Graphic Organizers

Why is it important for students to use graphic organizers for school projects??
Students should use graphic organizers for every type of project they do in school and for
homework. They help to organize a student's thoughts before they begin to even think about writing a paragraph or paper. The two work hand and hand to assure that the student has included all of the elements in their writing. More times than not, when a student sits down to begin to write a paragraph or summary, they are overwhelmed with details that do not pertain to the writing prompt and begin their writing in a sloppy manner. A graphic organizer provides a visual of the main topic in question and points that add details to the main topic. The student is able to return to the story or context to find more details to support their main idea and apply it to the graphic organizer. I have seen students who were so overwhelmed by the task given to write a summary, that they shut down and do not write a word. We use graphic organizers with whole groups on the smart board. Graphic organizers provide structure to the piece for a student to begin the writing prompt. With this in mind, graphic organizers can be used to summarize details about a story within whole group discussion, create a list of characteristics about a main character, or even be used to compare/contrast details about characters in two stories. Graphic organizers are almost like the tabs for social bookmarking; organizing one's thoughts about a subject to come back to use for another purpose.