Graphic Organizers
In the Social Studies classroom teachers use
many different tools to help their students make sense of the content they are
studying. Whether the focus is cause and effect, sequence of events, or compare
and contrast, graphic organizers can come in handy. These tools help students
keep track of information they have learned and document the connections
between core concepts. They are crucial for helping students tackle reading
passages and organize details from a lecture or presentation. Here are a few
different ways that graphic organizers can be used in the social studies
classroom:
Give students the freedom to create their own
graphic organizers to as they read or listen to information. Before handing
over a blank paper, model your own thinking as you interact with content so
your students can watch you in action. They can see how to pull out important information
and separate details from the main idea. Students can follow your thoughts as
you make connections to your own prior knowledge and the concepts taught over
the course of the school year.
They
organize and communicate information in a visual way. When applied to content areas, graphic organizers enhance the learning and
comprehension of difficult concepts and ideas. Using graphic organizers in the Social Studies classroom helps to make content
accessible to all levels of
learners.
Graphic organizers often fall into categories
based on a specific skill. Cause and effect can be taught when teaching
students about many historical moments. As you work with students to think
about sequence of events, teens can use a timeline to see the correlation
between a specific moment and what else was taking place in the months and
years leading up to it. Students might also use a Venn Diagram to compare
and contrast two world leaders or the lives of people in two different
geographic regions. Graphic organizers can help support teens as they learn a
wide range of new information.
As students prepare for quizzes, tests, and
finals, graphic organizers can become great study tools. Teens can use these
activities to help them review information from the beginning of a unit or
earlier in the school year. These organizational tools help students look at
picture ideas like relationships and connections, in addition to details and
facts they’ll want to recall
Graphic organizers can be used as formative
assessment tools. Teachers will be able to get a snapshot of student
understanding during a lesson by observing what information students are
collecting on their page. At the end of a lesson educators can make decisions
about the focus of their next whole group lesson and which students need
support in strategy groups based on how teens completed the graphic organizers.
If your students are writing an opinion piece
on an event in the news or preparing for a research report on a topic connected
to your current unit of study, graphic organizers can be used to help plan
their writing. These tools can organize their thinking as they collect
information to support an argument or help them compare and contrast two
positions. Whether they are used for traditional writing assignments or more
creative activities like filming a public service announcement, these planning
tools will support their final product.
