Blog Post #5 - The Power of Digital Graphic Organizers

Resource: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/20/c3/ca/20c3ca2f8fbb9c4816c727cda3cbabd7.jpg

    There are many benefits to using graphic organizers with students ranging from all ages and across all content areas. The most obvious reason in my reading intervention classroom is that graphic organizers help students improve in reading comprehension. Graphic organizers help students organize information in a visual format. Therefore, students can better see the relationships and connections causing deeper learning and improved comprehension to occur. Another benefit is that graphic organizers can be easily differentiated to help all students. This is important to consider when thinking about instruction for RTI and supporting ELLs. Lastly, graphic organizers help increase student engagement. My students really enjoy completing assignments when graphic organizers are included. After they are done writing using the pencil-paper mode, students can draw and color making them feel like masterpieces they are proud of turning in for grading. 

    Prior to this module, I have only used pencil and paper formats for graphic organizers but this week after trying a few different online platforms, I decided to give a digital try with my students. I decided to use the apps Inspirations Maps Lite and Kidspiration Maps. The first thing I noticed was that my students were even more engaged than paper and pencil format. They loved learning about how to use the apps and generated some of their best work. I like how these two apps were extremely kid-friendly and did not take long to teach them how to use. For my kindergarteners, we used a graphic organizer to sort pictures into categories of their beginning sounds. For my 1st-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to retell the story using our 5-finger retell strategy. For my 2nd-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to map out important story elements. For my 3rd-grade students, we used a graphic organizer to map out important vocabulary words. For my 4th-grade students, we used graphic organizers to map out writing our personal essays. It has truly been a fun week!

    Obviously, pencil and paper format is still important to practice with students since they won't be able to use apps to help them with state testing and so on. I think realistically, digital graphic organizers are easier to use and can be printed for a physical copy if a teacher needs that. So in the long run, it saves more paper. One thing I learned about using digital graphic organizers is that students were not so focused on trying to spell every word accurately compared to writing with pencil and paper. I encouraged them to get their thoughts down first and then go back and edit their spelling and grammar errors later. I liked that the program would underline errors for them to correct. This is much different than paper and pencil when I have to help them edit it myself. Another positive thing about using digital graphic organizers compared to paper and pencil was that students could incorporate images more quickly rather than drawing them. In the end, both paper and digital graphic organizers help students organize their ideas and thoughts. When deciding which format to use, it truly depends on what's best for each student to be successful in their learning. 

    I don't really have any major concerns about using digital graphic organizers with my students. One mild concern is making sure students don't accidentally delete their own or someone's graphic organizer. Another mild concern is having a backup plan in case technology is not available for me or there is an issue using the app (for example we lose internet capability at my school). Other than that, I think that I will continue learning to find ways to incorporate digital graphic organizers more often in my classroom. I will also continue finding newer or better apps that are easy to manage and are free of charge. I will also talk to classroom teachers this year at my school and encourage them to try using digital graphic organizers in their rooms and across all their content areas.