What is a Graphic Organizer?

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What Stops Us from Writing?

 I don't know about you, but I can recall staring at a piece of blank paper or blinking cursors for what seems like an eternity. It's an ironic moment where our imagination and creativity have been unleashed but appear to be hesitant to come out to "play."

An effective way to begin the writing process is to focus on prewriting, which involves organizing ideas, setting goals, and exploring topics. Learn about technology-enhanced strategies to help students create a "road map" that can guide them through the writing process. -- from Reading Rockets - Prewriting

 Writing is an important skill for our students to develop. It can help with critical thinking, and it encourages creativity in expressing their thoughts.  If the best way to learn to write is by practicing writing, why then is it so hard to get started?  What can we do to help when our students feel stuck?

Writer's Block in Full Effect

Prewriting to Unblock Writer's Block

There are multiple ways for teachers to help students.  Today, we are going to look at prewriting.  In particular, we are focusing on one strategy that involves the use of graphic organizers.

Graphic Organizers Come in Many Varieties

When selecting a prebuilt graphic organizer, the available choices are endless.  Depending on the the type of writing, one organizer may be better than another. Regardless of the type of organizer you select, the intention is to use it as a tool to prepare students for writing. The organizer itself is not the final product.

Should Students Be Given "Blank Line" Graphic Organizers?

It would be nice if there was a hard and fast "yes" or "no" answer to this question.  In some instances, the use of a blank existing organizer with empty bubbles or a burger might be the appropriate choice. It is important to consider that these blank documents can either limit students, overwhelm them, or both.

How Can I (or my students) Build Their Own?

Of course, traditional pen and paper organizers are possible options for you to consider.  However, with the ubiquity of collaborative digital tools these days, why not consider going digital for your graphic organizers?

Use Google Drawings for Graphic a Organizer

Google Drawings might be the best kept secret of the G Suite Apps.  If you want precise control of where things appear on a page (think of your past experiences with page layout apps like Publisher), then Drawings is your new best friend.  We recorded a brief overview of how to use the app to begin building graphic organizers or, better yet, have your students build their own graphic organizers.  Before I insert this video however, I want to caution you.

Click This for the "Full Effect"

Sometimes we get hung up on digital tools and think that they are helping our students to be creative.  However, might be just be creating the illusion of creativity?  If you decide to give digital graphic organizers a try, keep this in mind.  Some tools that are available now that make the creative process "too easy."  See the previous link above about Wordle.  It is one of many ways and tools that let you and your students easily (maybe too easily) "create."  

In order to maximize the benefit of going digital, attempt to minimize the reliance on tools like this (sometimes called generators).  Have students build their own collages, take their own photos if possible, search for their own links, etc.  So without further ado, here's the introduction to Google Drawings...

How to Use Google Drawings to Make a Graphic Organizer

What Do You Think?

Here's my organizer for this post.

How do you feel about graphic organizers?  Would you be interested in trying digital DIY versions?

If you are interested in giving it a try, please feel free to reach out to us.  

We would be happy to help.