just look at the first number and automatically go 7 plus 8 and then add that together. Why can't I do that? 

Student: Do what I do and look at the second … 

Sue Hartshorne: Why? But why can’t I add 7? It would be wrong. 

Student: Because it’s not hundreds …  

Sue Hartshorne: Which one’s hundreds? Which number?  

Student: The 810 is a hundred. The other one’s not. 

Sue Hartshorne: Correct. 

[On screen text] Integrate visual and textual or visual and verbal representations 

Sue Hartshorne: If I put this into a place value chart, I can see why.  

[On screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud 

Sue Hartshorne: So, the number 810 is 800 and 10. The number 78 is 78, isn’t it? So, if I start … if I'm trying to do this in my head and I'm being quick and I go 7 plus 8 and I write down the answer, I'm going to be wrong because I've added the tens and the hundreds together, haven't I? 

Gaelle Pajot: Year 7 French teacher, Merici College: To visual different grammatical aspects for language learning, colours have a massive impact – the same as music and the rhythm. Colours will just give them an idea, ‘Okay. We're looking at specific part of the word. So, we need to really focus on this.’ 

So, as we know, we've got a little rule. We'll have to go through a little bit of a 3-step rule to know how to conjugate verbs in ‘er’. 

[On-screen text] Integrate visual and textual representations 

Gaelle Pajot: Okay. If we take the ‘er’… Can you remind me? Evelyn, what do we call what's left if we remove the ‘er’?  

Student: The base or the stem. 

Gaelle Pajot: Yes. The stem. Or the base works, too. Okay. So, if we use ‘arriver’, which is a cognate of the English word ‘to arrive’, what is the stem? Kaitlyn, can you spell out the letters that makes the stem of this verb?  

Student: A-r-r-i-v. 

Gaelle Pajot: Excellent. Okay, let's go over the 3-step rule. 

Chloe Rees: Having those connections with tables and diagrams is essential, so that when you go back and review the process, you can see those connections that you've made. And for future learning, going back and having a look at that design process is a really essential part of the sequencing of the lessons. 

[On-screen text] Encourage use of advance organisers 

Chloe Rees: Once your page is set out like mine, with your convergent thinking laid out on the side, I want you to start to use your critical and reflective thinking for each design.  

[On-screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud 

Chloe Rees: So, if this is my Design 1 – what are the positives of my Design 1? Thinking back to the design brief. What are the minuses of my Design 1, if I'm using PMI? Thinking back to the brief. What's interesting about Design 1? Thinking back to the brief. Just like we were doing earlier in our guided practice. And then we move into Design 2 and Design 3. I want you to keep on each design. I'm going to work around and have discussions with you while you start to think about Design 1 and to either think about the positives or the strengths of your design. 

Angela Gee: There's real power in taking that cognitive load off students and either showing them what it looks like or providing a way of organising knowledge that allows them to not have to think about those things and they can focus on that writing skill or the more abstract ideas that they need to use that knowledge to form.