Author: paloma
Last saved by: Antoni Ruszkowski

Dinah Zike’s Teaching Science with Foldables

reviewed by Paloma Varela

Paloma Varela is the Teacher Trainer for Bridges, and holds the Trinity College London Advanced CerTESOL, attended the Canadian Confederation College Alternative Education postgraduate course, and holds London Chamber of Commerce Certificate for Teachers of Business English. She also teaches English for Gastronomy and Stage Management at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana.

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Introduction
Background
Examples
Conclusions
Reference

Introduction

When I a friend of mine showed the materials that a publisher had sent her, my eyes gleamed like a leprechaun’s eyes before his pot of gold. As I looked into the bag and glanced at the bounty my friend was sharing with me, I saw a title that caught my attention: Teaching Science with Foldables. When I opened it I noticed that, in fact, it was aimed at teaching not English, but science through Foldables. That was something extra that I was not expecting but I thought would certainly enhance the already positive values of the book. All at once, two main thoughts came to my mind: "Would it be easy to learn how to make them?" and "How can I use any of them in my day-to-day teaching?"

Background

The first thing that stuck me was how little I knew about manipulative materials. I soon discovered that manipulative materials are concrete models that help make abstract ideas concrete, appealing to several senses they can be touched and moved around by the students.

Examples

In this book you will find a general tips for creating and using Foldables. Dinah Zike is an award-winning author, educator, educational consultant, and inventor, known internationally for these three-dimensional manipulatives made of everyday paper, glue, and scissors.

The book is user-friendly, for teachers, students, and parents, providing clear and easy examples to follow. In this book the author describes the benefits, presents sample activities, and gives how-to instructions and student examples for the basic six types of Foldables.

The content is divided into:

Introduction to Foldables
Folding Instructions
Science Topic Ideas

Despite the fact that this book is aimed at teaching science, I found a lot of potential for using its ideas for teaching English. Research has proven that students learn in different ways, so by using these three-dimensional materials the senses are brought into learning: students can touch and move objects to make visual representations of concepts. Manipulatives provide the student with new ways of exploring a topic.

The process of teaching learners not only the basic foldable shapes, but also the part folds, and then inviting them to choose the best ones for use for the context, can become authentic learning tasks - rather than asking students to simply fill them out, where the thinking has already been done by the teacher. Group or teamwork are an important part of learning, manipulative materials help promote interaction among students. The book encourages the idea of setting up a materials table where students can donate gel pens, crayons, decorative-edged scissors, stencils, and glue.

Steps for Introducing Foldables

Students master quickly the folds needed for constructing Foldables. I have been experimenting with them constantly in my classes at all levels, including teacher training, and find that it is wise to introduce the designs one at a time. It typically takes no more than ten minutes to do the actual construction, and experienced students will take even less time.

Creating the Foldable

Distribute the necessary materials to students. This usually consists of scissors and six colors of standard letter sized paper. Some Foldables also require glue.

Show students samples of the completed Foldable and state a common purpose for each type, such as comparing and contrasting, summarizing, or cause and effect. Page 13 of the book provides examples of the six basic Foldable shapes.

Model each step of the construction for each Foldable using everyday terminology, which is a great opportunity to practice giving instructions!

It takes a lot of meditation beforehand to be able to say concrete instructions like “fold the paper in half;” otherwise you find yourself blurting out something as unhelpful as, “like this.” Encourage students to help one another, practicing the instructions.

Using Foldables in a Lesson
The idea behind the Foldable is to divide the information and make it visual. It is important for the students to decide how many parts they want to divide the information into and then determine which Foldables best illustrates or fits those parts, in the same sense as a Venn diagram, but kinesthetic.

When teaching reading, the teacher might consider the “shutter fold,” where the two ends are brought together into the middle like little doors, to demonstrate how they can record questions during reading about plot, characters, or motivations.

Another type of fold is the “tabs,” which I find highlights an ordinary reading activity involving “yes / no” questions and “wh-” questions into something much more challenging, because students write the general title of the reading on “front tabs” (general information), and write answers to questions (specific information) under the “subtabs.”

For students studying an aspect of writing or grammar, the teacher might model using a Foldable to compile and organize examples of proper usage, as in the case of verb be.

The completed manipulatives can also be used as a tool to foster classroom discussion of a topic, or to warm up to a summary, writing activities, or even setting up open class displays.

Once the activity has been introduced, students should have a chance to look over the sample Foldables, talk about them, and select the best fit for organizing their information. The more involved students are in thinking about their purpose and planning how they will achieve it, the more they will benefit from the use of these materials.

Conclusions

The communication and interactions fostered by these efforts can be as enriching to students language learning, as well as for the achievement of the specific lesson goals. Students should also be encouraged to collaborate on the creation of the Foldables and to work in pairs or small groups, as appropriate, as they pursue the assignment.

Having said this, I would really recommend all HLT Magazine readers to have a look at this book. Take time to handle the manipulatives yourself, enjoy the experience, bottom line: they are a lot of fun!!

Reference

Zike, Dinah. 2002. Dinah Zike’s Teaching Science with Foldables. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill.

The  Creative Methodology for the Classroom course can be viewed here.
The CLIL - Teaching Other Subject Through English can be viewed here.
The Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course can be viewed here.