GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AND
TECHNOLOGY UNITE FOR
LOTS OF LEARNING! By Teresa A. Horgan Shadoyan
My vision for our inner city elementary school
game plan was presented to the students. They were enthusiastic! With the assistance of the
library media center is to collaboratively
district’s web support specialist, the instructional plan was communicated to parents through
create independent readers, writers, and
parent newsletters and on the school’s website (http://web.richmond.k12.va.us/jlfes/Learning/
researchers ready to learn and work in the 21st
SchoolWideInitiatives.aspx).
century. To accomplish this, I developed a plan
of action with input from students, parents,
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
teachers, and administration. It was important
The selected graphic organizers were the fishbone, lotus square, Venn diagram, and two column
that the plan built the bridge between library
notes. Our instructional technology resource teacher recommended a wonderful resource
media instruction and classroom instruction.
to create the Venn diagram and fishbone graphic organizers (www.worksheetworks.com/
This partnership would build consistency and
miscellanea/graphic-organizers.html). Students used Word to create a lotus square and two
cohesiveness for our students’ learning.
column notes, and learned how to insert a table creating a lotus square (three columns and
three rows) and two column notes (two columns and multiple rows). I modeled creating each
BUILDING ON STUDENT STRENGTHS TO IMPACT LEARNING
of the graphic organizers and students practiced creating the graphic organizers using desktop
A year ago, a review of test data revealed a
computers in a mini-lab.
need to strengthen how students organize
learning to facilitate the writing process. As
many of our students are visual learners, I
hoped graphic organizers would speak to
CHART 1: A LOTUS SQUARE OF LEARNING
Fishbone
Venn Diagram
Two Column Notes Graphic
Organizer: Spiders
their visual strengths and draw them closer
to their pursuits of comprehension and
I learned
writing. As a former classroom teacher, I
witnessed the transformational quality of
graphic organizer use. The test data review
also unveiled students’ passionate interest
in technology use along with uncertainty
I wonder
How do spiders get
water on the web?
How do they make a
web?
How many different
types of spiders are
there?
How many poisonous
spiders are there?
about how to use websites for research.
Students enjoyed technology and actively
responded to lessons integrated with
www.animoto.com
Lotus square
www.
http://exchange.
discoveryeducation.com
smarttech.com/#tab=0
www.wordle.net
technology. So how could I, as a library
media specialist, embrace our students’
strengths, invigorate their independence,
and awaken a passion for learning?
4 + 5 = AN ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE
During the summer, I put together a lotus
square of fun learning for our students (chart
1). I selected four graphic organizers and five
websites to create a schoolwide plan which
would be part of library media and classroom
www.prezi.com
instruction. Faculty and staff participated in a
July workshop introducing the websites and
graphic organizers. The training combined
an overview of the graphic organizers and
websites, interactive activities, and practice
time in the computer lab. In the first week
of our library’s fixed schedule classes, the
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LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION
January/February 2014
Fishbone
During library media lessons, students used the fishbone to recall the plot in a picture book,
recall details learned in a nonfiction book about animals, and causes and effects in a story
about bullying during Bullying Prevention Month. Primary grade teachers enjoyed this graphic
organizer as was evidenced by the hallway walls filled with fishbones of facts, details, and
events.
Students’ and teachers’
love for the lotus square
became apparent when
students chose the lotus
square to take notes
during research or
another activity.
Venn diagram
The Venn diagram helped students compare
and contrast two versions of a fairy tale and
two or three famous explorers or presidents.
Although many upper grade students had
Lotus square
been exposed to the Venn diagram, many
The lotus square is a nine squared box of three rows and three columns. Students enjoyed
had difficulty finding similarities beyond
writing a topic in the center and details learned in an e-book or short video clip from Discovery
the superficial details of the story or
Education. Students’ and teachers’ love for the lotus square became apparent when students
biographical facts. This graphic organizer
learned all four graphic organizers and chose the lotus square to take notes during research or
facilitated deeper, thought-provoking
another activity. During a first grade library media lesson, students read about camel spiders
character and plot analysis.
in an online encyclopedia and websites on our school portaportal and then created a lotus
square in Word using the insert table tab. Facts about the camel spider were organized in the
lotus square and then the students wrote a summary of what was learned. Students used the
references tab to create their citations. Our students enthusiastically integrated technology and
graphic organizers into a research activity.
