I’ve recently reignited my fascination with graphic organizers. I always loved them as a public school teacher, and now I’m using them with Sprite for homeschooling. She’s a highly visual learner who has just moved up to the fifth grade, so they work very well for her.
WHAT
Graphic organizers (GOs) are simply ways to arrange information so that relationships among ideas are represented visually. Words are used but along with lines, arrows, circles, or other images that indicate sequence, cause and effect, or other relationships.
Spider Map
WHO
- anyone who needs to SEE the ideas visually, especially visual spatial learners
- students trying to organize their thoughts for a writing project or a notebooking page
- best for middle and high school students
WHEN
- During prewriting — the thinking, organizing, and planning stage of writing
- After reading and during reading
- For narration
- As notebooking pages
- In portfolios
Graphic Organizer used for Math
WHY
They work! Research shows that that use of graphic organizers (GOs) is effective for helping both middle school and secondary students to organize and remember academic concepts. For more research, visit Mentoring Minds.
HOW
To be effective, GOs should be coherent. Make sure that the information is displayed clearly without any irrelevant details. The parts should be clearly labeled with relationships or sequences indicated by numbers, arrows, lines, etc. in a way that is logical to the student.
Some students like to use color and sketches to show relationships on GOs.
I tend to print out a whole set of graphic organizers, using various colors of paper. Then I keep them in a file in our homeschool area. When a prewriting or notebooking task comes up, I offer the set to Sprite and let her choose which layout best fits her needs.
Venn Diagram
How to Get Started
Download this PDF assortment Utah Education Network of six basic GOs. Print them out and keep them handy this week for notebooking, narration, book reports, or prewriting activities.
Or if you want a few more to start with, try this file North Carolina State University with dozens of GOs.
Or start with this file which includes an example use for each GO.
Any of these free printable graphic organizers can add structure to a noteboooking assignment. Often, they are less intimidating than an empty sheet of paper. The framework is already there, and your child simply fills in the ideas. Later, as students become familiar with the use of graphic organizers, they won’t need the forms at all. They can draw them on blank paper or even create their own customized GOs.
WHERE
The Super Duper Link List of Free Printable Graphic Organizers
The divisions here are somewhat arbitrary. Generally GOs can be used for many, many purposes. But for the sake of organization, I divided these links by subject area.
General Graphic Organizers
Education Place Graphic Organizers
All the standbys (story map, timeline, five W’s, flow chart, etc.) and some new ones — tree chart, ladder, idea wheel, etc.
Freeology – Free Printable Graphic Organizers
Be sure to go through all eight pages! There are a lot! All in PDF format.
Worksheet Works Graphic Organizer Generator
Customize several aspects of 12 different GOs. This is super neat! This site is currently in Beta and is free. In the future, I suspect it will require a paid membership.
Graphic Organizers that Support Specific Thinking
A short list of graphic organizers in Claris Works & in PDF.
This site is unique because it tells the thinking skills that each graphic organizer taps into.
Region 15 Graphic Organizers
Options for English or Spanish, PDF or DOC, and landscape or portrait orientation. Includes all the standard graphic organizers plus writing portfolio, timelines, similes, predictions, etc.
Education Oasis Graphic Organizers
General graphic organizers in PDF format.
Education World’s Teacher Tools & Templates
These files are unique in that most of them are .doc format — you can download and modify them.
Graphic Organizers.com from Masterminds Publishing
Divided by category such as cause and effect, comparisons, & hierarchies.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Graphic Organizers
Divided by function — for presentations, for vocabulary, for summarizing, for sequencing, for main idea and supporting details, for making connections, for self-questioning, for inferences/predicting, for cause and effect, for compare and contrast, character maps, and writing. Most are PDF format. They appear to be scans of hard documents, so quality is mediocre.
Science
Science Class Graphic Organizers
Attractive, free graphic organizers divided by science categories.
Houghton Mifflin Science: Graphic Organizers
A LONG list of graphic organizers in PDF format that accompany Houghton Mifflin Science textbooks for grades 1-6. This list is very well organized so that the printables are easy to locate and use even without the textbook.
