How to Use Flowcharts in Your Classroom?

Flowcharts in the classroom are graphical representations of students’ thinking processes. It allows students to chalk out their ideas and thoughts in a logical and organized fashion, giving them the freedom to come back and reflect on it. With this method, a student is able to describe a sequence of events or actions in a step-by-step fashion, leading to its outcome.

Using a flowchart has also been found to help develop reading comprehension in students of all levels. It is a useful tool for students to learn as it will often be used in business meetings and for presentations in the future.

While drawing a flowchart, one starts with their first thought or action point and draws it in a box. The remaining action points are placed one by one in boxes in a sequential manner. Arrows connects the boxes in the right order. Ensuring that the boxes are in order is an important element in drawing a flowchart as the idea changes according to the order.

There are a number of exercises that may be done with flowcharts in the classroom. Some of them are: drawing the plot of a movie that the students saw recently, the process of making cheese, how much money they should save to buy something they really want, etc.

Flowcharts help develop a number of skills in the classroom. Some of those skills included:

• Understanding what a sequence is,

• Understanding the different stages in reaching their goal,

• Understanding the link that the different stages have, and

• Understanding the final goal.

Some of the limitation of flowcharts are:

• Flowcharts tends to over-simplify a process,

• Factors that affect the sequence are not depicted,

• The process of creating a flowchart may seem futile to some students, thus reducing their attentiveness and enthusiasm in the task.

It is suggested that you use flowcharts to compliment your lesson and add knowledge and value to it, instead of focusing on it as an exercise on its own.

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Discuss Here: What are some exercises that you can execute in the classroom with the use of flowcharts?