Fact:
Fact:
Fact:
They can be about 6 inches
They live in warm, dry places.
They have eight legs.
Fact:
Topic:
Fact:
They are carnivores.
Camel Spiders
They weigh about two
long.
ounces.
Fact:
Fact:
Fact:
They are Egyptian Giant
They are arachnids.
They eat insects.
Solpugids.
Nationalgeographic.com. “Egyptian Giant Solpugid (Camel Spider).” Web. 11 Mar. 2013. http://
animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/egyptian-giant-solpugid/?source=A-to-Z.
World Book Kids. “Camel spider.” World Book, 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.
Students enjoyed technology and actively responded to lessons integrated with
technology. So how could I, as a library media specialist, embrace our students’
strengths, invigorate their independence, and awaken a passion for learning?
January/February 2014
LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION
k 27
Two column notes
essay on a question posed in the assignment.
Many students liked the two column notes graphic organizer to share information learned about
Our fifth graders with access to laptops
a topic for research or to organize information about reference books. In third grade, students
were able to learn more about the American
analyzed the purpose of five reference books: encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and
Revolution and abolitionist movement using
almanac. They used the two column notes to organize the purpose. One class felt compelled
these writing assignment builders. This
to also use a Venn diagram to further analyze the similarities and differences between the
fostered independence as they used media
reference books.
and websites to research a topic.
The SMART Board has been a fun and
I learned
I wonder
interactive teaching tool. An exchange of
How do spiders get water on the web?
teachers’ SMART Board presentations has
created a site of abundant, actively engaging
How do they make a web?
activities for students on many topics across
grade levels and curriculums. For a fun-filled
How many different types of spiders are there?
review of reference books before testing,
students were able to actively engage in
How many poisonous spiders are there?
comparing, contrasting, and defining the
purposes of these reference books using
SMART Exchange at http://exchange.
smarttech.com/#tab=0.
WEBSITES
The five websites were Animoto, Prezi, Wordle, Discovery Education, and SMART Exchange.
MORE EXCITEMENT AHEAD
There was very little that I needed to do to excite my students with websites. They were already
Our school has enjoyed a year of uniting our
highly motivated and wanted to do what I was modeling and using in each library lesson.
students’ literacy needs with technology and
graphic organizers. Our next step is to use
Students were mesmerized by creating videos in www.animoto.com. During a poetry lesson, I
www.edmodo.com to share our integrated
created a haiku poem Animoto video for them, and then we created class haiku poem Animoto
technology and graphic organizer library
videos. Later, the instructional technology resource teacher burned a disc of all of the Animoto
media and classroom lessons. We look forward
poetry videos. Students, families, faculty, staff, and school board members viewed the students’
to another lotus square of fun-filled learning
videos of haiku poetry.
next year!
I enjoyed presenting the resources in www.prezi.com. The students’ favorite was learning the
Dewey Decimal System with an embedded rap song teaching the classification system. The
moving and zooming features of this presentation tool focused attention to the topic. Students
were not content to simply observe a dynamic Prezi; they wanted to create their own. Students
Teresa A. Horgan Shadoyan is a library media
specialist at J. L. Francis Elementary School
in Richmond, Virginia and can be reached at
[email protected].
worked on creating PowerPoint presentations to embed in a Prezi. Reference books and Black
History Month biographies were also a huge hit using this site.
We used www.wordle.net to activate prior knowledge as well as to check for understanding.
Using the Windows snipping tool, I saved the class’s Wordle and emailed it to the teacher or
saved it for evaluative and planning purposes. Several confessed Wordle enthusiasts reported
they created Wordles of their spelling words at home.
We used www.discoveryeducation.com in two ways. We continued to use video clips to
enhance our library media and classroom instruction, but added the writing and assignment
builder to create independence for our upper grades. Several social studies and science writing
assignments were created with video clips and web links to view. Then students wrote an
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LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION
January/February 2014
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