Text Frames: Cause/Effect,
Concept/Definition, Extending Thinking
Strategy: Venn Diagram Graphic
Organization (2015, McLaughlin)
This
assignment, Tommy decided to focus on the human interactions in all of our
readings, so I chose to focus on how the ecosystems interact with each other. This
works with well in conjunction with my class’ current subject on water
resources, the readings on human and water pollution from Rachel Carson, and
the Colinvaux reading on the ocean. This is also a perfect time for a quick
recap because the students are a bit checked out at the end of the year, and I
think are a bit confused as to where and how these reading fit into their
current unit
For my assignment, I
decided to use a Venn diagram to join together my readings. A Venn diagram is
an excellent method of displaying these interactions and relationships between
the readings and the current knowledge that my students are learning. According
to McLaughlin, a Venn diagram consists of two or more interlocking circles,
each representing a main idea. Where the circles overlap is where the main
ideas share common ideas. Outside of the overlap, in a single circle is where
ideas unique to a main idea belong (2015). These diagrams have also shown to
help with inquiry, summarization and problem solving (2003, Broad). I decided
that written Venn diagrams can get messy with crossing out and/or erasing, so a
digital medium may suit the students better. This is when I found the site www.creately.com. Creatley is a website that
allows students to create different types of graphics and a free account allows
up to 5 different graphics to be shared publicly. It has many different
templates, but I was easily able to find a Venn diagram with three circles to
represent the three ecosystems that I wanted to focus on: humans, terrestrial
(land) and ocean. I was able to quickly figure out the controls and easily
created a diagram to adequately display my brainstorming. It is an easy enough program
that I would be comfortable assigning the students to use this in my lesson.
My
Venn diagram is below:
Readings:
Carson, R. (1962). Chapter 10:
Indiscriminately from the Skies and Chapter 12: The Human PriceSilent spring.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Colinvaux,
P. (1978). Why big fierce
animals are rare: An ecologist's perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
References
Broad, J.. (2003). The
art of Venn!. Teaching Geography, 28(1), 34–35.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23756450
McLaughlin, M. (2015) Content Area Reading:
Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. Boston:
Pearson
