Graphic Organizers

It can be a challenge to meet the individual academic needs for all your students. I find that using structured graphic organizers can be a great way to visually represent ideas and concepts. Many students have difficulties organizing their thoughts, so graphic organizers can be a great way to help differentiate your classroom. Many researchers have proven that the use of graphic organizers supports memory retention, organization, and attention. However, just giving students a graphic organizer will not meet their academic needs. Depending on the lesson and learning styles of your students, you will need to alter or change the graphic organizers you give to make sure it would be conductive to learning. 
Another important thing to remember, in my opinion and many researchers on the field of graphic organizers, is that you have to teach students how to effectively use organizers and teach them how to make their own. Once you instruct your students how various quick ways to create their own graphic organizers, they can create them in all of their classes whenever they need to. To do this, model how you use graphic organizers in real-world applications and explain why you would organize your ideas and thoughts graphically.


Check back at the beginning of each month for the Graphic Organizer Idea of the Month!