Graphic Organizers and Strategies

When we first started developing our curriculum for the common core a few years ago, all the young teachers had these buzz words that I had never heard of ...Frayer Diagram......Think, Pair, Share.....Write Around...... what?

The world of teaching mathematics is always evolving. I remember the old days when I taught in an open classroom school (ugh) and when "cooperative groups" was new.

I do find the graphic organizers and strategies very useful. I do use Frayer Diagrams and Venn Diagrams quite a lot. The other strategies I sprinkle in here & there. At the end of this blog are documents to support all this information.

Frayer Diagrams

 I use these all the time in my ISNs. You'll find examples in many of my blog posts. It's a great way to organize the definition of a mathematical term.

KWL Charts

 This graphic organizer has students list what they already Know about a concept, what they Want to know, and what they have Learned.

Venn Diagrams

Great for comparing and contrasting related math concepts. Also fun to use with problem solving.

Think Pair Share

Think-pair-share (TPS) is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned topic. This technique requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmate. Discussing an answer with a partner serves to maximize participation, focus attention and engage students in comprehending the material.

Write Around

In general a simple question is posed to a group, then each person in the group writes one thing in response, then we pass our papers to the left, allowing peers to comment on each of the initial reflections. 

"MathyCathy" notes on her blog post 

Revamping a Writing Strategy… for Math!

 that for mathematics classrooms:

This “write-around” strategy seemed to lend itself well to any mathematics topic that requires multiple steps, so adapting it to multi-step equations seemed to fit.  I’ve structured the activity for groups of 4-5 students.  Each student starts the activity with a different problem, then only solves the next step of the problem and signs his/her name next to the work done.  Papers pass to the left, then students analyze a new problem, as well as a peer’s work thus far, adding only the next step to the work.  If a student disagrees with the work as papers pass, he or she must consult with the “author” of the incorrect step, so the goof is corrected by the one who made the mistake.  Papers pass until all problems are solved and checked.

and More....

I know there is plenty more out there, but these are some ideas. All of these I've used in my classroom. My favorites are the Frayer Diagram, Venn Diagrams and Write Around. Let me know if there is some other graphic organizer that you've used successfully in your mathematics classroom!

For more reading - here is an interesting blog post from Jackie Murphy in using graphic organizers in math class.

Supporting Documents:

Graphic Organizers and Strategies Documents