Try this! Consequences (Visual literacy)

Try this idea in your classroom

Consequences

This is a "What if?" activity. Many skills are involved: brainstorming ideas, problem solving, visualizing how all parts of the problem fit together, and planning a discussion or an explanation.

This activity involves making a consequence chart, which is a kind of flow chart.

Background

Consequence charts are useful in many areas of science and social studies. Here are some possible topics:

Grades K-2
- What if we all brought our pets to school?
Grades 3-5
- Suppose you became lost while hiking in the forest. How would you survive?
Grades 6-8
- What would happen if the world ran out of oil?

The strategy

As an example, suppose you are working with the Social Studies topic of transportation (Grade level 5-8), and you are discussing the advantages and disadvantages of cars, bikes, buses and trains.

To play Consequences with this topic, ask a what-if question and invite the students to explore as many consequences as they can. For example:

What if we banned all cars?

This kind of question focuses students on imagining and then solving transportation problems.

Start by drawing the beginnings of a flow chart on a large sheet of paper, or on the board.

Invite possible consequences from the students and start adding them to the chart, such as:

Point out that every new link may have both a positive consequence and a negative one:

Now ask the students to work in pairs, each pair with a separate sheet, adding as many possible consequences as they can. Encourage the students to look for advantages as well as disadvantages for each consequence.

Every consequence chart will be different, but here is one example:

Students compare each other's results and are free to borrow any ideas that they like. They can revise their own consequence chart after seeing others' ideas. (This is pooling knowledge and imagination. It's not "cheating.")

Using their flow charts, each student now has a framework for writing one of these texts:

Explanation: How cities would change without cars

Discussion: Would the world be better or worse without cars?

Argument: Why we must ban all cars

Argument: The dangers of banning cars

(Imaginary) recount: What would happen if the oil ran out

Suggestion: There are likely to be a number of different "chains" of consequences in each chart. To help decide which ones to write about and in what order, it helps if students number the chains before they start the essay:

Each number represents a new paragraph in the essay. By numbering the chains, students provide themselves with a map to follow when writing their argument or explanation.

Assessment

Questions to ask when assessing a Consequence chart:

Do the arrows and numbers clearly show the order in which to read the text?

Is each step in the sequence connected by at least one arrow?

Are steps arranged in a sequence that makes sense?

Assessment sheets for flow charts can be photocopied from The Information Toolkit (any title or edition), page 29. These books also include assessment sheets for explanations, arguments, discussions and recounts.

Other visual planners

This activity shows how a flow chart can be used as a visual planner, that is, a visual text that helps us to plan an essay. Visual planners are sometimes called frameworks or graphic organizers.

Flow charts are only one kind of visual planner. Here are some others to try:

A storyboard to plan a procedure (such as how to cook popcorn)

A timeline to plan a recount (such as a field trip report, or a newspaper story)

A table to plan a discussion (such as a comparison of two or more points of view on a topic)

A tree diagram to plan an information report (such as an essay on "Animals of the Ocean" or "Three Kinds of Volcanoes").

Why are we doing this?

Visualizing is an aid to clear thinking. By visualizing the essay as a flow chart before we start to write it, we don't get lost in the detail of many unconnected "facts."

Instead of getting lost in the details, the flow chart provides a "map through the forest" of facts.

Planning an essay first as a visual text organizes the key points, and requires us to ask:

What am I trying to say in this essay?

What is the most important point?

What should come first, what comes next, and how should I finish the essay?

A flow chart provides a framework that helps many of those struggling writers who ask,

"What should I write about?"

"Where do I start?"

"What should I write next?" and

"How do I finish this?"

Resources

A lesson plan based on this strategy can be found in The Information Toolkit, Book B, pages 104-7.

Other examples of flow charts can be found in:

The Information Toolkit page 28

Show Me! page 28

I See What You Mean, pages 49–59.

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Copyright © Black Cockatoo Publishing PL 2006

Now try this ...

Here are some other classroom ideas you might like to try:

Mystery webs

Mystery webs are web diagrams that help with comprehension and learning. They are suitable for:

> creating curiosity about a new topic before you begin it, and

> revising a topic that has recently been completed.

Visual summaries

An effective tool for improving research skills and comprehension. The students read some information in the form of sentences, but summarize the information as a diagram or other visual text.

This prevents copying the source. It also requires the student to think about the information in order to summarize it.

Decision makers

Making their own decisions builds confidence in learning, gives students a stake in their learning, and develops initiative and responsibility.

By organizing the choices in the form of a table (or chart), students are able to compare alternatives easily and to make a logical decision.