Finally Categorizing...through a Web

What I did:
Once my paper trail was under control, my notes were taken, and I found some more resources, the next logical step would be to finally web my information (the part I should have done when I was originally collecting it). I decided to give Inspiration a try as I figured out that doing it in Word was more trouble then it was worth. I made two different webs, one based on good nutrition and the other labeled “habits for weight management.” I looked at all of the types of diagrams that I could do to determine the one that best fits the information that I have. The ones that were most appealing were a cluster diagram (http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tcluster.htm), a spider map (http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tspider.htm), and a webbing diagram, (http://.eduscapes.com/tap/topic73.htm). I realized that they basically did the same thing: describe a central idea and map attributes of it in a hierarchical pattern. I decided to do a simple cluster diagram for each of my topics.

I started with good nutrition. I looked through all of my notes first to try to notice any similar ideas that I could group together. My key ideas were more or less based on the questions that I developed. When I was reading through my notes, the key words were glaring, like food pyramid, the parts of the food pyramid, and calories. I compared the information that I had on each key word to determine if the ideas were similar/different and if there was any new information that would add to these ideas. I built on each of these key ideas by selecting the information that was useful and organizing it by adding it into the web. The beauty of this process is that it is very flexible and you can move ideas around in your web to find the perfect fit for them. I discovered through webbing is that some of my questions were subquestions of others. Even though I had these questions separate, some could be connected under a more broad topic.

Once I got these secondary topics, the diagramming was easy. I did the same with habits for weight management. When I finished my diagrams, I felt very productive and I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was anxious to get it finished. I realize that the only information that I have not been able to classify is the food pyramids created by the USDA, MayoClinic, and Healthy Living. I just added these to the bibliography sheets with my notes on them to save for later! Click here to see my diagrams:
Good Nutrition: http://portfolio.iu.edu/kaabaker/good.nutrition.jpg
Habits for Weight Management: http://portfolio.iu.edu/kaabaker/habits.weightmgmt.jpg

I learned how to use Inspiration and I liked the ease of the program. You could essentially create a diagram as big as you want because you have unlimited page space. The one feature that I found to be awesome is “Diagram” where you can choose how to clean up your existing diagram. I played with it before I was finished, but when I did finish, it really cleaned up my diagram into a hierarchical format, which makes it much easier to read and identify the key ideas. The other great thing about Inspiration is the ability to turn your web into an outline. There are defiantly some benefits of looking at your information in outline view! The one drawback to this program is that not everybody has it, like Word, so it makes it a little bit more difficult to make changes to it.

I see a lot of merit to webbing my information later, rather than while researching. I still think it is important to take notes as you go, and categorize these notes with a question/idea. However, I found a big difference between my “notes” and the information in my web. My notes were sometimes in sentence form and at times, copied directly from the source. When I started to web my notes, I couldn’t put a whole sentence in it, so I transformed my sentences into words and phrases. Was I actually starting to process my information without realizing it? I also started to analyze my information without realizing it. I was looking at all the pieces as a whole, comparing it all, and looking for patterns on what key words to organize it by, what information to combine, and what information to keep separate. I think I did a great job because I really broke down all of my information and ideas to see how they were organized and related to each other. I was really feeling great about my project because it was all coming together.

While looking at my final webs, I saw major connections between the two diagrams through calories and the food pyramid. Both of my essential ideas, good nutrition and habits for weight management, cycle around the food pyramid and calories. My project was starting to develop connections that would be helpful in synthesizing my information to form new ideas.

What I learned:
Webbing is easy with the right program:
Inspiration really helped me expedite the classifying process. It was so easy to use and even easier to move things around even when you had already webbed it.
Webbing is easy once you find your key ideas:
it is important to find your key ideas before you start to web. It is a more natural process order and information really starts to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. If I was to classify while finding key ideas, I think some of my information would have been placed under the wrong heading because I only would have had a couple of key ideas to start with. This idea could easily be tied back to when I organized my questions in list format instead of a web.
Different webs for different purposes:
looking at all of the different types of diagrams really forced me to think about what types of relationships I need to make between my information. This process got me organized without even thinking about it. Selecting a type of diagram, and stating why, helped me understand what type of patterns to be looking for in my information when I was trying to classify it.
Webbing vs. Taking Notes:
taking notes is a good skill, but can lead to plagiarism. Webbing forces the information to be transformed into new forms, patterns, and relationships through notes being rewritten into words and phrases.
Webbing and processing/analyzing information:
Webbing forces the webber to process and analyze the information without them even knowing it. When information is transformed into new forms, patterns, and relationships, the information is being processed (compared, selected, organized) and analyzed.

What I can apply to my teaching:
· Graphic organizers, graphic organizers, and graphic organizers. Diagramming using graphic organizers is the way to get kids to start to think about the information and it forces them to process and analyze their information. Since processing and analyzing information seems to be one of the most difficult actions for students, they need to learn how beneficial a diagram can be during this stage. In order for students to learn this, they need to be exposed to many different types of diagrams for organization of information that will help them accomplish different things, like comparing/contrasting, classifying, cause and effect, etc. Students will need these scaffolds from me to help them put structure on their information.
· Make comparing, selecting, and organizing information a deliberate stage in the inquiry process through diagramming. Instead of the graphic organizer teaching students how to do these skills, students need to move from dependent practice with specific exercises and scaffolds, to more independent work where they use the diagram as a tool to help them organize what they have compared and selected.
· Make Inspiration and other tools available for students to use when they are diagramming. For example, if students are comparing, they could make a table in Word. But if they are webbing, like I did, Inspiration would work fine. These tools make diagramming easy to the effort is not in designing the diagram, but adding information to it.