Using Graphic Organizers For Reading Comprehension
Are you using graphic organizers in your classroom? Let me tell you, they can be a game changer for directing students thinking and helping them comprehend what they’ve read. In this post I’ll share how using graphic organizers for reading comprehension can truly benefit your reading instruction.
What Are Reading Graphic Organizers?
Graphic Organizers are visual tools that help guide and organize student thinking. When used effectively, they allow students to have a deeper understanding of the text they have read.
How to teach students to use graphic organizers
When introducing a new graphic organizer to students, I cannot stress enough the importance of modeling each part at least one time through.
Students need to know exactly how it is they are to gather information from the text they are reading and then input it into the graphic organizer.
You cannot expect that just because students understand the comprehension skill, they will understand how to fill out the graphic organizer.
Plan on spending at least one lesson discussing the organizer and how students should fill it out. I like to do this by using a book that students are familiar with. This way, they aren’t focused as much on the text as they are completing the graphic organizer.
What Reading Skills Can Students learn using graphic organizers
When introducing a new reading skill to students, you will almost always find me pulling out a graphic organizer to do so. They just make learning new skills so easy! (and fun!) Below are just a few reading comprehension skills that can most definitely be introduced and taught using graphic organizers.
- Summarizing
- Cause & Effect
- Problem & Solution
- Comparing & Contrasting
- Character Traits
- Finding the Main Idea
- And many more!
Graphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension
Does the thought of never having to search Google again for the perfect graphic sound good to you?
I’ve created a resource FULL of graphic organizers for reading comprehension that can be used with any book! Inside you’ll find both full and half sheets (the half sheets are perfect for creating quick exit tickets).
You’ll find graphic organizers for the following reading skills :
Fiction Texts
- The 5 W’s + How
- S.W.B.S.T.
- Understanding the Central Message
- Problem Solution
- Character Response
- Different Points of View
- Repeated Words or Phrases
- Compare and Contrast- Characters
- Compare and Contrast- Stories
- Character Traits
- Cause and Effect
- All About the Characters
- Point of View
- Author’s Purpose
- Questioning a Story
- Problem and Solution
- I Can Infer
Reading Informational Texts:
- Compare and Contrast Important Points from Two Texts
- Compare and Contrast
- Identifying Text Features
- KWL Chart
- Main Idea and Details
- Questioning the Text
Additional Reading Response Activities:
- My Book Review
- A Letter to a Character
- My Favorite Part
Click the link above to grab your set and have all the reading graphic organizers you’ll need!
To read about how you can use TASK CARDS to improve your students’ reading comprehension CLICK HERE.
