I have learned that using graphic organizer and analyzing literature help
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Graphic organizers are a helpful learning tool for students of all ages to organize, clarify, or simplify complex information—they help students construct understanding through an exploration of the relationships between concepts.

Teacher-generated organizers are a useful scaffold to support student learning. They provide students with a means to categorize cumbersome amounts of information, introduce a more refined lens to analyze a complex text, and enable students to recognize patterns and compare perspectives. However, graphic organizers can have the unintended consequence of limiting students’ thinking to just filling in the boxes, and may allow students to avoid the messy but important work of surfacing key insights or conceptual understanding.

Careful design, creation, and use of graphic organizers can provide important intellectual guardrails to guide students toward deeper understanding and learning.

LET LEARNING GOALS DRIVE DESIGN

Well-designed graphic organizers should guide students to categorize key concepts, surface the interconnection of ideas, or help students construct knowledge.

For example, if your desired learning objective is to have students explain the paradox that both an overly weak and an overly strong government can threaten individual liberty, the graphic organizer must be constructed to generate that level of thinking. The organizer should ensure that students move beyond the traditional listing of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the design should lead students to thoughtfully analyze how liberty was impacted under the British monarchy and the Articles of Confederation.

Similarly, if the goal is to determine whether an author followed or broke from traditional storytelling conventions, a graphic organizer that outlines the plot elements of a novel would be insufficient. The organizer should require students to compare plot elements from the novel to the typical rising/falling action, climax, and resolution storyline; determine where and why the author made similar or different choices; and offer a judgment regarding the deliberate craft moves.

If the goal is to have students form well-reasoned opinions, the ubiquitous Venn diagram, although a viable means to make comparisons, doesn’t automatically require students to weigh the relative strengths of the elements depicted, isolate the most significant similarities or differences, or rate or discriminate between elements that would inform a thoughtful point of view.

Unless they’re designed with the end in mind, organizers may unintentionally lead students on an intellectual scavenger hunt that generates surface understanding and thinking. The design of the graphic organizer must align with the learning goal and require that students apply the information they deconstructed in order to make meaning or develop unique insights.

UNDERSTAND THE WHY

Imagine asking your students while they’re working on a graphic organizer, “What are you doing?” and “Why are you doing it?” It’s likely that students would be able to articulate the former (e.g., “I’m filling in this chart/table/diagram.”) but not necessarily the latter.

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