Advanced Organizer Graphic Amanda Ellis Georgia Southern University ITEC 7090 Visual Literacy July 10, 2011

Author s Purpose
Inform
Written so you can learn more about a topic.

Entertain
Written for the reader s enjoyment, just for fun.

Persuade
Written to get you to buy or do something. Tries to get you to agree with their opinion.

Audience:My third grade reading students of different ability levels. This class also contains three ESOL students. I chose to create an advanced organizer that shows the parts to whole relationship using author s purpose. Author s purpose is a third grade standard that I will be teaching this upcoming school year. The parts to whole relationship emphasized in this advanced organizer are author s purpose to the three purposes taught. Inform, entertain, and persuade are the parts to their whole, author s purpose. In our textbook, Creating Graphics for Learning and Performance: Lessons in Visual Literacy, Lohr (2008) describes gestalt as a principle of perception that states the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (p. 158). I created gestalt in my advanced organizer by using the gestalt principles of proximity and previous experience. According to Lohr (2008), proximity is when the mind groups elements based on their closeness (p. 167). As you look at each of the author s purposes, the words and pictures are grouped together. I wanted students to understand that the word, definition, and pictures all represent the one purpose. Placing them close is a more effective way for students to understand that they go together than placing them far apart. Also, the three purposes are placed under, but still close to the words Author s Purpose for optimal proximity. Lohr (2008) states that using proximity can make instructional information easier to understand (p. 168). The other principle of gestalt used in my advanced organizer is previous experience. The pictures I used to represent each of the author s purposes are based on a student s previous experiences. The purpose to inform is represented by a book that would be interpreted as a school textbook or encyclopedia based on students previous experiences with school textbooks. The picture that represents the word entertain is a clown juggling. Students would recognize a clown juggling as something done for fun or enjoyment. The picture representation for the word persuade is a newsstand man selling newspapers. Based on previous experience students would see the man trying to get you to buy a newspaper, which is also full of persuasive ads and articles. Lohr (2008) explains that you can increase the ability to keep information alive in short-term memory by associating that information with what the learner already knows (p. 168). Students will be able to understand and remember author s purpose by linking the pictures their previous experiences. My goal is by using the gestalt principles of proximity and previous experience, students will be able to use my advanced organizer to understand and apply author s purpose to what they read in class. User Test: I showed this to two female middle school students. They thought that it was easy to understand, but both suggested a change. They suggested the picture for persuade needed to be changed to something that was easier to understand that the image was persuading. Based on my previous experience, the persuasive affect of this picture is obvious; however, I could see how this could be hard to understand for younger students in rural, south Georgia where there are no newsstands. Changes: I will change the picture for persuade to a picture of a billboard or advertisement in order for students to make a link to their previous experiences.

References Lohr, L. (2008). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy.(2nd ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.