how to make a graphic organizer - shmoop · behold a graphic organizer dinosaur about dinosaurs....
TRANSCRIPT
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY October 31, 2013 | page 1 of 5 © 2012, Shmoop University, Inc.
How to Make a Graphic Organizer
This handout, as you can see, is about how to make a graphic organizer. What the hey is a graphic organizer? Great question. What is it? A graphic organizer is a visual diagram that helps you organize and categorize information. It comes in many shapes and sizes. Yes, we did use one of the words we were defining in our definition. Deal with it. It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Another Example!
The cool thing about graphic organizers is that they can help you take notes, organize your thoughts before writing a paper, and show relationships between subjects. They are a handy-dandy tool to have, especially when learning about a subject like US History where you have to think about things like cause and effect.
Native Americans
• Were already established in the New World
English Colonists
• Came from England and struggled to survive
Spanish Colonists
• Came from Spain and brought disease
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY October 31, 2013 | page 2 of 5 © 2012, Shmoop University, Inc.
You've Sold me, Shmoop. How do I Make One?
Well, you can actually draw one yourself that relates to the topic you are studying. Indeed, that is a dinosaur you see in front of you. See? It says so right on the side of it. Behold a graphic organizer dinosaur about dinosaurs. Impressed? You should be. How do You Make One without Stick Figure Drawings?
If you are artistically challenged and want to produce a graphic organizer that doesn't rely on stick figures, Word has a simple way you can create your own graphic organizer. After opening a Word document, simply click on the "Insert" button at the top of the screen. Here it is circled in red. Then you click on the tab "SmartArt." A blue arrow is pointing to that on the screen in front of you.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY October 31, 2013 | page 3 of 5 © 2012, Shmoop University, Inc.
After clicking on the "SmartArt" button, a new screen full of graphic organizer choices will appear, as if by magic. Cue magic wand sounds here. BRRRRIINNNNNG! Anyway. Notice that on the left side is a list of choices. These options reflect the type of graphic organizer you might want to make. For instance, if you wanted to create a list of Native American tribes…
Thank you. So if you click on the tab that says "List" all kinds of options will appear. Just choose the one you want to use for your graphic organizer. Hmm. We choose…that one. The one already circled in red.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY October 31, 2013 | page 4 of 5 © 2012, Shmoop University, Inc.
And magically…Voilà! There are two things you should notice here. One, you can type your list simply by clicking where it says "Text." Here we have circled it in red for you because you know by now how much we love to circle in red. Also, across the top of the page there are other ways we can customize our graphic organizer. We can change colors or give our list some cool effects.
If we want to add other nifty effects, all we need to do is click on the dropdown arrow circled in red (of course) above. Oh, and to mix it up we also added a yellow arrow pointing to it. Getting funky up in here, that's right.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY October 31, 2013 | page 5 of 5 © 2012, Shmoop University, Inc.
The Final Product
Here is our graphic organizer categorizing Native American tribes. Pretty spiffy, huh? What if I need more help?
• http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html • http://edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm • http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/
Great question. There are actually websites online that can help you make graphic organizers or have some pre-made ones you can use. Here are some links so you can party on with those spiffy GO's.