Graphic organizers help students construct meaning. They are important and effective tools for organizing content and ideas while facilitating learners’ comprehension of newly acquired information. They can be used across the curriculum and across all grade levels. I use them to assess students’ understanding, observe their thinking process and improve comprehension. Using graphic organizers enable students to organize, comprehend and internalize new learning. When students can see and organize information, their ability to learn and comprehend increases significantly.
We use graphic organizers on a daily basis. The use of them provides a hands on approach to learning. These tools, when incorporated in a lesson, provide students with the opportunity to actively participate and contribute to their learning process. The designs of the graphic organizers and the act of organizing content serves to stimulate both the creative and logical parts of the brain. It also helps to develop team dynamics when given as a group activity. Through the use of graphic organizers, various cognitive skills such as brainstorming, generating ideas, organizing and prioritizing content, critical analysis and reflection can be developed. This exposure helps improve a student’s capacity for active learning. The visual representations also serve as visual cues which aid in retention and recall of concepts and their relations.
Graphic organizers allow for a deeper understanding of the content being taught. The pictorial representations enable students to break down bigger ideas or concepts into smaller, simpler illustrations that are more easily comprehended. Though very simple to the eye, graphic organizers are powerful tools, highly instrumental in altering and improving the teaching-learning process in the classroom.
Graphic organizers also help to meet the needs of all learners. Presenting information in both text and graphic formats is one of the most basic ways to make a lesson accessible to more students.
Pictured below are several graphic organizers, some we have already utilized, and others we will use as our school year progresses.
