A List of Free Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students

Graphic organizers are visual representations of ideas and topics. They are also called knowledge maps,story maps,concept maps,mind maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers,or concept diagrams. Literature in the field of education strong supports the effective use of graphic organizers to enhance students learning and sharpen their critical thinking skills. It is a fact known to every teacher nowadays that visual aids and graphic representations when used in a lesson engage students interaction and stimulate their motivation . Additionally many educational experts argue that the use of graphic organizers help students retain information for longer period of times. In this regard, to help you get easy, instant and free access to some resources and websites where you can read and download and print graphic organizers, I have compiled a list of links I deem very important for you as educators. I have reviewed all the links and you can click on any title to read the review. But before you sink into the list let me you brief you with some ideas why Graphic organizers are important in education.

The importance of graphic organizers in education

As I mentioned above graphic organizers are very crucial elements in learning and teaching and according to a research published in Mentoring Minds graphic organizers can positively impact education and here is why:

1. They  are important in organizing essential content
2. Fountas and Pinnell attests that illustrated content tends to remain longer in students minds
3. They bring clarity to ideas and record relationships between facts and ideas
4. They facilitate effective student learning via organizing concepts, ideas and facts graphically
5. They help students think in multiple directions
6. They help students generate mental images to go along with information
7.  They increase comprehension and retention
8. They can improve students classroom performance and increase achievement test scores
9. They engage the learner with a combination of the spoken word with printed text and diagrams

Now that you have learnt about the imporatnce of graphic organizers let me provide you with a list of free and ready to use graphics.

1- Easy Note Cards

Easy Notecards is a great educational resource. It offers its visitors a wide range of flashcards. It allows them to create both text based and image based flashcards.

2- Mr. Printables

 provides a huge selection of flashcards covering various learning topics such as mathematics, drawing, the alphabets, basic vocabulary ,shapes, scrapbooking, planners, geometry, numbers, words , and more

3- Essay Map

It is like a graphic outline that features the main stages for writing an essay. It has a part for the introduction, and one for developing ideas and the last one for conclusion. I like how this graphic sheet is organized 

4- Time Line

Timeline is a free graphic organizer created by Read Write Think. It allows students to organize their notes into engaging timelines that features five different units of measure namely: date, time,event,entry or other. Students ,upon selecting the appropriate entry, can add specific descriptions and place it on the timeline.

5- The Graphic Map

Graphic Map as its name suggests is designed to help students and teachers in their writing and reading activities. It works according to an evaluative system that charts the high and low points related to a certain item or group of items like : chapters in a book , sums of money, events during a span of time, scenes in a play.

6- Note Taker

It is mainly a hierarchical outlining tool which allows students to organize their information into up to five levels. This is indeed a great organizational tool that educators can use to take notes on their readings and research.

7- The Webbing Tool

The Webbing Tool is a free-form graphic organizer and a flowcharting tool that allows “ students to pursue hypertexual thinking and writing”. It is my favorite organizer as it is easy to use and does not require any kind of sin up or download. Just drag your ideas around in the organizer to arrange any layout and relationship that you want 

8- The Story Map

The Story Map is a free set of graphic organizers designed to help teachers and students in prewriting and post reading activities. It contains four key elements of the story together with their graphic representations mainly : Character Map, Conflict Map, Resolution Map, and Setting Map.

9-  The Plot Diagram

The Plot Diagram is a free graphic organizer offered for free by our great resource Read Write Think. This tool is mainly an organizational tool which is shaped like a triangle or better say a pyramid. It is used to map the events of a story in literature work

10- The Persuasion Map

The Persuasion Map is a great graphic organizer offered for free by Read Write Think. It allows students to map out their arguments for a persuasive or  argumentative   piece of writing.

