Universal Graphic Organizers SAVED my SANITY!
It happens all the time… you sit down to do a lesson and start by reading a book. Then you grab a worksheet or mini quiz and, because you are awesome, you added visuals and icons so all your students could participate. Then, just as you start to get some engagement from a students who needs lots of support, your higher academic students look over and yell, “I’m done!”
Now what? You know you don’t want them to take a break- that just begets behaviors. You can’t have them do it again- that insights irritation. If you tell them they can hop on a computer, you will be fighting a battle all year. What do you do?
I had this same problem and tried ALL those ‘wrong’ answers I just mentioned. They all were problematic. What I really needed was a ready made extension activity that was on point with the curriculum that my ‘higher’ students or fast finishers could work on.
THAT is when I started compiling a bank of graphic organizers that work for any book… and those Graphic Organizers SAVED my SANITY!!
Using Graphic Organizers in Special Ed
When I started using these graphic organizers, I was targeting that fast finisher and also the higher students who were able to take things to the next level. I started with a collection of my 5 favorites and slid them into sheet protectors so they were ever-ready and not consumable.
I used them in centers to train how to use them correctly and then placed them nearby. Whenever I had a student need extension work, I directed them to the sheets. When they were done with a page, they would check in with me… I would ‘grade’ it really quick and then they could move on to the next one- this just bought me time to finish working with students who needed that extra attention.
Once I started winning with those students and successfully keeping all kids working, I actually started using several of them with my mid to lower academically skilled students. What I found is the predictability of the activity meant that no matter the reading materials, they could pull some comprehension out of it with the graphic organizer’s support!
Essential Features of Graphic Organizers
These graphic organizers are not new by any means. Graphic organizers have been around forever. When I was looking for them I could find some here and some there… some that were scans of oldies out of workbooks of yore, some that were cute and some that were ugly. The solid truth was it took me forever to find ones that I liked that were secondary appropriate, accessible to use with students in self-contained, and also meaningful for my students.
Then, even when I found them, they were not all the same looking- it was just a mashup of a bunch of worksheets (and I am much to OCD for things to not be matchy-matchy). So, I went to task on making a complete set of ones that everyone knows (like a Venn diagram and First-Then-Last) to ones that are I never found quite right, but tweaked into perfection (like the Inference and Retelling).
Now you get to skip all the scrolling, searching, and sure disappointment. You can click and download the best set of universal graphic organizers I could find!
Perfect Center, Comprehension or Assessment Activity
You are always looking for quality activities that are print and go… and that are also practical, functional and cute. I always was. It makes the academic day so much easier when you know you have generic activities that fit with everything ready to go especially when they are actually effective. I remember staying up late and working all weekend on laminating, Velcro tabbing, and cutting out materials… but when I used it in the classroom, it never kept all my student engaged as long as I needed them to. I never got the payout for all my investment.
Now that script is flipped. I can print my organizers for the week, slide them in sheet protectors, and be ready to go for whatever story we are reading that week… all without Velcro, lamination, or scissors. Best of all, I can spend more time on my kids, my hubby, and myself!
You’ll Love It!
I want to be sure you get to have a free resource from the Universal Graphic Organizers Set, so I am letting you score one of the 46 organizers in the set. It is my favorite one because it seems to work with nearly ANY book for every level of students. A basic 5 Wh’s was a serious staple in my room, so hopefully you use it as much as I have! Just enter your email below and you will get the resource in your Inbox!
My guess is there are a few of you who are already convinced that this set of Ultimate Graphic Organizers is perfect for you, your students, and your classrooms… you know it will solve a major problem you are facing every day. Skip the freebie and click here to purchase the full set. When you are rolling in easy success, be sure to send me pictures of it in action in your classroom!
You may want to also check out these other posts from Noodle Nook on more activities you can do in your Reading Centers or to keep up your fun and functional activities in the classroom!
