50 Uses of Graphic Organizers and Rubric

Examples of Graphic Organizers
In this Section

Learn more about graphic organizers for assessment in our Online Courses, Online Certificate Programs, and Graduate Degree

How Does Visual Thinking and Visual Learning Help Students

Lesson Plans Using Concept Map Activities

Concept Maps in Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies

Rubric for Graphic Organizers

Teacher-Created Graphic Organizers

50 Uses of Graphic Organizers

  1. Assist students in organizing information and key concepts
  2. Assist teachers in planning lessons/units/themes
  3. Illustrate the school's goals or plan for the Parent-Teacher Organization
  4. Illustrate instructional goal links to testing expectations
  5. To show what each grade will be teaching and how units fit into the larger picture of the curriculum for the whole school
  6. Assess student learning
  7. Show integration of different topics across the curriculum for a unit, lesson, or long-range plan
  8. Present difficult material in a step by step manner
  9. Plot summaries
  10. Create cause/effect/solution diagrams to resolve social issues within the classroom
  11. Book design elements
  12. Illustrate the digestive system
  13. Local government diagram
  14. Defining new terms
  15. Introducing a new concept
  16. Note-taking organizer
  17. Detailed processes (how to add polynomials etc.)
  18. Creating a storyboard for a PowerPoint presentation
  19. Comparison activities
  20. Historical cause and effect
  21. Cycles (recycle, weather, etc.)
  22. To construct a food chain
  23. Map of where items are stored in desk, trapper, or locker
  24. Library orientation
  25. Language Arts - character descriptions, plot movement, the action that leads to the climax
  26. Math-to teach algorithms (especially division)
  27. Math-problem solving because it is non-linear
  28. Create instructions for games
  29. Create picture charts that students can follow if they are communication impaired. Kids can follow picture symbols such as the symbols found on the Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker software.
  30. Help study for a test.
  31. Classroom organization chart with associated responsibilities
  32. How to/step by step for learning new software
  33. Developing a course, workshop or training session
  34. Planning a WebQuest
  35. Documenting job responsibilities
  36. Planning a website
  37. Personal professional goals
  38. Concept maps to send home to parents to help explain a unit so they can help their children study/review
  39. Assist cooperative groups in defining projects and dividing job responsibilities.
  40. Faculty/district - responsibilities of committees
  41. Flow charts for behavior plans for either the classroom or a specific student
  42. Similarities between different units through the use of the same structure in the graphic organizer.
  43. A tool for students to identify when they do not understand information and identify where the breakdown is in their comprehension.
  44. To add more depth in a compare/contrast lesson, for example, identifying the important variables by color-coding or another visual element, and then deciding if the variable is the same or different in the two objects of study.
  45. Showing relationships.
  46. Procedures to follow during an emergency drill such as a fire or storm drill;
  47. Lab procedure explanation
  48. To present lab conclusions and highlight important concepts (especially prior to completing a written explanation)
  49. In foreign language classes create an organizer that shows the English word on one side and the foreign language word equivalent on the other side with pictures as hints.
  50. When studying a poem, in the center concept list the name of the poem and the connecting lines contain phrases from the poem. The subconcept explains the words in the phrase and the literary technique used such as personification.

Our Favorite Tools for Creating Graphic Organizers

Canva
https://www.canva.com/graphs/t-charts/

easelly
https://www.easel.ly/

Piktochart
https://piktochart.com/

infogr.am
https://infogram.com/

bubbl.us
https://bubbl.us/

wisemapping
http://www.wisemapping.com/