If you know me OR have been with me for a while, you likely know the love affair I have with graphic organizers. And specifically, graphic organizers for narrative writing.
In writing, graphic organizers are an important step in the prewriting process. They are sometimes referred to as "thinking maps", "concept maps", "knowledge maps", or "cognitive organizers". Essentially graphic organizers are a, well...graphic, or visual, representation of understanding. They can focus on fictional or factual information and are used ( or should be) in every aspect of the school day for students of ALL AGES. Reading? Yep! Writing? Absolutely! Math? Check! Social studies? Yes! Science? Sure! Even...physical education? Definitely!
Here are a couple of examples of graphic organizers we see everyday.
Even as adults we use graphic organizers. Have you ever seen the bracket for basketball's March Madness or for a fantasy football league? Those are graphic organizers called tree maps. How about the directions for putting together a piece of furniture? The kind with the pictures for you to follow. Yep. You guessed it. That's a graphic organizer too. It's called a flow chart. What about a marketing plan for business? That's a concept map.
I could go on and on, but I think you see where I am going. Graphic organizers are everywhere and they make our lives easier. They can make your students' lives easier too, as well as turn reluctant writers into avid writers.
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS FOR WRITING
Graphic organizers for writing are a MUST-HAVE for any successful writing program. To ask students to write without giving them a tool to help them to brainstorm is cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion. As an adult I NEVER write without doing some sort of prewriting organizing, and I have been writing for ages. I have had a ton of practice but our students...they've had only a few years to practice and they're still learning. Asking students to write without an organizer is like asking them to write without a pencil. It makes no sense.
They need an organizer.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF NARRATIVE WRITING
There are dozens and dozens of graphic organizations available for narrative writing to choose from. These maps and organizers help young writers gather, compose, and formulate their thoughts for any number of narrative writing text types such as:
Factual Narratives
Memoirs
Autobiography
Biography
Diary or Journal Entry
Anecdotes
Fictional Narratives
Creative Fiction
Realistic Fiction
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Adventure Tale
Folktale
Myth
Fable
Fairy Tale
Fractured Fairy Tale
Mystery
Drama/Play
Comic/Graphic Novel
Fan Fiction
Let me show you what I mean. Here are a few examples of graphic organizers in action with some of my own students-kids who were self-proclaimed haters of writing until they came to me.
FIFITH GRADE FLOW CHART
Below is an example of a flow chart that I used with one of my fifth graders to organize her thoughts around how to structure a day in the life of a young girl in Colonial America. The pictures show how she used flow chart, the graphic organizer, to construct a fictional day for her character, Isabella.
At the top of the organizer you can see that the student has named her character, including noting her pronouns, and identified both the time/era and the setting; Virginia on a tobacco plantation in 1632.
The flow chart also details the events that are to take place throughout the character, Isabella's day from morning until bedtime. Not only does this flow chart indicate the extensive research that this student did but it also clearly shows her understanding of the history of the time as well as her understanding of narrative writing. With this one organizer it is easy to assess this student's understanding, comprehension, and mastery of numerous grade-level standards for fifth grade.
The narrative writing shown below, is the student's translation from the flow chart to the journal entry writing task detailing a day in the life of Isabella; an 11-year-old girl living with her family on their tobacco farm in Virginia. In it, there is no doubt that the student's focused work using the graphic organizer contributed to the success of this realistic fiction narrative.
Although there are many more steps in the writing and editing process to be done before this story could be considered "finished", the story that this student created is captivating and draws the reader in from the first sentence. The young author's voice is authentic and full of the kinds of details that make this writing interesting and successfully executed.
FIRST GRADE STORY MAP
Below is an example from one of my first grade students. The picture shows him working on retelling the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff using a story map. (In the older grades, a story map is often called a plot diagram.). Although, technically, summaries are considered informative writing, this is still a great example of how to use a graphic organizer to help shape great writing.
We began this writing lesson by reading Little Red Riding Hood and reviewing the parts of a story-the characters, setting, beginning, middle, climax, and end. The familiarity of rereading a known fairy tale allowed this little guy to focus on the parts of the story that he was asked to write about. The organizer used was the first step for him and a way to organize his thoughts before attempting to write a one-paragraph story summary.
This organizer can also be just as easily used, now that this student is familiar with story structure and how to use this particular organizer, to create his own original story. The best graphic organizers are open-ended enough to be used for both reading and writing with narrative and informational texts!
SECOND GRADE VENN DIAGRAM
Next is an example of a second grade student using a writing/thought organizer called a Venn diagram. In this instance he is using it to compare and contrast two characters in a chapter book that we had been reading; Horrible Harry Moves Up To Third Grade by Suzy Kline.
As in the fifth grade example, there is a lot more going on here than just filling out the graphic organizer. This second grader is using his comprehension of the chapter book to analyze his characters. Who they are. What they value. What their actions are and how those actions tell the reader what kind of person they are. The organizer helps get this student moving in the right direction and acts as a "parking lot" for him to construct his thoughts.
Once the student understands what makes the characters in his book tick, he can use what he knows to write a response similar to the diary or journal entry that my fifth grader wrote in the first example.
SECOND GRADE BUBBLE MAP
This last example is from the same second grader as above. This time he is using a bubble map to outline the important events from chapter 1 of Horrible Harry Moves Up to Third Grade by Suzy Kline. He is using the events (and looking for text evidence--you can see the highlighter strip on the page) in the chapter to set himself up for his narrative writing task in which he will be writing the beginning scene, or event, of chapter 2 before actually reading chapter 2.
Again, this is a great example of the versatility of an open-ended graphic organizer. This young writer is using it to reinforce his comprehension of the text as well as set himself up for the narrative writing task to come. Bubble maps are one of my favorite organizers because they are so easily adapted for different purposes. They are also easy to recreate on a blank piece of paper in a pinch!
If you'd like to explore some of my other graphic organizers OR grab one of my organizer packs, click the thumbnail pictures below.
And, explore my FREEBIE LIBRARY to grab some of my free teacher resources including the story map seen in the picture above. For exclusive access, all you need to do is subscribe to my weekly newsletter. The password is will be sent out on Tuesdays in the newsletter!
Happy writing, my friends,
