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Graphic Organizer Teacher Guide to Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are diagram blocks or circles of text that are tied together with lines. These written diagrams can be used by students for a number of things. A common example of how you can use a graphic organizer is to help you sort out your ideas before you start a writing project. You can also use a graphic organizer to help you understand relationships or character traits in a book you are reading, or even to set a time line of events.

Using a graphic organizer can help you figure out what you already know about something, and what you need to find out. If you are working on a group project, a graphic organizer can give you a quick picture of all the parts of the project and who is in charge of each section.

Writers will often use graphic organizers to plot their books and connect the ideas and the characters. You can do this as well. You start by deciding what you are going to write about.

Use Graphic Organizers for Writing

Maybe you need to write a report about spiders. Use your organizer to help you decide what you know, what you don't know, and what you want to say in the report. Your report is supposed to cover why a spider is a spider, what it eats and where spiders live. Put the word spiders in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Then draw several lines from the main circle to other circles. In these other circles write down what makes a spider, what spiders eat, and where spiders live.

If you know the answers to any of the questions put the answer in the right circle. For example if you know what makes a spider a spider you could write that a spider always has eight legs in that circle. If you don't know the answer to a question you will know that you have to find out the answer. Once you've put together the graphic organizer for this report you will be able to see what you have to do next.

Use Graphic Organizers for Reading

You can use a graphic organizer to help you understand what you are reading. This tool can be used when you are reading fiction, or when you are trying to understand textbooks. A graphic organizer is one of the best ways to take notes and make the information you are reading easier to understand.

One way to use a graphic organizer when you are reading is to draw a line across the paper. At the beginning of the paper you draw a line down for the first chapter or section and write a few sentences that describe what the chapter was about. The next line down will be for the second chapter or section.

 

Graphic organizers are used by students to help them create a picture of what they know, what they need to learn, or what they've read. This important tool can help you get ready for a writing project, study for a test, or organize group projects.

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