From: Ben Pittenger (benpittenger@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Apr 26 2004 - 06:56:10 PDT
Message-ID: <14281034.1082987771403.JavaMail.root@waldorf.psp.pas.earthlink.net> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 06:56:10 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: Ben Pittenger <benpittenger@earthlink.net> Subject: Inspiration software - outlining - ?
I used Inspiration Software in my 6th grade classes this year. However, I used it as a demonstrative tool to help them learn how to outline information from their textbooks. Our sixth graders get hit with a fairly advanced textbook, with little prior training on how to extract usable information from it, or to organize in their notes the information they get in their readings. So we spend quite a bit of time helping them find important concepts and organizing the ideas on paper and in their heads. Inspiration helped bridge between reading and outlining.
One nice aspect of Inspiration is that once a mind-map is constructed the program will convert it to an outline with the click of a button. So I used it to help them learn to organize the concepts from the text chapters, and to outline the ideas. I had the students create their own mind-maps of one text section, in groups. Then we developed a class-generated mind-map on Inspiration, as I projected it on the board. Once everyone understood and agreed with the structure of the map, I was able to hit the outline icon and they saw their bubbles and lines turn into an outline. We switched back and forth from one to the other, and they looked in their books to see how the text was structured in outline form, and that they could extract the concepts into outline form. I assigned them to outline a few chapters. They also used a rubric to grade each other's outlines so that the struggling students could see how the more proficient students did it. After a couple of these exercises most of my students became
quite proficient at outlining their texts.
Some might wonder what purpose outlining serves. In middle school it seems we teach study skills almost as much as we teach content, so I am trying to give them one more way to extract and organize what they read. From personal experience I found outlining extremely helpful in college and law school - I used it to review and condense my class notes and to condense the important concepts from the text. I wish I had understood it as a tool in high school. It is not for everyone. But I have found a well-developed, and then condensed, outline to be a good organization and review tool. I think my students also found it to be a helpful tool to use to organize all these concepts that are flying at them.
This year I at first allowed them to use their full outlines as cheat-sheets on tests. Next, on a subsequent chapter I had them make the outlines then condense them down to one page, front and back for a cheat sheet. Then on the next chapter they condense them to one page, one side. The last time they did this they were allowed half a page, one side. Once they seemed proficient, we stopped the outlining.
Most became proficient at outlining the text information. Some became proficient at combining the text information and their class notes & lab concepts into their outlines. I even had one student tell me that he was using his outlining skills to help organize his social studies notes. But ultimately, probably most of them don't fully understand why I had them go through the exercise of outlining.
I am torn between using class time to help them develop skills like outlining and using the class time in more experiential ways. It is not always an easy balance. So if anyone feels one way or another about whether outlining is helpful or just a useless distraction, please feel free to jump in and critique or comment.
Ben
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