Using Graphic Organizers Correctly
What is a visual organiser, and how does it work? Visual displays or charts that depict the relationship between ideas, facts, and information are known as graphic organisers.
a picture of a piece of paper with the title “Sequencing Timeline” on it There are five blank boxes along a line for pupils to fill in major events in the chronological order in which they occurred, as seen below.
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The use of a graphic organiser
It can, for example, allow a third-grade student to map out a summer vacation in chronological order by writing precise information in each box of a connected series. Another graphic organiser would have three columns and demand a seventh-grade student in a world history class to list the factors that contributed to World War II in the first place. The causes are presented in the far left column, the effects are given in the middle column, and the evidence or a source is required to be written in the far right column to accompany each cause and its corresponding effect.
A PRE-WRITING TOOL
A sheet of paper with the words “Chronological Structure” written across the top. Below it are two rows of three-sided squares that are joined together, like opened boxes. Below that, there are three columns with rows of lines for you to make notes on them.
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The use of a graphic organiser
A RESOURCE FOR PRE-WRITING
A graphic organiser should be carefully chosen by teachers after establishing what style of writing they want their pupils to engage in — narrative, argumentative, or informational — and then implementing it. They then choose certain abilities to work on in order to improve their writing in that genre of writing. Do you want your child to learn sequential writing skills in a narrative writing assignment, or do you want him or her to focus on description and details? A teacher will be able to select the most appropriate graphic organiser based on this determination.
The ultimate goal of using a graphic organiser as a teaching tool is to prepare pupils for the act of writing itself. Simply said, a graphic organiser is a tool that aids students in their thinking and serves as a pre-writing tool rather than the final product. Some young authors may require this thinking skill more than others, depending on their stage of development. As a result, a writer in your classroom may wish to forego the use of a visual organiser and be prepared to jump right into the writing process. Allow her to do so.
The teachers must realise that they are not educating students to become charters of information, but rather to become writers. The only way to improve one’s writing fluency is to write more.
IMPROVE WRITING BY WRITING
We instructors, especially those working with struggling children, might get caught up in treating the graphic organiser as if it were The Assignment, as I’ve witnessed in my numerous classroom observations. When working with students who are having difficulty, we must stop urging them to finish filling in the boxes or columns on the graphic organiser and instead focus on what really matters: the writing.
It is far more vital for a student to practise writing — the only way to improve writing fluency — and to make mistakes when connecting thoughts together in this manner than it is for a student to fill out a graphic organiser entirely and flawlessly on the first attempt.
Last but not least, only the writing should be graded, not the graphic organiser. This will assist in keeping the spotlight where it should be: on our pupils’ abilities as writers.
What have been your experiences with the use of graphic organisers in your teaching environment? What advice or suggestions do you have for new teachers, particularly those who are just starting out? Please share your thoughts in the comments area.