11- Compare and Contrast Map

Compare and Contrast  Map, as its name suggests, is a tool that allows students to draw their differences and similarities about anything they want , be it characters in a text , political system of countries , or simply state what they like and dislike about a lesson plan

12- Bio Cube

 It allows students to summarize a person’s biography into a neat and well organized sort of outline. It has an intuitive interface where info are organized into different categories. The final printout you get after you are done with customization can be folded into a fun cube shape that can be used for future reference

13- Cross Word Puzzels

 it allows you to make interesting puzzles very easily and at the instance of a click

14- The Eduplace

Eduplace is really a great site . It offers a set of printable graphs and charts to use in the classroom with your students . These graphs are very handy and easy to use , so there is no need to spend time online trying to build charts or classroom assignment grills

15- Ed Helpers

Edhelpers provides a wide range of graphic organizers covering different topics . These graphs can be downloaded and , printed and used for free 

16- Teachnology

TeAchnology is an awesome resource site for educators .It provides another vision for the integration of technology into education

17- Schoolastic

Schoolastic is one of the best graphic organizer provider online . It offers a wide range of graphics covering different topics particularly Reading Comprehension

18- Teacher Vision

 It provides engaging and interactive graphic organizers that can be downloaded and printed . 

19- Discovery Education

This website includes a section called  Kathleen  Schrocks Guide for Educators . This guide provides for free a number of teacher helpers in the form of slide shows . These slides cover a wide range of topics dealing with technology and education 

20- Educational Oasis

 It provides free graphic organizers for teachers . These organizers are in the form of downloadable and printable sheet . The site contains several organizers tabbed under different categories . Some of these organizers can be filled out before being printed . 

21- Holt

Holt offers  several educative graphics ranging from  organizing graphs to vocabulary ones .Just  Click on a graphic organizer to download a PDF of it. Each graphic organizer  include teaching notes with lessons and tips on how to use graphic organizers in the classroom.

Here is a google Docs Presentation I made Containing all these tools.






Here is the same presentation using Issuu

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Easy Notecards – easily create your own flashcards.

Easy Notecards is a great educational resource. It offers its visitors a wide range of flashcards. It allows them to create both text based and image based flashcards. This is indeed a great studying tool that “ uses interactive notecards to make it quick and easy to learn new material.”

What is so special about this service is that it lets you make  notecards for a specific book. You can then enter the chapters the notecards are for.
Easy Notecards provides a gallery of public collections of flashcards that you can browse through. I am sure that this tool will be your favorite guide for next year. Students will learn a lot from it and they will eventually like it.

Some features of Easy Notecards

Here is a list of the main features that Easy Notecards offer to its users:

• It is free
• It is simple to use
• It requires a sign up
• It allows you to create notecards for a specific book
• It also lets you add images to your notecards
• Notecards are printable
• You can Test your knowledge by taking the multiple choice quiz that is available for every notecard set
• You can create your list of favorites
• You can interact with other via leaving comments one their public notecards

You can also check this list of the Best  Free Graphic Organizers.

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Mr. Printables - Free k-12 flashcards and graphic organizers

Mr. Printables is a great resource for educators looking for printable flashcards , games, puzzles, coloring pages, calendars and many more. Mr. Printables is a useful educational tool for kids, teachers, and parents. It provides a huge selection of flashcards covering various learning topics such as mathematics, drawing, the alphabets, basic vocabulary ,shapes, scrapbooking, planners, geometry, numbers , words , and more.



All these resources are free to use for a personal non commercial use. They are available as PDFs that you can download very easily.

Why using flashcards in learning/ teaching after all ?

This is a good question to ask yourself before you pick up any material from this site or other sites that provide free graphic organizers or printable flashcards. In fact there are many reasons why educators must use these materials in their classrooms. Here is a list of the main of them:

1. Flashcards develop students critical thinking
2. They help develop students creative thinking
3. They help them learn by doing
4. They are fun and students interact way better with them then with other plain materials
5. They are handy and easy to use
6. They improve memory retention skills for students
7. They boost students’ self- esteem, motivation and achievement especially in early life.

These are in brief some of the pluses behind the use of flashcards in the classroom with students. Now head over to Mr. Printables and select the materials you would like to include in your future lessons; if you do not want to use them yourself then at least inform students’ parents of these materials and let them use some with their kids.



That’s it about Mr. Printables -  Free k-12 flashcards and graphic organizers.

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Essay Map – free interactive graphic organizer

Essay Map is a free interactive graphic organizer. It is designed with the aim of improving students’ writing skills. It is like a graphic outline that features the main stages for writing an essay. It has a part for the introduction, and one for developing ideas and the last one for conclusion. I like how this graphic sheet is organized for it saves you time to get your ideas organized and gives you an esthetic boost that your moral needs to produce a good piece of writing.The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

how can i get started using Essay Map ?

