What are Brain Frames?

Do you ever feel as if your students' ideas are about as organized as scrambled eggs? Or at a bit of a loss about how to structure their thinking and content knowledge? Graphic organizers are often a go-to strategy for supporting students with learning, yet picking the "right one" for any given task can be perplexing when teachers have so many at their fingertips. Which of the five most popular graphics is best for planning a narrative? Should the hamburger, the scorpion, or the house graphic organizer be used for writing a paragraph? What about T charts vs. Venn diagrams for comparing and contrasting? Surely the old standby - the web - will do just fine in a pinch. If students are going to internalize the organizing frameworks needed for academic success, they need a manageable set of graphics that will help them "do school," and teachers need a manageable set of effective graphics that they can use across their curriculum.

Brain Frames are a set of graphics that organize, but they aren't traditional graphic organizers. They are visual-spatial displays of the patterns underlying basic things we do with language every day: tell what we know, sequence ideas, make comparisons, show contrasts, identify causes, recognize effects, categorize, and show relationships between concepts. Literally, Brain Frames allow teachers and students to show what's in their brains by constructing a visual "frame" so they can see, reflect on, and share what they know and understand. In the classroom, the six Brain Frames are used to make language visible; they support teaching, listening, speaking, reading, writing, note taking, thinking, and problem solving. Forget about dittos -- a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and the right strategy will do the job. Teachers in all grades and students of all ages and learning styles can use Brain Frames all day, every day as essential tools for teaching, learning, and academic success.

"I use Brain Frames for EVERYTHING: to teach new concepts, assess my students' knowledge, guide their reading comprehension, support them with organization in writing, manage their behavior, promote self-awareness, and help them problem solve. Now that I know them, I can't teach without them." ~ Grade 11 Teacher