Graphic Organizers and Teaching

     I strongly believe in using graphic organizers to enhance one's teaching to make learning accessible for all learning styles. After last week's class and receiving all of the MANY organizers, I was reminded of their many different purposes. During student teaching, we had an inservice day that was designed entirely around concept maps and how they can be used for multiple ages and in a variety of settings. Whether they be used in reading to keep track of characters or in social studies to compare and contrast cultures, they can be useful tools for students, and they ultimately bring literacy into every lesson since they involve reading, writing, and communicating ideas. 

     When it comes to graphic organizers and comprehension, I think they greatly enhance a student's ability to put together information in a way they can easily understand it. Because understanding is the ultimate goal during reading, it makes sense to use these organizers often. However, I do think that they must be carefully introduced to the students. Because so many teachers just give out pointless worksheets, it would be easy for students to miss the true purpose of these organizers. 

     In the lesson I taught on character theories, the students drew their own theories, therefore basically creating their own graphic organizers. Because they were asked to translate their thoughts into a drawing, they were forced to transfer their information through multiple modalities and in doing so clarified their ideas. Teaching the students about reading has been such a joy since they seem to have a thoroughly developed love of reading, and I am anxious to see how writing goes this week since they will just be beginning a new piece. There will hopefully be many opportunities for me to try out graphic organizers with the students.