Teaching Children to Create Diagrams for Studying

Diagrams for studying at school are a great way of representing information clearly. Find out how best to make them in this article.

There are several study techniques that children have to learn to use in order to get good academic results. In this article, we’re going to explain how to use diagrams for studying.

Making diagrams or outlines is a good way of summarizing information in order to remember concepts and facts better. It’s a good idea to teach this study technique to children from an early age, so they can learn to study effectively and efficiently.

We must bear in mind that diagrams are only one step of many that should be carried out in the complex world of studying. There are, in all, five phases of study that we can differentiate:

• Reading comprehension
• Underlining
• Summaries
• Memorizing
• Self-assessment

Teach children to make diagrams for studying

When you need to summarize information, you need to be able to use different strategies to organize or compile that information. It needs to be done in such a way that will allow you to modify the content to make it easier to assimilate and memorize. This is where diagrams or outlines become very useful.

Diagrams visually and clearly represent the main and secondary ideas of any given text. The great advantage they have, compared to other summarizing techniques, is that they allow you to capture relevant information at a glance.

There are different types of diagrams, depending on the type of study material:

• Comparatives: These are used to compare characteristics and observe information at a glance.
• Hierarchical: You can use this type of diagram to organize and classify the ideas of a text, and integrate some of the concepts into other texts.
• Sequenced: These can be used when you need to order the information sequentially, based on different factors (the passage of time, method changes, changes in characteristics, etc.).

It’s important to transmit the idea of diagrams to our children. However, in order to learn this study technique, it isn’t enough to just know the theory. It also requires a lot of practice.

For this reason, it’s a good idea for the parents to accompany their children during the study sessions. They’ll be able to help them create their first visual diagrams, so that, with time, they’ll be able to do them on their own.

Characteristics of a good diagram

To create a good diagram, you must follow several steps:

• Firstly, read the text carefully
• Then, select and underline the main and secondary ideas
• Think of a title that sums up the text
• After that, choose the type of diagram that you want to do
• Divide the text into general sections and subsections
• Finally, put each idea into a different section and express it briefly and accurately

Diagrams or outlines for studying should also fulfill the following characteristics:

• You should integrate all the main ideas into the diagram
• You should highlight and clearly link the main ideas of the text
  
• It has to follow a logical structure, with the main and secondary ideas well arranged
• The presentation must be clear so that the content can be understood quickly
• It must be written using short or direct keywords or phrases, never long sentences.

By following these tips, children will learn to develop meaningful diagrams which will help them to improve their performance at school. They’ll be able to see, at a glance, a general idea of the topics and how they fit together.

All of this is beneficial for them to be able to acquire, assimilate, understand, and remember information with ease. This requires work, time, and effort, but it’s certainly worth it!