Johanna Busch
Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers allow students to develop a deep understanding of content by helping them to organize their thoughts. Students in my classroom use a variety of different graphic organizers for math, ELA, science, and social studies. Though some of my students with IEPs have specific accommodations that involve using graphic organizers, I find that using graphic organizers benefits all of my students. Graphic organizers help students better articulate their thoughts about content, build connections between texts, themselves, and the world, and to write more effectively. '
Graphic organizers are also a key part of the writing process in my classroom. Many of my second grade students are still working to master the basics of writing paragraphs. Using a graphic organizer allows them to pause, think about what they want to write, revise, and then put time into writing it with proper conventions. Going straight to the writing phase is too overwhelming for many of them. Graphic organizers help them to slow down, organize their ideas, and then focus on writing.
Graphic Organizers for Writing
An important part of writing instruction in second grade is teaching students the skills they need to become competent writers. Graphic organizers are an important part of the pre-writing process. Graphic organizers help students to plan out their ideas. When students create graphic organizers before they write, they are able to better structure their paragraphs. Before they start writing they have a roadmap of what they want to say.
Graphic organizers help students apply the practices of good writing to create meaningful, independently created writing pieces. Many second grade students are still learning the parts of a paragraph and how to create a writing piece that discusses one main idea. Graphic organizers help scaffold these skills, allowing students to apply them to their own writing pieces.
Students used graphic organizers to prepare for writing a biography about Abraham Lincoln. First, students learned about biographies. Next, students read an informational text about Abraham Lincoln. Students then used a web graphic organizer to identify the main idea of the text. They each chose four important pieces of information they wanted to include about Abraham Lincoln and recorded them in the graphic organizer. Students then sequenced these details. Finally, students used their graphic organizers to write shot biographies of Abraham Lincoln.
This project was an example of how graphic organizers help students build connections across content areas. Though students were completing this project during our ELA block, the content of the text and nature of the writing built connections between ELA and social studies. Reading a text about Abraham Lincoln and sequencing the information to create a biography connected a writing skill to historical information, helping students to develop a deeper understanding of both content areas. Examples of student work are shown below.
This student recorded and sequenced four details about Abraham Lincoln's life in a graphic organizer.
This student used her graphic organizer to write a paragraph long biography about Abraham Lincoln.
This student recorded and sequenced four details about Abraham Lincoln's life in a graphic organizer.
The images to the right show the graphic organizer and writing sample of a high performing student. This student was able to properly sequence four relevant pieces of information about Abraham Lincoln's life. She then turned them into a paragraph.
This student used the information from her graphic organizer but also added extra information from the text.
The images to the right show the graphic organizer and writing sample of an average to low performing student. This student struggled to sequence some of her details. She also added a lot of extra information into her writing sample that she didn't first organize in her graphic organizer.
Above are two examples of student work of the Abraham Lincoln web and writing piece. The first student used the graphic organizer to properly sequence her details and then used that to structure her writing piece. The second student struggled to sequence some of her details. She then added extra information from the text that she hadn't first organized. This led to a biography that was not entirely in order and included some rambling. If the second student had made sure her writing matched the graphic organizer, her writing might have been easier to follow and more structured.
The graphic organizer helped both students to apply their knowledge of the content (Abraham Lincoln's life) and the writing process to create a biography. The graphic organizer helped students to better structure their thoughts. Using this graphic organizer for a writing project allowed students to meaningfully apply writing skills.
Below is another example of a student using a web to organize their ideas. Students created webs listing the different types of animals and plants found in the desert. Creating webs around science and social studies topics connects content learned in these areas to reading and writing. These graphic organizers help students make connections between content areas.
These images show two webs a student created after reading a science text about plants and animals in the dessert. The student recorded all the plants and animals she learned about in a web. She later used the web to write a paragraph about the different types of living things in the desert and then compared the desert to another habitat.
Graphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension
The other primary way that I use graphic organizers in my classroom is for reading comprehension. Graphic organizers help students by providing a structure for the way that they can think about a text without telling them what to think about the text. Students are provided with blank space and decide the best way to fill it. Giving students this structure helps to scaffold them towards developing a deeper understanding of texts.
To most effectively use this instructional strategy, I first decide which comprehension skill students are working on. I then pair this skill with a graphic organizer and text that lend themselves to building the skills that will help students more deeply understand the text. I use a variety of different graphic organizers, helping students to build a variety of different skills that they will need to improve their reading comprehension abilities.
