CAST Strategy Tutor

Graphic Organizers (Inspiration 8.0) Overview Session

References:

Background information on graphic organizers and connections to UDL: Graphic Organizers and Implications for Universal Design for Learning: Curriculum Enhancement Report, Prepared by Nicole Strangman, Tracey Hall and Anne Meyer http://www.cast.org/ncac/index.cfm?i=4769

Session Highlights:

Note: page numbers refer to the Inspiration Quick Start Tutorial available online.

Download free 30 day trial of Inspiration

1. Overview of the user interface – pull down menus, main tool bar, and formatting toolbar
2. Diagram mode and use of Rapid Fire(see pages 4 – 5)
3. Introduce the different ways that symbols can be created (pages 8 – 7)

1. Use the Point and type method or
2. Use the Create tool on the toolbar or
3. Use Rapid Fire with or without links (good for brainstorming with a class and one computer and a projection screen)

The Graphic Organizer Home Page This site is a rich resource for learning about graphic organizers, offering links, lists of references and books about graphic organizers, information about using graphic organizers for writing, guidelines for designing graphic organizers and assisting students in designing them, and samples of student work with graphic organizers.WriteDesign On-line The graphic organizers Web pages from WriteDesign On-line list 20 different graphic organizers and describe their use in the context of 8 activities: analyzing, brainstorming, comparing and contrasting, evaluating, hypothesizing, interacting, sequencing, and visualizing. The descriptions include visual examples.

Teach-nology This Web site offers 7 graphic organizer generators, tools that enable you to make customized graphic organizers. Users fill out a simple online form and are instantly provided with an individualized graphic organizer that can be printed and/or saved for later use. NOTE: there are many pop-ups when you open this site.

Let’s Blog

1. Go to http://edublogs.org
   • in order to create a blog you need to sign up for an account
2. Sign up in seconds… “start here” – follow the screen directions
   • select a “user name” that is easy for you to remember
   • create your own blog (next)
   • choose a blog domain (a name to identify your blog)
   • decide a blog title that will represent the intent of your blog
   • continue to follow the screen instructions

   3. Begin Blogging

Session Highlights

• Dashboard – user interface that, somewhat resembling an automobile’s dashboard, that organizes and presents information in a way that is easily accessible
• Write: post vs page
  • A post is a single entry in your blog; your blog is composed of multiple posts. Posts are time-oriented objects. You write them at a specific time, and that time defines their context.
  • Pages, on the other hand, are most often used to present information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless – information that is always applicable
  • Categories are used to organize your posts.
• Manage
  • posts – pages – uploads – et cetera
• Comments
• Blogroll
  • Here you add links to sites that you visit often and share them on your blog. When you have a list of links in your sidebar to other blogs, it’s called a “blogroll.”
• Presentation – here you select your theme and your widgets (a small program)
• Plugins are custom functions created to extend the core functionality of the blog
• Users – you as the blog owner can assign roles to your blog users
• Options
• Support

NOTE: more information on jargon.