Head over to Essay Map main page and click on get started
Enter your name and topic



Write your introduction



Provide your main ideas and click on the arrow under it



Provide your supporting ideas and click on the arrow under it



Now enter your conclusion and click on finish



and this is how it would look at the end

Applications of Essay Map in education

Essay Map is a great tool for improving students’ writing skills. It will help students develop an outline that contains introductory statement, main body with featured ideas and supporting details, and conclusive notes that summarize the whole gist of the essay. Students’ writing style will be organized and much more refined. If you have not tried this interactive graphic organizer then i strongly advise you to give it a try , you will love it for sure. Best of luck.

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Timeline – free graphic organizer

Timeline is a free graphic organizer created by Read Write Think. It allows students to organize their notes into engaging timelines that features five different units of measure namely: date, time,event,entry or other. Students ,upon selecting the appropriate entry, can add specific descriptions and place it on the timeline. To navigate through the timeline they simply need to click on the relevant entry they want and then there they go. It is really a great tool for teachers to use with their students

How can i get started using Timeline ?

Head over to Timeline main page
Enter the title and author name



choose the unit of measure : date, time, event, entry, other
click on next and provide the info requested and when you are done you can then print it out

Applications of Timeline in Education

Both teachers and students can use Timeline to organize their notes into a sequence of time that they can navigate at the instant of a click. They can also use it to brainstorm the main stages of a process especially in biology and chemistry. For language teachers Timeline can be useful in organizing the English tenses into an axe of time easily understandable by students.

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The Graphic Map – free graphic organizer

The Graphic Map is another free graphic organizer. This tool can be found and used for free in Read Write Think. Graphic Map as its name suggests is designed to help students and teachers in their writing and reading activities. It works according to an evaluative system that charts the high and low points related to a certain item or group of items like : chapters in a book , sums of money, events during a span of time, scenes in a play. The Graphic Map creates a graphic representation of the above mentioned elements and even categorize them in such a way that students can easily navigate the information allowing them to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion.

How can i get started using The Graphic Map ?

Head over to The Graphic Map main page
Enter the title and author of graphic map and click on next

Now select the item you want to list



continue providing the info requested and clicking next
when you are done you then print it out

Applications of The Graphic Map in education

Graphic Map is a very important tool that students and teachers can use in their classrooms. For example it can be used as a prewriting activity with students mapping ideas for an autobiography or giving clues in group work for others to base their writings. They can also use it as a post reading task “as students map the significance of events in a story; and as a reflection and assessment activity, as students map the high and low points of their inquiry process”.

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Notetaker – free graphic organizers

ReadWrite Think Notetaker is a  graphic organizer offered for free by Read Write Think. It is mainly a hierarchical outlining tool which allows students to organize their information into up to five levels. This is indeed a great organizational tool that educators can use to take notes on their readings and research. It can also be used to plan, revise and organize writings. On finishing working on your writing , Notetaker creates an HTML file that you can print, save or edit later in any HTML editor.

How can i get started using Notetateker ?

Head over to Notetaker main page
provide your name and title



and select the outline style you want to use and click on next
Tutorial page will pop up you can either click to read it or just skip it


Now fill in you info and click preview before you print them

Applications of Notetaker in education

Notetaker is an organizational tool that students can use both in their reading and writing activities.For example , if students are preparing a project work or a classroom presentation they can use it to assemble ideas sort them out and organize their final notes. They can also use it as a prewriting tool to organize their information and review what should and should not be included in the last draft.

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The Webbing Tool- free graphic organizers

The Webbing Tool is a free-form graphic organizer and a flowcharting tool that allows “ students to pursue hypersexual thinking and writing”. It is my favorite organizer as it is easy to use and does not require any kind of sin up or download. Just drag your ideas around in the organizer to arrange any layout and relationship that you want . You can trace out options and rearrange connections. You can use both the circle or box shapes with different colors on each layer. There is a help button at the top of the page to help you understand how to use this graphic organizer.

 

How can i get started using The Webbing Tool ?

Head over to Webbing Tool main page



Provide your name and select a shape

click on start webbing
use the tool bar on the left to select what you can do

Applications of the Webbing Tool in education

Students will like the Webbing Tool as it will help them outline their ideas in such appealing graphic representations. They can use it to analyze the reading passages they have in the curriculum. They can also use it as a prewriting task to brainstorm all the ideas and notes they want to include in their writing.

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The Story Map – free graphic organizers

The Story Map is a free set of graphic organizers designed to help teachers and students in prewriting and post reading activities. It contains four key elements of the story together with their graphic representations mainly : Character Map, Conflict Map, Resolution Map, and Setting Map. They all make it easy for students to both create their own stories based on a solid and coherent story line or simply revise the major events and characters in a story. At the end of each work , Story Map gives you the ability to print out the final version for feedback and assessment.

How can i get started using The Story Map ?

Head over to Story Map main page
Fill in your name and tile



select one of the following :

Character Map


 Conflict Map


 Resolution Map


 Setting Map

Applications of Story Map in education

Students can use the four key elements of the Story Map to develop multiple characters either in preparation for writing their own pieces of fiction or as a reflection tool to analyze the characters from stories they have read. You can think of many other ways to integrate this free graphic organizer into your classroom teaching just don’t forget to drop us a line here if you have new ideas.

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The Plot Diagram-free grapgic organizers

The Plot Diagram is a free graphic organizer offered for free by our great resource Read Write Think. This tool is mainly an organizational tool which is shaped like a triangle or better say a pyramid. It is used to map the events of a story in literature work . It clearly demonstrates in a graphic way the main features of the plot structure like the beginning, climax and end. Of course we can use The Plot Diagram to organize any kind of info be it literary or any other things.

How can i get started using The Plot Diagram ?

Head over to Plot Diagram main page
Fill in the boxes with project title and name

then drag it to the triangle

click on print to print it out

Applications of The Plot Diagram in education

Elementary and higher students will be happy to see this graphic organizer. It will definitely help them structure reading passages in novels and other literary productions. I wish i had this tool way back when i was in the university , we had to do all manually but now the graphic representation of the plot structure has made it completely clear even for the blind to see how the story is structured. It can be used both as a prewriting activity prompting students to constitute a coherent story out of a given plot or as a post reading task as students fill in the triangle with info about the story stages.

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The Persuasion Map - free graphic organizer

The Persuasion Map is a great graphic organizer offered for free by Read Write Think. It allows students to map out their arguments for a persuasive or  argumentative   piece of writing. I really like the way this map is built for it takes into consideration the gradual development of ideas and will walk students through a step by step process of building a solid argumentative statement or thesis. The Persuasion Map starts with a thesis that describes one side of an arguable viewpoint and then moves on to state the main reasons that would convince someone of the validity of your thesis before it ends up with a conclusion that summarize the arguments mentioned in the essay.

How can i get started using Persuasion Map ?

Head over to Persuasion main page
Click on get started
fill in the boxes with your name and your title and hit get started

Provide your thesis and click on the arrow under it

provide the reasons for your arguments and again click on the arrow under the boxes

Now provide the facts and examples for each reason

Now provide you conclusion

Applications of Persuasion Map in education

Persuasion Map can help students build their argumentative essays in such a persuasive way that the flow of their ideas would sound so much natural .The aim is to foster and develop students writing skills. We want them to master the art of writing argumentative essays where they can be able to argue a thesis and convince the reader of their ideas and Persuasion Map can help in achieving this goal.

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Compare and Contrast map – Free Graphic Organizer

Compare and Contrast map is a great interactive graphic organizer. It is offered for free from Read Write Think to whom i channel my deep gratitude for their fantastic resources. Compare and Contrast  Map, as its name suggests, is a tool that allows students to draw their differences and similarities about anything they want , be it characters in a text , political system of countries , or simply state what they like and dislike about a lesson plan. What i like the most about this tool is that it lets you share the finalized work with your students or friends using email options which was not the case with some of the graphic tools i talked about here earlier and that offer just the printing options.

How can i get started using Compare and Contrast ?