Hint — use Ctrl F to bring up the find function in your browser. Then enter your key words.
Language Arts
Graphic Organizers –Tools for Reading, Writing, & Thinking
Secondary level, language arts graphic organizers in PDF format. The ones for expository writing are especially nice.
Graphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension at Scholastic.com
Mostly related to reading fiction, but some general ones too.
Lesson Plan Printables –Writing
Lesson plans and printable graphic organizers related to writing.
Super Teacher Printable Graphic Organizers
Help your students organize their writing with Venn diagrams, story maps, and more. Your students can use the writing webs, chronological order charts to improve the organization of their writing.
Teacher Files Graphic Organizers
a variety of graphic organizers to help your students communicate their comprehension of text.
Busy Teacher’s Cafe Graphic Organizers
Another varied assortment of graphic organizers.
Math
SOUTHWEST GEORGIA RESA Math Graphic Organizers
A collection of math related GO’s in both DOC and PDF formats. Topics include area, ratios, quadrilaterals, cross sections, constructions, and much more. The site is a bit messy, but worth browsing around. Scroll do the bottom of the page for links to printables or use the pages dedicated to grades 4-8 and 9-12.
Fact Families Graphic Organizers
Attractive PDFs to record addition families for all addends from 4 to 12.
black and white graphic organizer images © CAST, 2007
Hi and welcome! I'm Jimmie and this is my online collage of our Charlotte Mason homeschool. Taking just a little more time to document our learning shortens the learning curve for other busy homeschool moms.
Feel free to browse around my posts and freebies. My aim is to bless each reader with something useful. 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
What a huge amount of links to visit. Thanks so much for having them all here together, it sure makes things easier.
.-= Kylie´s last blog ..Preschool Corner: Writing In Sand & Sound Cylinders =-.
I love graphic organizers too. Used them all the time when I taught. I’m eagerly looking forward to my kids being old enough for it to make sense to use them.
.-= Ticia´s last blog ..Our Preschool Week in Review =-.
Well those were a walk down memory lane. I haven’t used one since I taught. (BTW, I didn’t know you used to be a PS teacher too.)
I’m going to have to remember this when Mackenzie’s a little older.
.-= Stefanie´s last blog ..Chasing Picture Perfection: Assignment # 3 "Window Light Portrait" =-.
What a treasure trove of wonderful resources!!!! Thanks so much!
I too love graphic organizers…….of course I am the one that loves to diagram sentences too.
Both of my children are highly visual and I don’t know why I have not used these with them. Now I am kicking myself for forgetting such a helpful…..and fun form of learning. Thanks for the inspiration! 
.-= BlessedMomma´s last blog ..My Children Started School Early Without Me! =-.
Great post with so many resources. I’m going to go check them out.
.-= Rhonda´s last blog ..Glacier National Park =-.
Wow! Great links, thanks. I have used Education place before… but you have a great list of links!
Wonderful post.
.-= Lisawa´s last blog ..Cha…Cha…Cha….Changes =-.
I love graphic organizers, as well. I used them as a classroom teacher. You were able to find such great resources that I haven’t been able to find. I’ve been using white out and a copier to reconstruct some from my PS teaching days. LOL
.-= Angi´s last blog ..PREPARING FOR MONDAY =-.
Wow! That is a lot of sites. Thanks! Somehow I can’t help thinking mind maps as I look at these
.-= Maria´s last blog ..Day Two: Muslim Attitudes =-.
Thanks so much, Jimmie. What a wealth of information! I, too, am a former teacher (retired and now homeschooling 3 of my g’kids) and had forgotten about some of these. I immediately printed off the ones that would be of use to me (and mine) and have filed them for future use.
to Myra, Angi, Stefanie, and Ticia — Funny how many of us former school teachers forgot the tools we used then.
They are still valuable tools and can be translated into the homeschool setting quite well.
to Maria — Exactly. Mind mapping is creating a graphic organizer.