Graphic Organizers in the Classroom

Graphic organizers are visual representations of relationships between ideas. One graphic organizers most people are familiar with is the story line, or "witch's hat" organizer. That gives a visual of how the beginning of the story meets the end of the story. Another organizer is the brainstorming web. The main idea is in the center bubble and the ideas or subtopics "branch" or "web" out from that. There are ways out there to spice up these ancient organizers and further engage students. The easiest way to do this is to add pictures. Students will be more drawn to images than text and it gives them a visual of each topic. An other way is to add color, and easy-to-read text. These can be great ways to encourage the students to show their individuality; have they create webs, trees (like a family tree)or maps covering vocabulary terms for a new section, the main ideas to a chapter for review, and even the different steps for math problems. Below is an example of a web covering the elements of art. This was created through a program called Inspiration,found here.