Reflections on Chapter 10: Graphic Organizers

1. How do you that students understand a concept?
Genuine understanding of a concept implies that the student will be able to apply the concept to a new situation.  In this case, the student is not simply repeating a set of facts about certain elements, but comprehending the relationships between the elements.  As our text notes, "graphic organizers provide tools to create visual displays that depict relationships among and between various elements." (Morrison & Lowther, 2010, p.258).  Graphic organizers help to reveal a student's thinking process and show whether s/he understands a concept.  A student might demonstrate an understanding of the concept of classifying plants by using a flow chart to illustrate the steps one follows in classifying a plant, for example, as a fruit or a vegetable.

2. How can you depict student misconceptions of key information?
In this case I think student misconceptions in math can be depicted by their (mis)use of online manipulatives such as those found at the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html)
A teacher looking over the shoulder a student working with these various graphics can tell more easily where the student is running into difficulty.  Another way would be to "break" the graphic into pieces and ask the student to assemble it.  For example, we did that in 6th grade science with an interactive food chain activity at Eco Kids (http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/frogs/chain_reaction/index.cfm).  If a student has a misconception about the food chain, it will show when s/he tries to put it together incorrectly. 

3. How can students caputure and transfer brainstorming ideas into written thoughts?
Various graphic organizers are suited to various tasks.  For example, if a student is writing a chronological account of a single Civil War battle, a timeline will help him/her put events in order.  Then s/he might add two descriptor words for each event, and through this approach build sentences and then paragraphs.

Alternatively, if s/he is comparing the strategy of two generals, a more complex graphic organizer will be more helpful.  In that case s/he will need a graphic organizer that shows a comparison and a contrast.  One company, Thinking Maps (http://www.thinkingmaps.com/index.php), say that their eight designs of graphic organizers can cover most academic tasks in all disciplines.  I am interested in learning more about this software, and my I understand my district has purchased this software and sent people for training, so I hope to attend professional development for Thinking Maps next year.