Critical thinking

Not all graphic organisers have to be square!

Graphic organisers are a critical pre-writing and brainstorming technique that cross over all content areas. However many educators are still using the same set of organisers that are pre-made. Just like students who are diverse learners, not all graphic organisers come ready made and aligned with a specific skill or assignment. Teacher designed graphic organisers are the first step in helping students step out of the “box” and into a word of self-designed organisers.

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Empowering students to take control over their thought process, reflect on the desired skill they need to demonstrate and then produce a unique graphic organiser is truly powerful and transformative in the classroom.

Pictured are two very good examples of graphic organisers teachers could use for word study or vocabulary development. Both have the same goal: To have students define a term and make a connection with it by providing examples. These are representative of graphic organisers that could be readily found on-line or in a teacher resource book, photocopied and provided to students as an assignment in cross curricular subject areas.

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 12.30.16 pmYes, the organisers above get the task accomplished and may even make for a great study guide for assessment, but do they raise the bar and embed student accountability? Increasingly, it is becoming more important that modern day students create, design, collaborate and produce a final product. In other words, they use all the pieces they have just learned and synthesise information. This process is often a more meaningful experience and yields a higher retention of content area knowledge, skills and development of abilities.
Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 12.30.51 pmRecently, in my 8th grade classroom, I divided my students up into teams that had assigned vocabulary words to complete a word study graphic organiser for the poem “The Lesson of the Moth”. The only criterion was that they defined the word with a standard definition, gave a group definition – one synonym and one antonym.  Even though I drew the teacher model on the Smart Board, I told teams that they had to develop their own models to display the information. Teams presented their terms to the class while their peers took notes so that they had a complete list of terms. The lesson took about 90 minutes in total which would be about the same amount of time if students had to look up a list of ten to 15 words independently providing the same information.

In this example for the term symbolism, the group decided to use a smelly image of a trash can to be a symbolic representations of their term, Their term has nothing to do with trash, nor did the selected reading; however, it game a powerful image to the teScreen Shot 2016-06-29 at 12.32.07 pmam which demonstrated a higher understanding of the word’s usage. Their image was symbolic of something “disgusting” as labelled in the illustration.
Another group took their word study in a completely different direction by using Pinterest to find a creative way to show their work. The team utilised technology to initiate an internet search, collaborated to pick a design, then modified the design to fit the needs of the assignment.  By incorporating technology, this group was able to overcome their anxiety over designing something that was not teacher derived.

More and more, I have noticed that students are worried about reproducing the exact replica of what the teacher has assigned. While this may be useful in some cases, it is a setback to student creativity in the classroom. It also gears students to find only one solution to a problem when we live in a word where there is diversity in an individual’s approach to the same task.

Screen Shot 2016-06-30 at 9.01.24 amThis example shows how one group took the moth symbolism from the poem and combined it with the word study task. Therefore synthesising concepts in the poem with the word being studied. Again these student examples were ceaseless in variety, content, style, design and application. It’s this type of “big picture” thinking and creativity teachers should strive to foster in their classrooms. Even though there isn’t a turtle in the poem, this group chose it as a representative of their word. Thinking “out of the box” and applying their word to an unsightly speckled turtle.

Some could argue that the graphic organiser to the left is the same box type organiser as first provided, however it encourages the use of imagery, colour and applied meaning to foster retention of the word. This group may not have ventured far from the typical teacher model, but they did embellish it and make it their own which is what all Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 12.53.06 pmgraduates have to do – take what they have learned in their preparatory classrooms and make it their own so they can be college and career ready.
As you can see, each design accomplishes the same goal, but the student designed organiser allows for creativity, ownership and accountability. All student teams met the requirements of the word study, but also collaborated, came to a consensus on the information and images to use to best define their word.  Students now know how to use the word and apply its meaning. Instead of rote memorisation to score a high grade on a test, they will do well on the test, but the likelihood of them using the word again has increased greatly.

In today’s classroom, it’s important to create opportunities for choice and ownership allowing students to take charge of their education experiences and thrive. Incorporating visual learning strategies and collaboration are both powerful tools in the process.

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Lauren M Rivers


Lauren Rivers is a veteran teacher of 17 years. Having studied Elementary Education at the University of Maryland and completed her Master’s Degree in Administration at McDaniel College, she has a true passion for providing students with instruction that is up to date and pushes them to the next level. Currently, Lauren teaches English Language Arts to 8th graders in the state of Maryland. She has 2 children, a husband, a chihuahua named Bernie and is also an artist.