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Flow Chart Notes - Graphic Organizer


Flow Chart Notes are a fun way to take notes particularly in a Social Studies class where many of events are told as a story.

I read about Flow Chart Notes here and decided to make a graphic organizer to support the format in my Classy Graphics Class with Tony Vincent. (our first assignment was to make a graphic organizer in Google Drawings using the align and distribution features). CLICK HERE for a copy of this graphic organizer. It was made in Google Drawings so you can go to "file" and "make a copy" to have your own editable version. To download it as a PDF simply click "file", "download as", and then "pdf".

                               

I liked how it turned out and I decided to download it as a PDF and use Kami to fill it out as a test run (see first picture). Kami and DocHub are free add ons to Google Classroom that allow students to write or draw on a PDF on a tablet (not an iPad). I could have printed it out and filled it in with pencil but we are trying to go paperless in many of our schools. In my opinion Kami is the better of the two (easier to use). Our district bought a license for it recently so that is our go to. The free version is adequate for this particular graphic organizer.

I used the California Gold Rush as my "event". If I was doing this as a teacher I would probably teach the lesson the first day with all the bells and whistles (videos). Then I might assign them the Duckster's article on the Gold Rush to read and highlight the nine main parts, once that was done I would have them fill out the graphic organizer (text first) and then draw pictures to go with it (to read the article and fill out the graphic organizer I would give it two day of class time based on a 45-50 minute class).

If I wanted something similar in a Social Studies notebook I had to modify the graphic organizer so there was eight panels instead of nine (which changed the flow of the arrows - see below). You could print it out (and cut down the middle with each side being glued in the notebook) or just have students draw the eight panels (which would use less paper). CLICK HERE for a copy of this graphic organizer.
                                 

If you use this with students I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
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Anonymous said…
Kami works on ipads now!
April 12, 2018 at 8:18 PM
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