Sometimes it just takes one simple thing to get reluctant readers and writers motivated to start their task. That one simple thing could be a fun, creative graphic organizer. So simple, yet so effective at getting them on board. Here are 10 different graphic organizers that do just that. 10, Wow!!! 

1. The Hamburger: Do an internet search and you will find a bunch of these. Some are for 1) planning to write a paragraph, 2) planning to write an essay, 3) planning to write a story, 4) identifying parts of a paragraph, 5) identifying parts of an essay, 6) identifying parts of a story. So many uses for a simple hamburger. Here is one I especially like by timvandevall.com:

2. The Ice Cream Cone: I made these designs using clip art from Erin Bradley Designs. I use them for 1) to organize ideas about ice cream’s scientific properties that are explained in my info text/task lesson “Ice Cream Science,” 2) to write examples of alliteration from Jack Prelutsky’s poem “Bleezer’s Ice Cream,” (such as Cocoa Mocha Macaroni ice cream) or 3) writing ideas for a beginning, middle, and end. Thanks to Erin Bradley, I have ice cream scoops in lots of different colors and 4 types of cones, so the combinations seem endless.

This is my FREE informational text and tasks lesson “Ice Cream Science” in which students use the organizers:

3. The Book Butterfly: I believe this is from Scholastic, but it is all over the internet, such as on Pinterest. It could be used with a fiction book, but with some tweaks could be used for informational text.

And, here’s what it looked like when it was younger lol:

4. Dogs: I have done a lot of informational texts/tasks and more on dogs. In fact, just today I added a reading analysis lesson honing in on themes “Aesop’s Fables Featuring Dogs“ and this lesson with 5 stories is FREE FOR THE SUMMER. I just think dogs are awesome and draw students putting them at ease. So I made these two graphic organizers using clip art from Dancing Author, Mary’s Clip Art, and Charlotte’s Clips. Students could read any of my FREE  high-interest informational texts about dogs and use these to write main ideas and key details. I’ll show you some of my products and then two of the organizers from my graphic organizers pack.

                              In my FREE Graphic Organizers Pack, you can find these and more!

5. My News Analysis: This looks like a nice, simple organizer for reading news articles.

6. Octo-Defense:

This one works well with finding central ideas in the National Geographic article about the Common Octopus, and more specifically, finding examples of the octopus’s defense mechanisms which the article explains well, making filing out this organizer pretty straightforward! It’s cute too.

7. The Sundae: Again, another simple straightforward one which in this case is used for fiction, but could be adapted for nonfiction or writing, etc. It is from thedabblingspeechie.com.

8. Character Attribute Web: This one is from another blog post I did which shows how to use this to delve into Anne Frank’s character. I like it because it forces you to write evidence instead of general ideas.

                In my FREE Graphic Organizers Pack, you can find these and more!

I think it would work really well to analyze the character in “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury since the main character is developed quite thoroughly. So, I am including a link to that FREE lesson as well.

9. Flower Write: This looks like a versatile one that is for writing but could be used for reading or a lesson about flowers. It’s from Super Teacher Worksheets.

10. Roots: And finally, (are you still there?), I like how Cultivating Critical Readers organized prefixes and suffixes for a lesson about roots. I have seen this same concept using a tree and leaves for root words quite a bit. Usually the root word is at the bottom and then the leaves display words made from those roots.

BONUS I almost forgot: This is a great one to organize the thoughts and feelings of a character that you’ve read about or that you are going to write about. The one below is about Anne Frank. Check out the blog post with samples and a template.

Update: Since writing this post, I have created a free related product “Analyzing Characterization 6 Ways With 6 Graphic Organizers” and have written a blog post “Analyzing Characterization 6 Ways With 6 Different Charcters in 6 Stories” so check them out!

How about save this pin to your “Reading” or “Graphic Organizers” or “Pre-Writing” Board so that you can come back to this post again?