Interactive Graphic Web Organizers – A tool for classifying and organizing ideas

I absolutely love them! According to the article on Interactive Graphic Organizers by Lopez et al, “interactive graphic organizers facilitate the discovery and design of patterns, relationships and interrelationships, as well as helping to develop creative thinking.” In the classroom, teachers can use graphic web organizers as part of the brainstorming activity, before reading. Here students can view their contributions and the contributions of their peers and the connections made about the particular topic. Web organizers can also be used as part of the post reading strategy where students can be asked to organize, sequence or classify the information received in the particular lesson. In a narrative for instance, a noteworthy comprehension strategy is the “Ws of Comprehension (i.e. Who, what, when, where, why).” This can be organized quite efficiently on a graphic web organizer to assist students in organizing and retaining what they have learnt.

In fact, I have also taken the initiative of using www.webspiration.com to help me create graphic web organizers to help me with difficult concepts in my own academic pursuits. As a result, these concepts are easier to recall since the layout, with its symbols, colors, shapes and arrows intertwined with text, have been imprinted in my mind. I can envision the use of interactive graphic organizers having a similar effect on the children I teach.