Blog Entry #5: Digital Graphic Organizers

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed making the digital graphic organizers using the software apps required for this week's module. Usually, I am very hesitant using any sort of new technology because I assume it will take me a long time to get it. However, all three of the software apps were very user-friendly, which was a happy discovery.

The first app I used was Popplet. This very well might have been my favorite of all three. All you had to do was right click to bring in another popple and then you could start typing. I especially liked all of the options:  changing the font color and font size, drawing ability, adding images, resizing, and moving abilities. While I was creating my own, I could envision my students using this app, as well. I decided to create a flow chart type of graphic organizer to help students understand and visualize the process of annotating a piece of text, which is one of the first topics I teach my freshman during the school year. For most, it is a foreign language to them, as they have never been asked to do so in grade school, unfortunately. So, I like to take it slow and demonstrate how to do it with multiple pieces of text in front of them. Therefore, this would be a great organizer to share with my students digitally for them to use as a guide when they are asked to go at it alone with something like an Article of the Week (I just love Kelly Gallagher!). I could also see myself having my students use this app themselves to create a graphic organizer (series) to demonstrate their understanding of the historical background information of a particular novel before diving into it as a class (i.e. The Russian Revolution before reading the novella, Animal Farm).  Or maybe even having them research the history on their own and creating a series graphic organizer to demonstrate their understanding/learning of the event.

Next, I tried out Inspiration, as it was stated for best use with older kids, like my high school students. This one took me a tad bit longer to figure out and get comfortable with using. As soon as I got the hang of it, though, it was also enjoyable. I created a web/cluster graphic organizer to help students understand what a theme is. This is another topic I teach students pretty early on in the school year in my freshman English classes. Most of them still think a theme is the same thing as the moral of a story or the main idea. So, it is important that we review not only what a good theme is, but what they are not, as well. Some really struggle with this, as it can be difficult for them to not come up with something cliche or something too simplistic. Again, I think sharing this digital graphic organizer with them would be a helpful review that they could refer back to when necessary. I also think I could have them use Inspiration to create graphic organizers to demonstrate mastery of content. For instance, I could have students create a graphic organizer (series) of a plot diagram for a story we read in class or on their own. This would help students not only understand the basic plot of any story better, but also help with easier recall of the specific information when asked about it later on, such as on a quiz or test.

Lastly, I used Google Draw for the first time and was astonished by how easy it was to create a simple venn diagram graphic organizer. I immediately knew what I wanted the topic to be:  comparing/contrasting the character traits between two of the main characters (Lennie and George) in the novella, Of Mice and Men. This is one of my favorite texts that my sophomores read as a class during the school year. We spend a lot of time discussing the relationship between these two characters, so I think this would be a great medium for my students to use to note those traits as they read and to later use to help organize/synthesize the information prior to/during a class discussion and writing about the text in a literary analysis.

I really didn't have any concerns about using Popplet or Inspiration with my students. Just a thousand ideas about how to do so! However, Google Draw does present an obstacle:  we use Office 365 at my school. Therefore, my administration wants us to use that instead of Google for assignments, etc. I get the feeling they would want me to figure out how to create graphic organizers on Office 365, instead. However, I will not stop holding out the hope that my school will one day convert to Google. I just like it so much better.

To conclude, the creation of digital graphic organizers are similar to pencil and paper format in that they both lead to the same end goal:  help students to elaborate on knowledge and leads to deeper understanding/easier recall of information. However, I think they are different in that they are more appealing to students in the digital format. I know that my students just loved when I have had them create anything digitally in the past. They are more engaged and motivated. So, this makes me want to incorporate this practice into my curriculum this year, now that I know how to, see how easy it is, and am more aware of the overall benefits.