Ever since I published my book The Teacher’s Big Book of Graphic Organizers, Grades 5–12 (recipient of the 2013 Teachers’ Choice Award), I’ve had elementary teachers coming to me asking for a book they could use with their students.
I drew upon my years of classroom experience, interviewed scores of elementary teachers and observed their classrooms, and even experimented on my own children and their friends. The result is this compendium of graphic organizers for students in grades K–5.
There are many tips and suggestions for using these graphic organizers throughout the book. But the strongest advice I can offer teachers and parents is to use your imaginations!
There is rarely one and only one appropriate use for any organizer. I have organized them in a way that focuses on the skill set being developed, rather than just on the subject matter for which they are most appropriate.
But the possible applications are many and varied. For example, the Food Chain Organizer (GO 41) can be useful for illustrating a sequence of events in science class, plotting a story in literacy class, identifying the steps in a math problem, or clarifying the important steps of a historical event.
The vocabulary development organizers in Chapter Three can be used as tools for mastering new vocabulary in any subject.
A Venn diagram (GO 2 and GO 3) is useful whether comparing two fictional characters in literature class or two cloud formations in science class.
All of the cause-and-effect graphic organizers (GO 4, GO 5, and GO 90) are valuable, whether a student is considering the details of an American Revolutionary War battle, the effect of rain on a desert, or a fictionalized account of St. George slaying a dragon.
In the final chapter I include a number of graphic organizers that have been developed with specific content matter in mind.
But even these—social studies graphic organizers, science graphic organizers, and mathematics graphic organizers—can sometimes have applications in other areas of study.
Elementary school students are creative and malleable, and these graphic organizers can match them turn for turn.
