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Develop and use a content frame for the course
"This best practice involves two steps, designing a content frame for the course, and second developing a habit of using and referring to the cognitive map, while teaching the course. The biggest danger generally faced by students is the feeling of being totally overwhelmed by all the content and as a consequence getting lost in the forest of details and not developing confidence in the really important ideas." (Conrad, 59)
"What is a content frame? Content friends are also called cognitive maps, visual graphics and overviews. We like to use the term content frame because preparing a frame for a course helps learners get a holistic sense of a course. It presents a clear picture of what is to be learned in a course and what can be learned later as interests develop and time permits. Adventurous curious students can always delve more deeply into course content, but they know at what point they can stop and still know what they need to know. Providing a clear overview of the core concepts, key knowledge and types of problems, competent learners should be able to handle provides a focus for the term of the course. Additionally being able to refer back to the content frame regularly and see the content visually helps to construct their own knowledge." (Conrad, 59)
I like to use flowcharts such as the one above in my classes because it gives students a holistic view of what to expect in the class. I used the above flowchart in my ENGL 101 Freshman Composition class because one of the teaching goals of the class was to teach the 5 paragraph essay structure. This flowcharts gives an overview of the 5 paragraph essay. It also shows very clearly the core concepts of the 5 paragraph essay which is a thesis statement as the main idea of the essay and then each of the topic paragraph are the building blocks of the thesis statement. Students see right away that without a good thesis statement, they cannot write a solid essay. This flowchart tells the student to focus on writing a good thesis statement as a way to structure their entire essay. I have many more flowcharts than this one and I use all of them to help students construct their own knowledge by visualizing the core concepts of the learning outcome so students can 'see' in their minds what the concept looks like in their minds.
I actually have flowcharts for 8 different kinds of essays. I remember having a student who relied on my essay flowcharts for all his academic research papers that he had to write for his core classes. When he came across a research paper assignment for which I had not drawn a concept map, he panicked and contacted me on how to do the paper. By this time, he was no longer in my class, but had been in my Freshman Composition class a couple of years previous to his email. He said, "Prof. Ho, I have been using your essay Flowcharts to help me write all my research papers, but I have finally come across a research paper for which I cannot write the essay. Can you help me?" I said, "Of course, I will give you one of the more advanced flowcharts I did not give you in Freshman Composition," and it was the Proposal/Problem Solving Essay flowchart he was asking for. Apparently as he was taking more and more advanced classes, he was being asked to write more and more advanced papers so he needed one of my more advanced flowcharts that I had made for another school. Once I gave him my advanced flowchart, he was a happy camper!
This example proves that content frames/graphic overviews help students construct knowledge and teaches the student in this case, how to write different kinds of research papers. When I write a research paper, I always need to see the paper visually in my mind before I can sit down to write the paper. When I was in college, I used to write a concept map of the paper, then from that concept map, I would write an outline, and then from that outline, I would write my rough draft and my final draft from the rough draft. It used to take me an entire weekend to write a research paper assignment for college. Once I see what the paper will look like in my head, then I am able to write the paper. Content frames help students visually see the paper in their heads before they write the paper.
In subsequent posts, I will write about how you can use content frames in your syllabus to give the students a bird's eye view of what to focus on in the class and how to use a content frame to teach students take away lessons they should have of the class to use in the future and how they can apply the core concepts of the class in their lives after the class is over.
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