Sometimes, the sheer volume of information swirling in our minds can feel overwhelming. We just need some help organizing our thoughts — students AND educators, alike. A visual framework can be a lifeline.

Paper versions of graphic organizers, with their hand-drawn boxes and lines, can do a nice job of that, offering a tangible structure. But by making them digital, they instantly become customizable, malleable to the specific needs of any learner or lesson. Multiple people can collaborate on them in real time, adding insights and building upon each other's ideas from anywhere. They can be shared with a simple link, embedded seamlessly in a website for easy access, or downloaded as a convenient image file or PDF file for offline use.

In short, digital graphic organizers are more versatile, more dynamic, and more accessible than their paper counterparts. There are many ways to create and share these powerful tools, each with its own set of strengths. Two of our favorite ways, for their user-friendly interfaces and collaborative features, are with Google Slides and Canva.

Google Slides offers the familiar interface of a presentation tool, making it easy to create structured diagrams and mind maps with simple shapes, text boxes, and connectors. Canva provides a visually rich design platform, with a vast library of graphic organizer templates that are ready to edit and share.

In Google Workspace it's easy to create and share them with Google Slides . It gives users a blank canvas where they can add text, shapes, lines, etc. When done, they can save their work as image files or PDF files and can add those images to documents, slides and spreadsheets.

Slides can be the virtual page where students can gather and process their ideas.

I’ve created 20 of them (see links below) that can be copied, saved, changed, tweaked or completely redone to fit your needs and your students’ needs. We have added 10 more that were created by the Ditch That Textbook community and shared with us for this post.

It took me about 90 minutes to make 15 of them so that averages out to six minutes each. (Some were more time-consuming than others, and I got faster at making them as I progressed.)

Sharing your Google Slides graphic organizers

Once you’ve created a graphic organizer (or have saved one of mine), there are a few easy ways to get them to your students:

• If you use Google Classroom, create a new assignment and choose the option to deliver a copy of your graphic organizer to each student.
• You can copy the URL (link) to the graphic organizer and deliver it to students via a class website, SeeSaw etc. You can also make a shorter, easier URL to type with URL shorteners like Bitly and TinyURL. (Check your Internet filter to make sure your shortened URLs come through. I’ve found that TinyURL works in most schools’ filters.)
• Using the blue “Share” button, click the “Get shareable link” button and set the document as “Anyone with the link” at the top and “Can view” at the bottom. That way, students won’t be able to change your original copy and will have to make a copy of their own.
• PRO TIP: When you copy a URL (link) to any G Suite file, it probably says “view” or “edit” at the end of it. If you change that word to “copy”, it will force whoever opens that link to make a copy of the file instead of opening your file. That’s another trick to keeping your original version from being altered. (If you assign it through Google Classroom, you won’t need to do this.)

Canva is another tool that be used to design and share graphic organizers that help students visually demonstrate their understanding and organize ideas across various subjects. You can easily find graphic organizer templates by searching for "graphic organizer" in Canva, where they you choose from options like cause-and-effect diagrams or Venn diagrams. 

You can also design a custom organizer from scratch using blank templates and graphic elements like shapes and lines. Once the organizer is ready, you can assign it to students, giving them the option to either use a pre-made template or create their own from scratch, fostering creativity and effective learning.

Sharing your Canva graphic organizers

Once you've found a template or created a template you like you can choose how you want to get them to your students:

• Customize  the template by editing text, adjusting colors and sizes, removing or adding elements, and incorporating graphics or images.
• Share as a Template Link (Students can create a copy):
  • Open the design: Navigate to the design you want to share. 
  • Tap "Share": Click the "Share" icon from the menu bar above the editor. 
  • Choose "Template link": Select "Template link" from the sharing options. 
  • Create the link: Tap "Create template link". 
  • Copy and share: Copy the generated link and share it with your students. 
• Download for the graphic organizer for printing:
  • Open your design: Open the Canva template you want to print.
  • Select "Share": Click the "Share" button in the top right corner.
  • Choose "Download": Click the "Download" button.
  • Select "PDF Print": Choose "PDF Print" from the file type dropdown.
  • Optional: Crop Marks and Bleed: If you need crop marks and bleed for professional printing, tick the corresponding options.
  • Download: Click "Download" again to save the print-ready PDF to your computer. 

Here are over 50 graphic organizer templates that can be used for many different subject areas and grade levels.

Feel free to make a copy of any of these templates and adapt them for your own use:

More graphic organizers!

Canva offers a diverse collection of graphic organizer templates tailored for classroom use like reading response, scientific method, essay writing, and vocabulary development. Teachers can easily customize these templates to visually engage students and reinforce key concepts. The designs can be downloaded as a pdf and printed or exported as a PowerPoint file.

Question: What other graphic organizers would be useful to create? Can you share a link to a graphic organizer you’ve created so others can use it, too? Leave a comment below!

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