Instructional Strategy

Britannica Education logo in blue square

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY

Foldables

Grade:

3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Type:

Read Actively
20-30

Minutes

When:

During reading

Materials:

Foldables graphic organizer, whiteboard or display, writing utensil
Chat bubble with list icon in green on white background

Description

Pink origami square with folded corners on bright yellow background.
© Elena KHarchenko—iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
The Foldables strategy allows students to organize information from a reading. Depending upon the topic and lesson objectives, the strategy can be used while students read to define vocabulary, track cause and effect, track evidence that supports a claim, and/or to compare and contrast ideas, events, or people.
Curved arrows forming square in orange on white background

Procedure

1
Provide students with a pre-made Foldables graphic organizer or sheet of paper and the guidelines (how many sections and the headers) they should use to create their own folding graphic organizer.
Consider creating a visual model of the organizer to show students, or create the organizer alongside students to demonstrate the necessary steps of creation.
2
Provide time for students to read the assigned text in the manner most appropriate for the classroom.
3
Invite students to record details from the text that align to the headers and objectives of the lesson.
Expanding arrows icon in white on purple background

Differentiation

Chunk the Text: To support students in reading and comprehending a longer or more complex text, provide stopping points and ask students to jot down details after each one. This allows students to stop and process information in segments.
Alternative Titles/Headings/Prompts: For an extra level of challenge, consider providing alternative titles and headings or prompts to encourage students to think about more complex ideas in the text. For example, in a lesson comparing Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, you could ask students to focus on life experiences that may have shaped these men’s beliefs in addition to listing their beliefs and strategies.
Overlapping documents icon in light blue on white background

Variations

Notebook Organizers: Instead of providing separate pieces of paper, invite students to create an organizer in their notebook. This may entail folding a page in half lengthwise, adding sticky notes to a page, or otherwise modifying the notebook page to track the information in a visually engaging manner.
Jigsaw Organizers: Invite students to focus on recording information for only one of the organizer sections. After reading and recording, students meet in mixed groups to share the information that they recorded for their assigned section.
© Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.