Vocabulary Graphic Organizer

Today I’d like to share a strategy for vocabulary assessment using a basic graphic organizer – you can find the template here in my TPT store.

First, students complete the graphic organizer with their vocabulary words for a lesson, topic, or unit.  This graphic organizer template includes space for up to four vocabulary words, but students could create the graphic organizer themselves by folding a sheet of notebook paper in half twice to create four quadrants.

As a teacher, you might choose to have students complete the graphic organizer to preview vocabulary, or you may choose to have students add to the graphic organizer as they encounter new vocabulary.  I have used this graphic organizer both ways, and we always discuss the definitions and check to make sure examples and pictures accurately fit the vocabulary term!  Students use the graphic organizer as their study guide before a vocabulary assessment.

For the vocabulary assessment, I filled in parts of the graphic organizer and left the other parts blank.  This allowed me to really differentiate the assessment for all types of students.  For my advanced students, I tended to leave most of the graphic organizer blank and provided only one piece of information per section.  Other students needed a bit more scaffolding and support, so they might have two or three pieces of information given in a row.  Some of my English Language Learner students really connected to vocabulary through pictorial representations, so I often left their picture area completely blank along with one other piece of information.  Students were able to show me in various ways that they knew and understood the vocabulary.  Because I started with a complete graphic organizer, I already had a basic answer key to refer to no matter which version I graded!

Do you use graphic organizers as assessment tools in your classroom?  What unit or lesson could benefit from this vocabulary graphic organizer?