Nonlinguistic++Representations+&+Cues,+Questions+and+Advance+Organizers

NONLINGUISTIC REPRESENTATIONS:

Graphic organizers combine the linguistic mode and the nonlinguistic mode of communication by using words and phrases to highlight key points and symbols and arrows to represent relationships. Six graphic organizers are used in the classroom. These correspond to six common patterns into which most information can be organized: descriptive patterns, time/sequence patterns, process/cause-effect patterns, episode patterns, generalization/principle patterns, and concept patterns. Each graphic organizer arranges information differently and thus is more appropriate for some types of information than other.



Drawing pictures to represent ideas, events, places, or objects is a powerful way to generate nonlinguistic representations in the mind. For example, most students have either drawn or colored a representation of the human skeletal system or have seen a picture of one in the classroom. A variation of a picture is the pictograph, which is a drawing that uses symbols or symbolic pictures to represent information.



One of the most direct ways to generate nonlinguistic representations is to ask students to create mental pictures, as exemplified by. For abstract content, these mental pictures might be highly symbolic. To illustrate, psychologist John Hayes (1981) provides an example of how a student might generate a mental picture for the following equation from physics: F = (M1M2)G r² This equation states that force (F) is equal to the product of the masses of two objects (M1 and M2 (times a constant (G) divided by the square of the distance between them (r2). There are a number of ways this information might be represented symbolically. Hayes (1981) suggests an image of two large globes in space with the learner in the middle trying to hold them apart: If either of the globes were very heavy, we would expect that it would be harder to hold them apart than if both were light. Since force increases as either of the masses (M1 and M2 (increases, the masses must be in the numerator. As we push the globes further apart, the force of attraction between them will decrease as the force of attraction between two magnets decreases as we pull them apart. Since force decreases as distance increases, r must be in the denominator.

As the name implies, concrete representations are physical models or representations of the knowledge that is being learned. Mathematics and science teachers commonly refer to the use of concrete representations as “manipulatives.” The very act of generating a concrete representation establishes an “image” of the knowledge in students’ minds



Kinesthetic activities involve physical movement. By definition, physical movement associated with specific knowledge generates a nonlinguistic representation of the knowledge in the mind of the learner.