The Advanced Organizer Model

The advanced organizer model takes the opposite path of the concept analysis model. The concept analysis model builds a concept up from its components. The advanced organizer model starts with the whole picture and breaks it down.

What an advanced organizer is

An advanced organizer is a tool the teacher gives students at the start of a lesson. It tells students where the lesson is going and what they will master.

Here is an example. To teach the concept of food, the teacher draws a graphic with “Food” in the middle. Two branches go out: “Plants” and “Animals.” Under “Animals” are eggs, milk, yogurt, fish, and red meat. Under “Plants” are oil, beans, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and grains. The teacher shows this graphic at the start of the lesson.

Students see the whole picture immediately. They know they will learn about food, that food comes from plants and animals, and that several specific items fit each branch. The lesson then drills into each branch in detail.

The graphic is the advanced organizer. Showing it in advance is what makes the model “advanced.”

Three attributes of an advanced organizer

1. Statement of mastery elements. An advanced organizer is a statement of those elements that the learner will be required to master in the lesson. The statement can be a single word (“food,” “noun”) or a longer description (“the parts of speech in English”). Whatever form it takes, the student knows after seeing it what the lesson will teach.

2. The big picture establishing relationships. An advanced organizer presents the big picture and shows relationships between concepts. In the food example, the student sees that yogurt and milk both come from animal sources. They see that fruits and grains both come from plants. They see that all of these together make up food.

3. Based on deductive learning. The advanced organizer model uses deductive mode. The teacher tells students what they will learn at the start. Students do not have to discover the structure on their own. After the structure is given, the teacher fills in the details.

This is different from concept analysis, which can be inductive or deductive. The advanced organizer model is always deductive. The big picture is given first, and the details follow.

Flashcard

What are the three attributes of an advanced organizer?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Statement of mastery, big picture with relationships, deductive learning

1. A statement (word or sentence) of what the learner will master.

2. A big picture that shows how the concepts relate to each other.

3. Built on deductive learning: the structure is given first, then explained.

Forms of an advanced organizer

An advanced organizer is not always a graphic. It can take several forms.

Graphic organizer. A diagram showing concepts as boxes or circles connected by lines. Concept maps, mind maps, and tree diagrams are graphic organizers. The food example above is a graphic organizer.

Table. A grid showing concepts in rows and columns. A table comparing the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) with their definitions and examples is an advanced organizer.

Scheme or sequence statement. A list or statement of the steps or topics to be covered. “Today we will study nouns, then verbs, then adjectives, then adverbs, and finally how they combine in sentences.” This is also an advanced organizer.

The form does not matter as much as the function. The advanced organizer must communicate the structure of the lesson before the lesson begins.

The steps of the model

The advanced organizer model has a clear sequence.

Step 1: Present the advanced organizer. At the start of the lesson, the teacher shows the graphic, table, or statement. The teacher explains what students will learn. Students study the organizer for a moment.

Step 2: Isolate facts, concepts, and generalizations. The big picture contains many smaller pieces. Some are facts (carbohydrates give energy). Some are concepts (carbohydrate, protein, fat). Some are generalizations (most animal foods provide protein). The teacher separates these and discusses them one by one.

For the food organizer:

• Grains: discussed separately. What are grains? Why are they important? What is their role in our food?
• Milk and milk products: discussed separately. What is the nutritional value of milk? Why is it important?
• Vegetables and fruits: discussed separately. What nutrients do they provide?

Each branch of the organizer becomes its own discussion.

Step 3: Discuss each piece in detail. When discussing a piece, the teacher can use other models. If the piece is a concept (such as “grains”), the teacher can apply the concept analysis model to it. Explicitly says this: when isolating things, use the concept analysis model.

For parts of speech as the advanced organizer, when the teacher reaches “noun,” they switch to concept analysis mode for noun. Then for verb. Then for adjective. Then for adverb. Each gets the full five-component treatment.

Step 4: Integrate the parts back into the whole. After each piece is discussed in isolation, the teacher brings the pieces back together. Students should see how the parts fit into the original big picture.

The integration is not just a statement that “all these are parts of speech.” That would be shallow. Real integration asks students to use the parts together. Example: students construct a paragraph using nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, identifying each as they write.

For the food organizer, integration could be students designing a balanced meal using items from each branch.

Example: parts of speech

A teacher wants to teach the parts of speech. The advanced organizer can be a simple statement at the start: “Today we will learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. We will see how each works in a sentence and how they combine.”

Students now know what the lesson will cover. The teacher then takes each part of speech and applies the concept analysis model to it.

For noun: name, definition, characteristics, examples, non-examples, hierarchy. For verb: name, definition, characteristics, examples, non-examples, hierarchy. For adjective: same. For adverb: same.

After all four are taught, the teacher integrates. Students write a paragraph and label each word with its part of speech. The paragraph uses all four. Students see the parts of speech working together.

Example: the food pyramid (My Food Plate)

A common advanced organizer in nutrition is the food pyramid or “My Food Plate.” It shows a plate divided into sections: fruits, grains, proteins, vegetables, and dairy. Each section’s size suggests the proportion students should eat.

Showing My Food Plate at the start of a nutrition lesson tells students the lesson is about a balanced diet. Students see the five sections and the relationships between them (each section is a part of a balanced plate).

The teacher then discusses each section in detail. What are grains? What are proteins? Why does dairy have its own section?

After the discussion, students design a diet chart for themselves, or a diet chart for a diabetic patient, or a diet chart for someone with high cholesterol. The activity integrates all five sections into a real-world plan.

This is the advanced organizer model: organizer first, isolation in the middle, integration at the end.

Example: a video lesson on seasonal clothing

Here is a video where a teacher uses a story as an advanced organizer. The story is about a woman in a village. In summer, she wears salwar kameez and a thin dupatta. In winter, she wears a sweater, woolen cap, socks, shoes, and a thick shawl. One day her child gets sick because he was not wearing a cap and socks in winter.

The teacher tells the story and asks students: “What topic do you think we will study today?” Students guess: clothes, seasons, summer and winter clothing.

The story is the advanced organizer. It tells students that the lesson is about clothing for different seasons. The teacher then drills into the details: what fabrics are warm, why winter clothing covers more, why young children need extra protection. At the end, students compare their own summer and winter clothing.

Stories work as advanced organizers when they make the topic clear. Pictures work. Tables work. The form is flexible.

Flashcard

In the advanced organizer model, what happens after the teacher shows the organizer at the start?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Isolate, discuss, integrate

1. Isolate the facts, concepts, and generalizations within the big picture.

2. Discuss each one in detail. The concept analysis model often helps for individual concepts.

3. Integrate the parts back into the whole, with an activity that uses all of them together.

The advanced organizer model uses deductive mode throughout.

Difference from concept analysis

The two models look similar but differ in important ways.

Concept analysis model:

1. Focuses on one concept at a time.
2. Requires all five components for that concept (name, definition, characteristics, examples and non-examples, hierarchy).
3. Can be inductive or deductive.

Advanced organizer model:

1. Focuses on a big topic with several concepts.
2. Does not require five components for every piece. Some pieces are just facts or generalizations to discuss briefly.
3. Always deductive.

A teacher uses concept analysis when the lesson is about one concept (just nouns, just food). A teacher uses advanced organizer when the lesson covers a connected topic (parts of speech, balanced diet, seasonal clothing).

In practice, the two often work together. The advanced organizer gives the structure. The concept analysis fills in each concept within the structure.