Graphic organizers are a visual representation of a story or article. Creating one is like drawing a picture of what you read.
Graphic organizers can help you identify main ideas and details in your reading or when you listen to lectures. They make it easier for you to see patterns such as cause and effect, comparisons and contrasts, and time order. Graphic organizers also help you recall, evaluate, analyze, and apply what you've learned.
When choosing a graphic organizer to create, decide which one best suits the material you are reading or the lecture that you have listened to. Then create the organizer using all of the main ideas, details, and facts presented in the text or lecture. Sketches, color, and visual aids are all acceptable in a graphic organizer if it fits the material.
Here are just a few examples of graphic organizers that might be useful to you as you read or listen to a lecture:
story map—identifies the key elements or parts of a story by charting characters, setting, problems, and solutions
Venn diagram—uses overlapping circles to compare information; the part that overlaps shows what is similar between the two things being compared
cause-and-effect diagram—shows the event or events that make something happen and what happens as a result
web or cluster—shows how facts and details are related to the main idea and subtopics. This graphic organizer is helpful to use when taking notes from a textbook, when listening to a lecture, or when brainstorming an essay or composition.
sequence chart—shows the order of things that happen in a story, in a process, etc. This is a helpful graphic organizer to use when listening for information or to record instructions.
time line—keeps track of important events in the order in which they happen. Time lines often appear in social studies textbooks and in nonfiction texts, such as biographies or those about historical events.
KWL chart—connects to what you know, what you want to know, and what you learned
5 W's chart—tells who, what, when, where, and why details. This type of graphic organizer is a good one to use when breaking down important details in a newspaper article. This is because a journalist's goal is to always tell who, what, where, when, where, and why in an article.
cycle diagram—shows the steps of a process that repeats over and over. This graphic organizer works well with science content in which the various cycles of nature are discussed.
Did you say web or cluster? Yes, that would be a great organizer to use because the passage gives facts and details about one topic.
How does your organizer compare to the example below?
You probably recognized that the web helps you to see the most important facts about the topic, Kangaroos of Australia. It also helps you to connect related information, such as the fact that the animal's long, powerful legs and feet making hopping easier.
Student responses may vary. Acceptable answers include:
Please evaluate the student's answers:
Excellent
Good
Okay
Forest Fires
North America is home to millions of acres of lush forests. However, these precious and beautiful areas of wildlife and trees are subject to forest fires. These fires have two main causes: lightning and human-related activities, such as neglect of a campfire or arson (people purposely starting a fire). Many factors lead to the spread of forest fires, including dry leaves and logs, which fuel the fire. High winds, high temperature levels, and low humidity also play a role in the spread of these files, as does the topography (features) of the land.
Here are some of the effects of forest fires: