Graphic Organizers

Have you ever wondered as a future educator, or an educator how to get your students to place on paper their thoughts, in an effective and structured fashion, that would be seen as fun in their eyes? Well the answer is graphic organizers. With the use of graphic organizer you can allow your students to excel in problem solving, decision making, and brainstorming. A graphic organizer is simply a way to organize your thoughts graphically. Graphic organizers can range anywhere from the simple story map chart, where you place what happened first, second and third in boxes to a more complex and creative organizer like a sense chart, where you put in different senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) in each box.

The best thing about graphic organizers is there free! That’s right you can go onto web and type in the hyperlink http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ and there are tons of graphic organizers that you can upload and print out free! However to make the students get more involved and creative with the use of graphic organizers you can have them go to the website and look at all of the different types of graphic organizers, and then have them go into Microsoft word and have them make their own. Once the students understand how to you the draw toolbar in word they will soon be making their graphic organizers that are original, and that are full of vast information.

Not only are the students writing and expressing what they have learned already into the graphic organizer, but they are learning how to use the different functions and toolbars on Microsoft word, or any other type of application that is being used in the classroom. This helps them gain knowledge in the area of technology, and promotes them to use it more for educational purposes.

Another good idea to use with graphic organizers is to have everyone in the class print off their finished product, and the teacher can hang them up on the wall or in the hallway to show off the students work. So not only are the students having fun using technology, and expressing their thoughts and ideas, there are getting acknowledged for their work.