Customer Reviews

Graphic Organizers (Grades K-8)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

I was very disappointed with this book. There is not much contained in it. All of the examples (which are few) are scribbley pictures done by other teachers--very poorly done.

I'm finishing up a master's degree in reading and bought this at the beginning of my studies. Go with a different book, as this one completely misses the boat. It describes four basic patterns of knowledge organization as hierarchical, conceptual, sequential and cyclical. Yikes! In my research, I found a common theme of five basic patterns: Sequential, descriptive, cause-effect, problem-solution, and comparison-contrast. But...

If you really want to roll up your shirtsleeves and teach kids how information is organized, I strongly recommend any book by David Hyerle on Thinking Maps. His research is incredible and the 8 maps he teaches will give kids and adults tools to help them wrestle with content, organization, writing, etc. That's what I'm using to teach my own kids how to read and think about nonfiction.