Teachers are always searching for tools that will make their instruction better. That one magical tool that will ensure all of their students will not only comprehend, but also enjoy, whatever content area they are attempting to teach. Janet Allen makes it very clear that no such tool exists, but she does reassure her colleagues that she has discovered, borrowed, modified, and created several aids that will help some students sometimes with some of the material they are learning. She has developed two teacher-friendly resources that not only provide the instructional strategies, but also why and how she would use them in her classroom. Both flip charts provide detailed explanations, origins, references, and best of all blank forms for each strategy she highlights.
Her wonderful resources by Stenhouse Publishers can be purchased inexpensively online through a variety of websites. Here is a link to a sample page from her first flip chart, Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. Her second flip chart, More Tools for Teaching Content Literacy, includes, as the title suggests, even more tools designed to meet student and instructional needs.
In addition to Allen's resources, many websites contain a multitude of graphic organizers that can help students organize and structure the material they are learning. The key is to try different ones until you find those that work with a particular student for a particular lesson. No one graphic organizer will fit the mold for every student and every lesson!
Here are a few websites that offer useful graphic organizers or links to resources you can purchase:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Place
Nonfiction Graphic Organizers
Education Oasis- Graphic Organizers
Scholastic- Graphic Organizers
Amazon- Graphic Organizers
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