Purpose.  (1) to provide context (big picture) and focus; (2) to sustain interest and attention; and (3) to aid sense-making.  "I see where we're going.  I see where we've been.  I get why she's talking about..."

Gifted students will appreciate these—especially concept/proposition maps.  Ordinary students will benefit from them.  Students with special needs (i.e., students who require unusual amounts of practice, special goal-setting/feedback/assessment devices [e.g., counting and charting progress towards goal], written formats/strategies, etc.) need them.

1. Objectives.  Statements of what students will be able to do.  Have objectives for: (a) daily lessons (alliteration, metaphor, Prince Hamlet's relationship with Ma Hamlet); (b) weekly (plot, character development, Hamlet as tragedy); (c) larger units (e.g., Shakespeare plays); (d) entire course.  Stated and written.

2. Concept/proposition maps.  Daily (e.g., convection cell), larger unit (e.g., energy cycles), and for a course (forces and processes in nature).  Students have a copy, and the map is displayed.

3. Big ideas.  These could be part of concept/proposition maps; e.g., at the top (Heat energy moves from...").  Also stated.  "The big idea that runs through King Lear is this.  When a monarch abdicates power, the realm becomes unstable.  A monarch is both the highest power in the realm and a symbol for the realm itself.  This symbol takes on qualities of the sacred and also sanctifies the realm.  Therefore, to violate either the monarch or the realm is to violate the sacred.  When a monarch abdicates rule, the living symbol of the realm is gone.  This means that the realm itself is no longer sacred and inviolable. Therefore, material interests are disinhibited, and there may be conflict among groups wishing to rule.  This conflict makes the realm unstable.  (Consider confusion over allegiance, moral principles, rules, violence.)

4. Guided note-taking.  A series of concepts and propositions in the order to be addressed, with space for notes.

Note.  Advanced organizers 2-4 should be directly and obviously relevant to the objectives.  Naturally, tests, practice, and student data-taking (e.g., recording the number of correct responses/time, during "sprints") should be derived from objectives.