Graphic Organizers

As I have said before, I think the teacher I am working with is amazing! She seems to have everything so organized. The technique, or strategy I want to talk about, is using graphic organizers. The way she has used visual techniques is incredible. For "The Most Dangerous Game", she had the students draw a picture of the climax of the story. This allowed them to think about the climax and then interpret it in visual form. When I taught my unit on Poetry, she suggested that they draw pictures when we got to Imagery. I used the poems "In Just" and "Starfish". The students were asked to draw a picture of the imagery used in the poems. Their pictures were great. The way they captured the balloon man from "In Just" blew me away. And their depiction of all of those starfish scattered on the beach was awesome. I think they were able to understand imagery a little better by using their senses to describe it to someone else through art. A third way that graphic organizers in the form of drawing have been used is with the "Cask of Amontillado". This one was the greatest!! The teacher had them divide their paper into six sections. They were to label the sections: Plot, Setting, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Conclusion. Then they were to explain these elements of the story by drawing a picture in each box of a scene from the story. This technique made the students understand and apply the elements of a story. They enjoyed the activity and they learned as well. I have never been much for drawing pictures, but I have learned through Mrs. Adkins that this is a wonderful way to assess students comprehension of a story. She doesn't grade them on how well they draw but she does grade them on the way they displayed their knowledge about the story. I also think it is intersting that she started out at the beginning of the semester having them draw just one picture about the most exciting part of "The Most Dangerous Game". Then we moved into Imagery and that picture needed to be a little more specific. And now, this past week, they had to do a plot diagram in the form of pictures. She has made the visual assignments a little more difficult as we have advanced through the semester.