William McBride, Ph.D., author of “Entertaining an Elephant”, and Ron Klemp, Ed.D., Secondary Literacy Coordinator from the Los Angeles Unified School District posted an amazingly comprehensive assortment of graphic organizers (and website list) for content literacy here on the California State Department of Education's website in 2008. You will find the following resources incredibly useful for students in intermediate grades and in middle/ high school:
Vocabulary Semantic Mapping Organizer
List, Group, Label Organizer
Historical Perspectives Grid
Compare/Contrast "Y" Notes
Frayer Model for Vocabulary
Compare Contrast Venn Diagrams
K-W-L+ Charts and much, much more...
Using an Anticipation Guide
Anticipation guides provide opportunities for teachers to pre-assess background knowledge students have about content. These tools can be used to drive conversations to support initial learning and to clear simple misconceptions at the beginning of a unit. When used effectively, these guides can help engage students in new learning by building curiosity on a new topic. Read-Write- Think provides a lesson plan and a sample organizer you can use here. Literacy Across Disciplines provides examples of disciplines for different content areas here.
Science Organizers
Mimi- Dade County Schools has created a teacher resource book of science graphic organizers that you can find here. From vocabulary, to project planning, and note taking- find the resources you need to get going.
Scholastic put together a comprehensive assortment of science organizers as well. Find their resources by clicking here. These may be more appropriate for our younger learners.
Math Organizers
There are two Los Angeles teachers- Teresa and Davis Gelman- with website dedicated to French and Mathematics. Click here for a pretty nice array of mathematics graphic organizers.