10+ FREE Creative Graphic Organizers to Motivate Reluctant Readers and Writers

10 Awesomely Creative Graphic Organizers

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.

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

This is my info text/tasks lesson "Ice Cream Science" and how 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. I just think dogs a) are awesome and b) draw students in plus comfort them and c) are interesting. 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 high-interest informational texts about dogs (some free/some not) 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 is one I drew myself and tailored to one of my informational texts/tasks about an Octopus's defense mechanisms, which is aligned to RI.2 and RST.2, and is part of the bigger collection "Informational Texts and Tasks Aligned to ALL 10 Reading Informational Text Standards" which comes in Volume I and Volume II. Go to my other blog post to get the text and answer key for FREE.

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 my blog post with lots of samples. (Also in my FREE PACK OF ORGANIZERS).

WANT MORE ENGAGING READING FOR YOUR STUDENTS? WANT TO HAVE THEM PRACTICE ALL 10 READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARDS SKILLS? STUDENTS KEEP REPORTING HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THE TEXTS!!! TRY BOTH VOLUMES: