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Frayer Model

What is it?

The Frayer model is a word categorization activity that helps learner to develop their understanding of concepts. Two versions of the Frayer model can be used. In the first, students provide a definition, list characteristics, and provide examples and non-examples of the concept. In the second, students analyze a word's essential and nonessential characteristics and refine their understanding by choosing examples and non-examples of the concept.

How could it be used in instruction?

There are many concepts that can be confusing because of their close relationships. The Frayer model provides students with the opportunity to understand what a concept is and what it is not. It gives students an opportunity to explain their understanding and to elaborate by providing examples and non-examples from their own lives.

How to use it:

1. Assign a concept that might be confusing because of its relational qualities.
2. Explain the Frayer model diagram.
3. Model how to fill out the diagram.
4. Provide students with time to practice with assigned terms.
5. Once the diagram is complete, let students share their work with other students. Display students' diagrams as posters throughout the unit so students can refer to the words and continue to add ideas.

Frayer Model Examples

Definition (in own words)

.

.

Characteristics

.

........................................

(WORD)
Examples (from own life)

.

.

Non-Examples

.

........................................

Definition (in own words)

A mathematical shape that is a
closed plane figure bounded by
3 or more line segments

Characteristics

* Closed
* Plane figure
* More than 2 straight sides
* 2-dimensional
* Made of line segments

(POLYGON)
Examples (from own life)

* Pentagon
* Hexagon
* Square
* Trapezoid
* Rhombus

Non-Examples

* Circle
* Cone
* Arrow
* Cylinder

Definition (in own words)

The ideas, beliefs, and ways of
doing things that a group of
people who live in an area share.

Characteristics

* Shared ideas
* Shared beliefs
* Shared practices

(CULTURE)
Examples (from own life)

* What my friends and I wear

* Music we listen to

Non-Examples

* Color of my hair
* Color of my eyes
* Nature
* Weather ..........................

Definition (in own words)

A change in size, shape, or state
of matter

Characteristics

New materials are NOT formed

Same matter present before and
after change

(PHYSICAL CHANGE)
Examples (from own life)

Ice melting

Breaking a glass

Cutting hair

Non-Examples

Burning wood

Mixing baking soda with vinegar

Definition (in own words)

A whole number with exactly two
divisors (factors)

.

Characteristics

* 2 is the only even prime number
* 0 and 1 are not prime
* Every whole number can be written
as a product of primes

(PRIME)
Examples

2,3,5,7,11,13...

Non-Examples

* 5 is not a factor of 12
* 0 is not a factor of any whole number

.

Essential Characteristics

.

.

 Non-essential Characteristics

.

.

(WORD)
Examples

.

.

Non-Examples

.

.

Essential Characteristics

Feathers
Hollow bones
Warm blooded
Breathe air with lungs
Wings
Beaks

 Non-essential Characteristics

Ability to fly

(BIRDS)
Examples

Robins
Meadowlarks
Parrots
Eagles
Ostriches
Penguins

Non-Examples

Bats
Flying reptiles
Insects
Flying squirrels

Essential Characteristics

A person seeking the legal end
to slavery in the U.S.A.

 Non-essential Characteristics

Northerner

Race

(ABOLITIONIST)
Examples

John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Tubman

Non-Examples

Jefferson Davis
John C. Calhoun
Slave trader
Cotton farmer