Graphic Organizers

I was impressed at how efficiently the book explained the purpose and use of graphic organizers for informational text. If you're looking for a bunch of pretty pre-made organizers, look somewhere else. If you need an easy, effective reference that encourages students to use their own brains and create their own organizers as a class, this is it.

The authors did a nice overview of why graphic organizers are useful instructional tools which included some philosophical underpinning to their work. The variety of examples showed how teachers and students would actually use graphic organizers as tools for thinking about their thinking. Sure, a graphic artist could have made the book "prettier" but one of the main points is not to get caught up in how the graphic organizer looks. They aren't ends in themselves, but they are a means to an end. Couple this book with Inspiration software and teachers will have a better understanding of how visual learning can make their classroom a better learning environment!