Graphic Organizers

Research indicates that use of Graphic Organizers is effective for helping both middle school and secondary students, with and without disabilities, organize and remember content area information (Horton, Lovitt, & Bergerud, 1990). Additional research indicates use of Graphic Organizers is also valuable for teaching this group of students, how to represent problem situations in diagrammatic form (i.e., schematic diagrams that address identifying and representing structures or type of word problem) and how to determine the necessary operation(s) needed to find a solution in a problem (Jitendra, 2002).

Articles

WestEd’s site Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners has many examples and resources about the use of graphic organizers http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/view/tdl_tip/43

Math Graphic Organizers - This brief by Drs. Maccini and Gagnon defines graphic organizers and provides examples of their use in a math classroom.http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/mathgraphicorganizers.asp

This research review supports effectiveness of Inspiration® and Kidspiration®. These studies provide evidence in support of the instructional effectiveness of the use of graphic organizers. http://www.inspiration.com/vlearning/research/index.cfm

More information about graphic organizers can be found at ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education - http://ericec.org/minibibs/eb21.html

Examples & Online Resources

Math graphic organizers - a variety of math graphic orgainzers done in MS Word, allowing for easy modification.
http://www.sw-georgia.resa.k12.ga.us/Math.html

New Popular math printables, grades 6 - 8 from Teacher Vision
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/math/printable/53505.html

Math Inspiration Examples - http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiration/using_insp/index.cfm?fuseaction=math

Geometry Web created in Inspiration - http://www.lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/geometry.htm

Inspire Data® - Inspiration Software's newest product allows students to make connections between data and visual representations so they can effectively learn to interpret information and solve problems (Product video).

Inspire Data® Mathematical Examples - Students gain a deeper appreciation of the many ways math applies to real world issues as they use InspireData to understand basic mathematical concepts such as percent and sum as in this student survey pie plot and to grasp more complex numerical relationships such as exponential growth as in this cell mitosis axis plot.

EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site and has example of graphic organizer for math http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/math/

WriteDesign Online - http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/

CBSS site has a collection of concept maps (mind maps, webs, idea maps, diagrams, pictures, etc.) organized by school content area. http://cbss.uoregon.edu/clearing/index.html#