Nonlinguistic+Representations

=**Nonlinguistic Representations **=

**Strategy Overview:**
The research suggests two generalizations that can guide teachers and instructional leaders:
 * 1) **Nonlinguistic representations include several activities including:**
 * Creating graphic organizers
 * Making physical models
 * Generating mental pictures
 * Drawing pictures or pictographs
 * Engaging in kinesthetic activity

2. **Nonlinguistic representations should expand or add to knowledge.** //"When students elaborate on knowledge, they not only understand it in greater depth, but they can recall it much more easily// (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, p. 74). The process of creating nonlinguistic representations engages students in elaborative thinking. Asking students to explain and/or justify their nonlinguistic representations further enhances elaborative thinking.

**Research Supporting Strategy:**
According to Marzano, most psychologists adhere to the "dual-coding" theory of information storage which hypothesizes that knowledge is stored in two forms: a linguistic form and an imagery form. Imagery includes mental pictures and the five senses (smell, taste, touch, kinesthetic association, and sound). The more we use both the linguistic and imagery, the more we will learn and recall information (p. 73).

The average effect size for use of nonlinguistic representations is .75 which is a large effect size and translates into a percentile gain of 27. This means that a student with average achievement (50th percentile) routinely creating a variety of images and organizers, will likely increase their achievement to the 77th percentile.See pages 6-7 and 170 for additional information on effect size.
 * Effect Size:**

**Nonlinguistic Examples/Non-examples**

 * Examples:**










 * Non-examples:**

Brain research tell us our brain is a pattern seeker. Ninety percent of of all information comes into our brain is visual and our brain can only focus on one thing at a time. The question is do we want students to focus on content or process?
 * **Students are given a variety of templates to organize information.**

Pre-made organizers often look very different, but ask students for the same information e.g. main idea, sequencing etc... Struggling students may be thrown by the different visual representations or waste instructional time "figuring out" the organizer instead of focusing on the content.



**How would an administrator know nonlinguistic representations are being used in a high leverage manner?**

 * Students are creating their own graphic organizers, models and pictures.
 * Students create mental pictures while they read or engage in mental math.
 * Students select or create visual images to accompany class presentations & are held accountable for it during assessment e.g PowerPoint, book reports, etc..)
 * Students use pictures to assist with recall of vocabulary.
 * Students are directed and held accountable to include pictures in class notes.
 * Students are taught and held accountable to use concept pattern organizers (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, p. 78-80.) See also Thinking Maps. //"**When students repeatedly associate a concrete visual pattern with an abstract thought process, they learn patterns for what thinking looks like"**// (Hyerle, Alper, & Curtis, p. 23).
 * Students are given templates only as a means to teach how to create and develop their own organizers and/or learn concept patterns.
 * Students routinely use nonlinguistic representations in all classrooms.

**Technology or Curriculum Connections:**
 * [|Thinking Maps] is also a system of pattern organizers, which consists of 8 map structures, each one related to a higher order thinking skill e.g. brainstorming, compare and contrast, part-to-whole reasoning, describing, sequencing, analogies, categorizing, and cause and [[image:inspiration.JPG align="left" caption="Inspiration, a software program, allows students to create a variety of graphic organizers."]]effect. Thinking Maps also has an accompanying software program.
 * [|Inspiration] is a software program that allows users to create their own graphic organizers and outlines. Has options for adding pictures and images. [|Kidspiration] is similar program designed for younger users.
 * [|Inspiration] is a software program that allows users to create their own graphic organizers and outlines. Has options for adding pictures and images. [|Kidspiration] is similar program designed for younger users.