Roundhouse Diagram

The Roundhouse diagramming strategy provides a rich learning environment because the learner obtains the main ideas from the subject content and creatively connects a picture to aid in triggering the memory of that concept. This cause and effect relationship between the icon and the concept is a powerful tool for transforming an abstract idea into a concrete visual graphic enhancing the long-term memory process.

Concepts are broken down using the ‘and’ and ‘of’ words, or the wavy line may be used for opposing comparisons in the main title of the diagram. The seven wedges or sections in the outer circle of the figure are used to place the main ideas being explored by the learner. George Miller, a cognitive psychologist (1956) coined the idea that the normal human memory system retains seven chunks of information easily if connections are created within each section as well as from one section to the next.

Roundhouse Diagrams are named after the crescent-shaped buildings that resemble a Roman amphitheater. Historically, the Roundhouse railroad system was the focal point for trains to back into their appointed stall and was used for repair, resting and rotating a fleet of locomotive engines. This central turntable is an analogy used to develop a connection to the eye-brain system. For example, the figure is circular which is pleasing to the brain because our field of vision using both eyes is circular. The innermost circle uses a ‘yin and yang’ symbol in an area which houses the central theme captured in the total diagram.

Implementation

1. Prepare the Roundhouse Diagrams for each student to use individually.
2. Prepare a poster to use in a group setting.
3. Prepare a rubric or checklist so students know the expectations for each diagram.
4. Create a rubric that will guide your students as a checklist. For instance ask questions such as:

• Is the goal stated clearly?
• Is the sequence correct?
• Does each section relate to the next section clearly?
• Is the content accurate?
• Were the main ideas revealed?
• Were the concepts meaningful?
• Were the pictures and symbols connected well to each concept?

Roundhouse diagrams can be used as an advanced organizer to find out what a student knows prior to an investigation.

Classroom Management

1. Under goals on the bottom of the diagram write your reason or objective for constructing your Roundhouse Diagram. In other words, what is the ‘big picture’ or theme you are addressing in the figure?
2. Create a title focusing on this central theme and place it in the innermost circle of the Roundhouse diagram.

• Use of the ‘of’ word for the main title.
• For instance, The Cycle of Water may be the superordinate concept.
• Use the ‘and’ words to break down the title into the subordinate concepts, such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and water vapor. Learners seem to better grasp concepts when lined up from general to specific.

• Break your schema down into seven chunks of information.
• Basically you are going to sequence and classify each chunk into each wedge or section beginning with the top center section.
• The concepts should be paraphrased into as few words as possible without losing the meaning.

• Check your sequence and ask your self what comes first?
• Then what comes next? And so on.
• Brainstorm again and this time, come up with icons or several symbols that will help you to recall the concepts in each wedge. Make creative and direct connections of the concepts to the pictures. The picture does not have to be literal. For example you can draw coins to represent the concept of change.
• Evaluate your diagram and be sure each section relates to the next section so that the central theme is well depicted. Now write a paragraph giving details of the concept you just analyzed so that you are able to explain your diagram to others.

Prepared by: Robin E. Ward, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, P.O. Box 42051, Lafayette, Louisiana 70504-2051 (e-mail rward@louisiana.edu).