Graphic Organizers

Really useful for teaching and in a great variety of forms and designs for almost any purpose, they are a great tool to organize, simplify and explain specific information to our students and also a great visual tool for our students to organize themselves their own ideas.

Here is a link to a short, funny and clever video that explains graphic organizers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xsCE4kkb0

Also this one so you can see how to work with them in the classroom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY6e0kFo4lg

Some examples:

• Story Map

http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/language-arts-graphic-organizers.html

I would use a chart like this with children in a reading activity, to help them to understand a story they have read, in small groups I would ask them to describe the situation, identify the problem and propose a solution.

 

•  KWL Chart

http://creately.com/blog/examples/graphic-organizers-in-k12-classroom-education/

I would use this type of GO with secondary students, during pre-reading activities of a lesson to find out what they already know about the topic and what they want to learn about it, during the reading to organize their ideas and after reading to asset what they have learned.

• Venn Diagram

http://babblingabby.blogspot.mx/2010/11/thanksgiving-activities-for-first-grade.html

This example is great to use to compare and contrast two different families that have common characteristics, in the example it is used in a kid’s class, a thanks giving activity about pilgrims and Indians where they can discover their similarities and differences.

• Time Line Charts

http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/graphic-organizer-posters-my-timeline-grades-k-2-mkt15010

This GO is intended also for children and can help them to organize written personal information and then, to make an interesting an oral presentation!  It will help them to organize their thoughts and encourage them to talk about themselves more fluently.