Head over to Compare and Contrast main page
Click on get started and a pop up window will be displayed

Fill in the info requested
and click on continue
Keep filling in the boxes provided for you when you click on continue till you are done



Then click on share and select email option

Applications of Compare and Contrast in education

As i have already mentioned earlier ; this tool is really a great helper for educators. It will allow them to draw character sketches including similarities and differences within a certain passage or novel. It can also be used to develop an outline for one of three types of comparison essays: whole-to-whole, similarities-to-differences, or point-to-point
That’s it about Compare and Contrast Map – Free Graphic Organizer.

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Bio Cube: Summarize a person’s biography easily

Bio Cube is another educational tool that is offered for free by Read Write Think. It allows students to summarize a person’s biography into a neat and well organized sort of outline. It has an intuitive interface where info are organized into different categories. The final printout you get after you are done with customization can be folded into a fun cube shape that can be used for future reference.

How can i get started using Bio Cube ?

Head over to Bio Cube main page
Click Get started, a popup window will be displayed

Now fill in the requested information , click on any number to rotate the cube

1. person’s name , time and place
2. Personal background
3. Personality traits
4. Significance
5. Biggest obstacle
6. Important quotation

Just don’t forget to print out your cube for it will not be save online

Applications of Bio Cube in education

Bio Cube is extremely important in education. It can have several uses and the first one of them is to allow students to make interesting autobiographies about persons they study. They can also use it as a pre-reading or pre-writing activity to brainstorm ideas about a certain figure. Students can also use it to write their own autobiography  and share cubes with each other. With Bio Cube students will be able to effectively synthesize what they have learnt.
That’s it about Bio Cube: Summarize a person’s biography easily.

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Cross Word Puzzles – create puzzles easily

Cross Word Puzzles is a great tool for educators that is again offered for free by Read Write Think. I really love this tool for it allows you to make interesting puzzles very easily and at the instance of a click. Hey !!! you do not need to be a technology or math wizard to start using it. It is very simple to use and all it takes is filling up the boxes. I still remember years ago when i wanted to create a synonyms puzzle it took me almost five hours to come up with the columns, grids, clues and words and now i can do the same work in 15 mints , you see how technology is changing our life for the BEST.

How can i get started using Cross Word Puzzles

Head over to Cross Word Puzzles main page
Click on get started
Fill in your name and select the grade

Click on create your own or you can choose of theirs
Give a name to your puzzle
add words to it then click on create puzzle
Now you can click on add clues to clue your words
click on finish and you will have your finalized crossword at your hand for printing.
Please read this little note from Cross Word Puzzles :

The tool also includes a Play mode with crossword puzzles for students in grades K–12. Included with each puzzle are a For Teachers page with troubleshooting help and ideas for use as well as a Tips & Hints page designed to scaffold students' learning and help them do the research necessary to solve the puzzle.

Applications of Cross Word Puzzles in education

Crossword puzzles is a great tool for educators. It will help them improve their students’ thinking powers. Students can use it to revise their content area like vocabulary and grammar. I would really recommend it for you if you are a language teacher , students will benefit a lot from it and by the end of the year they will have memorized a huge number of vocabulary items just by playing Crossword puzzle.If you are teaching elementary or higher students then you can let them use it to create their own puzzles and share it with their colleagues. It can be so much fun while learning is taking place smoothly.
That’s it about Cross Word Puzzles – create puzzles easily.

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eduplace : free graphic organizers for educators

Eduplace is really a great site . It offers a set of printable graphs and charts to use in the classroom with your students . These graphs are very handy and easy to use , so there is no need to spend time online trying to build charts or classroom assignment grills , you can find all in Eduplace and for free at the tip of a click . It is indeed a wonderful resource for all educators .

Here are  what Eduplace offers to the teachers

Just click on any title and you will have its PDF version at your hand to print

Clock

Cluster/Word Web 1

Cluster/Word Web 2

Cluster/Word Web 3

Describing Wheel

E-Chart

Fact and Opinion

Five W's Chart

Flow Chart

Four-Column Chart

Garden Gate

Goal-Reasons Web

Ice-Cream Cone

Idea Rake

Idea Wheel

Inverted Triangle

ISP Chart
(Information, Sources, Page)

KWL Chart

KWS Chart

Ladder

Observation Chart

Persuasion Map

Planning Chart

Problem-Solution Chart 

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