Google Drawings & Graphic Organizers

Tools by Google Drawings. Inspiration by Matt Miller and Ditch that Textbook. Expertise by Linda McCray and Tara Zeller. Direction to get stuff done by our superintendent, Matt Stover. Vision to keep Why firmly at the heart of everything we do from our Chief Technology Officer, Marty Sharpe. That’s where this blog post comes to you from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants

That’s a lofty introduction to a blog about using Google Drawings to create graphic organizers. I wanted to start off by giving credit to everyone who had a hand in the project that I’m writing about and I realized that once you start connecting and linking it’s hard to know where to stop.

So, let’s get to it.

Graphic organizers are a thing. They have outlasted every “innovation” that has come along in the 16 years that I’ve been teaching. They are true Survivors! Graphic organizers are a component of many current teaching models including Learning Focused Lessons (thank you Jill Darrough) and the Literacy Design Collaborative (thank you Regina Propst). According to John Hattie and Visible Learning their use has an above average effect size, outpacing other educational strategies including small group learning (0.47), home environment and classroom management (0.52),  scaffolding (0.53), socioeconomic status (0.54) and many others.  Teachers know how to use graphic organizers and if they need a refresher, there are tons of resources out there to help.  Students are creating their own. Teachers are creating super cute graphic organizers posting them all over Pinterest. But… And you know the most important part of the sentence is always after the “but”.

Created in Canva by Stacy Lovdahl

But ...

But, how do we use graphic organizers with students in a digital, blended classroom?

There are lots of ways and this post focuses on just one way using templates created in Google Drawings.

Take a look at this Google Slide Deck and make a copy if you’d like to keep it.  It is setup to show you a screenshot of a bunch of graphic organizers that we’ve created in our district and some that we’ve borrowed from Matt Miller and Ditch that Textbook. When you click on the link, it will prompt you to make a copy.

The copy is placed in your Google Drive. It’s yours to keep, modify and customize for your students.

How Can You Use This Slide Deck?

1. Bookmark It - This slide deck is always changing. It started last year after Tara Zeller and Linda McCray attended a session at NCTIES16 about graphic organizers and Ditch that Textbook. They shared their learning with our Instructional Tech Dept and Linda created a document that with forced copy links to all the graphic organizers.  “Forced copy” is a game changer!  Tara created some unique graphic organizers in Google Drawings and we realized the possibilities were endless!  Since then we’ve created over a dozen additional graphic organizers.
2. Add the Slide Deck to your Google Classroom About Page - If you think your students might need to use a variety of graphic organizers throughout the year, add the slide deck to your LMS. Each time they click on a graphic organizer it will make a copy for them and place it in their Google Drive where they can customize it for their assignment.

Are you using digital graphic organizers with your students? Can you think of other ways to use the Slide Deck? I would love to hear your experiences! Tweet me at @braveneutrino or leave a comment. Let's keep the sharing going!

ISTE17 - A Focus on Students

I focused almost exclusively on talking to students at ISTE in San Antonio, TX. The results, 35 interviews in all, are coming together in this website, Periscoping ISTE17, and all I can say is these kids are amazing.

It was a joy to interview these kids and in the beginning I thought I was giving them an opportunity to explain their project or poster and what they've learned. But, it became more than that. By listening to these kids who are so similar to the kids we teach, I found out more than just what they learned; more than just the product of their learning. By listening to the students describe their learning in their own words I discovered how they learned. I glimpsed the way they perceived, digested and transformed the teachers' instruction into knowledge of their own.

So, I didn't attend as many official, sit-down sessions at ISTE17. But, by focusing on students at ISTE and capturing it all on Periscope, I can take their voices back to my district so others can listen to these kids talk about coding and STEM projects and how their teachers inspired them to read about history and architecture using Minecraft and Glogster.   It makes me even more sure that it is worth it because this is what happens when you take a risk, teach differently, and trust your students.