The Venn diagram is one of the more basic graphic organizers. The Venn diagram has two circles with some area overlapping, and the overlapping area is where students write elements that two characters, objects or events have in common. In the unshared areas, students write elements that one character possesses but the other does not. If you are comparing World War I and World War II, for example, you would label one "World War I" and the other "World War II." Shared items might include "German attempt to conquer Europe." A "World War I" item might include "Mustard gas was a devastating weapon." "World War II" could include "The nuclear bomb was a devastating weapon."
Graphic organizers also help middle schoolers write character descriptions. This sort of graphic organizer starts with a circle in the middle, where they write the character's name. Then they draw a series of lines out from that circle to new circles. Each of those circles contains characteristics. For example, if you're describing Julius Caesar, some characteristics in the outer circles would include "proud," "stubborn" and "ambitious." Around each of those circles, you create orbits of circles with evidence for each. For "stubborn," one support circle might read, "Ignored wife's dream foretelling his death."
If your students have to write a cause-and-effect paper, there is a graphic organizer that can help with that. Draw two or three boxes stacked vertically on the left side of the paper, and then draw a larger square to their right, in the center. Then draw two or three more boxes stacked vertically on the right side, and draw an arrow from the center box to each of those on the right side. The boxes on the left are causes, the box in the center is the event and the boxes on the right are effects. If the event in the middle is "Casey got grounded for the weekend," causes on the left might include "Casey lied on her report card," "Casey didn't clean her room," and "Casey was on Facebook when she wasn't supposed to be." On the right side, boxes might include "Casey missed the slumber party," "Casey had to skip her swim meet," and "Casey won't be at the mall on Sunday."
If students have to write an informative essay relating the various parts of a larger object or system, the organizer that Thinking Maps terms a "brace map" is helpful. On the left, you write the name of the system. For example, you could write "U.S. Government." Then draw a bracket with a third line in the center. Label each of these one of the three main branches of government: "Executive," "Judicial" and "Legislative." Then make smaller brackets to the right of those. For "Legislative," you would write "House of Representatives" and "Senate" and proceed to the rest of the brackets.