What is a Graphic Organizer? |
How are Graphic Organizers Beneficial? |
What are They Used For? |
Graphic organizers are a way to provide a visual tool for anchoring comprehension instruction (Holl, 2015). They are a visual display that demonstrates relationships between facts, concepts, and/or ideas. They make students use critical thinking, use prior knowledge, and help visualize comprehension and understanding between text (Green, 2015). There are many different organizers. Each one teachers can change, take away, and add information to create it their own. Graphic organizer also can tie in with a lot of different types of strategies for teaching comprehension. Certain graphic organizers may go with certain types of strategies better than others. Below are some of the graphic organizers that go along with teaching comprehension and a description of them.
Writing Standard for Graphic Organizers_CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.2.B Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. |
They are also a great form of an assessment. Teachers can give a quick look at the students work and know what they actually are comprehending (Green, 2015). Teachers can adapt them to fit the needs of students, to the different topics, and to their curriculum. Graphic organizers can be beneficial for multiple topics and studies throughout all grades. They are a great way to organize the students thoughts and create a goal for them (Holl, 2015). There are so many to chose from!
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Writing is used during this strategy. Graphic organizers are a way of connecting ideas, organizing thoughts, and/or breaking down information. Students have to write in order to fill out a graphic organizer.
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This video vividly explains what a graphic organizer is, how it should be used, when it should be used, and why it should be used. Although it is long, it gives vast amount of information about graphic organizers and the different types.
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Concept Maps
Concept Maps are a visual organizer that can help enrich students' understanding of new concepts (Gunther, 2015). It assists students to make connections with the ideas/concepts and make the meaning of the word on their own. Concept maps help students brainstorm and generate new ideas, encourage them to discover new concepts and connections, more clear communications for ideas, integrate prior knowledge with new ideas, and gain more knowledge on the topic. Students are also asked to preform a higher level of thinking when creating a concept map ("Teaching and Learning with Graphic Organizers", 2015) It asks students different questions such as "What is it?, What is it like? What are some examples?" for them to deepen their understanding. It helps children organize the new information, make connections, and can be constructed easily (Gunther, 2015). They should be used during reading. They can also be used individually, with small groups, and/or whole class setting (Gunther, 2015). Depending on the purpose and/or age using a concept map, the map itself can be made more difficult and complex or easy and simple.
Describing Wheel
The describing wheel is a great tool for single or group activities. It used, but not limited to, providing information about a main topic or a story or story part, such as a person, place, or thing being described. They are used to make connections, divide ideas and/or concepts to given topic, use critical thinking, and could be used to activate prior knowledge ("Describing Wheel Template", 2015). It is beneficial to use because the outcomes of the students answers can be strictly from their own thoughts or guided through the teachers discussion. It can be adapted to fit the needs of the students. Describing wheel can also be used to write or draw the pictures as a form of comprehending the story ("Describing Wheel Template", 2015).
KWL Charts
KWL charts track what students know (K), want to know (W), and has learned (L). It allows a teacher to see what they knew before the unit or term, during it, and after (Moreillon and Mikkelsen, 2015). Students can prepare to a research a topic and track it along with the rest of the class and teacher. It encourages students to show what they know and how they want to focus on their outcome (Moreillon and Mikkelsen, 2015). This specific graphic organizer activates prior knowledge, combine it with new knowledge by making connections, and gives the students a goal to reach. During this strategy, teachers monitor, scribe, encourage and engage students, and monitor the development from start to finish with the organizer (Tompkins, 2015). The following video discusses what a KWL chart is and how it is used. The speaker explains how she used it in her classroom and what the outcomes were. It is a great example of how to use it as a whole group rather than individually.
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