Compare and Contrast- Venn Diagrams
Comparing and contrasting similarities and differences is a key comprehension skill that students work on in second grade. I use Venn diagrams to help students organize their thoughts when comparing and contrasting. Using a Venn diagram helps students visualize what they are doing when comparing and contrasting without giving them the answers. Students build deeper knowledge of whatever content they are reading about by writing differences and similarities in Venn diagrams.
I often have students use Venn diagrams to compare and contrast two different texts that we have read. For instance, students spent two weeks learning about fairy tales and comparing and contrasting different versions of the same fairy tale. Students read the traditional fairy tale of Cinderella. Students then watched a read aloud of Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, which is an African version of Cinderella. Students used Venn diagrams to compare and contrast these stories, helping them to gain a deeper knowledge of both stories.
Students first read the above version of the fairy tale Cinderella.
Students watched this read-aloud of the story Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Students then compared and contrasted this story with the text of Cinderella shown to the right.
The slideshow below shows two samples of Venn diagrams comparing and contrasting Cinderella and Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Comparing and contrasting these two versions of the same fairy tale help students gain a deeper understanding of both stories as well as fairy tales in general. Using the Venn diagram helped students better conceptualize the skill of comparing and contrasting. Applying this skill to a fairy tale that is familiar to students helped them to dive more deeply into this story, considering its character and story structure.
This is a work sample of a student on a lower than average reading level. The student recorded the similarity and differences discussed in class but was unable to add her own similarities and differences to the Venn diagram.
This is a work sample of a a student on an above average reading level. This student not only recorded the similarities and differences between the two stories that were discussed in class but also added her own similarities and differences to each part of the Venn diagram.
This is a work sample of a student on a lower than average reading level. The student recorded the similarity and differences discussed in class but was unable to add her own similarities and differences to the Venn diagram.
While I sometimes use Venn help students identify similarities and differences between texts, students also use Venn diagrams to compare subjects they learned about from texts. This is particularly useful when building connections between reading and other content areas. For example, students used a Venn diagram during a science lesson to compare and contrast information they learned about ants and anteaters after reading informational texts about both animals. Applying a graphic organizer and skill that students had previously only used in reading comprehension with science material helped students to build connections between these two content areas. Students learned how skills like comparing and contrasting can help them better understand scientific concepts.
This student build connections between reading and science by using a Venn diagram to compare and contrast ants and anteaters. This student effectively provided several similarities and differences about the two animals using evidence drawn from two informational texts.
Story Elements and Story Structure
Story elements and story structure are two key reading comprehension concepts that my students revisit all year. My students often use graphic organizers to record the story elements and story structures of texts. Recording this information allows students to meaningfully apply the skills that will build up to retelling and summarizing. Furthermore, since students repeatedly complete similar graphic organizers, they get in the habit of always listening for the elements and structure of a story. This skill will allow them to develop deeper understandings of the texts that they read. Read more about how I teach students the concept of story elements on the whole brain teaching page.
This student filled in a story elements graphic organizer after listening to a read aloud of The Rainbow Fish.
After reading the story Henry and Mudge, this student filled out a story structure graphic organizer. Students build a deep understanding of how stories are structured by filling out this graphic organizer for many different stories. This helps students master identifying the beginning, middle, and end of stories.
Students read the story Bremen Town Musicians and then identified the story structure using graphic organizers. Two examples of student work are shown below. Using these graphic organizers helped both students gain a deeper understanding of the story after reading it by helping them to break it down into its most important pieces.
The above graphic organizer is the work of a student with very strong reading abilities. This student was able to correctly identify all the parts of the story structure.
The above graphic organizer is the work of a student with slightly below average reading levels. The student correctly identified the middle of the story and part of the beginning of the story. However, the student defined the setting instead of identifying it. The student was close to correctly describing the ending but was a little confused by the characters.
Conclusion
In conclusion, graphic organizers help students develop deeper content understanding, build connections between content areas, and apply this information in meaningful ways. Students use graphic organizers for both writing and reading comprehension. Graphic organizers help students structure their ideas before writing to produce well-structured writing pieces. Using graphic organizers during the pre-writing process allows students to apply information they know about content and writing to create a meaningful written pieces. Using graphic organizers for reading comprehension gives students a map for how to formulate their understanding of a text. Students also often use graphic organizers to organize structure information about science or social studies topics. This helps students develop connections between content areas. Providing this blank space for students to fill in allow students to deepen their understanding of texts and subjects. Graphic organizers provide structures for students while still putting most of the higher level thinking on students.