Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual and spatial displays designed to facilitate the teaching and learning of textual material (Ellington, 2006).  They help students structure their learning, visualize the way information is presented in lectures and organized in texts, map out stories to improve comprehension, and see the relationships among vocabulary and concepts (Smith, 2007). Graphic organizers connect important words or statements to diagrams, show a process, or present a sequence. Students often have difficulty reading and understanding information in textbooks and other expository texts, which are sometimes poorly organized (Smith, 2007).

They have been proven as useful in all subject areas as they help students organize information in logical sequence, thus making it easier for review. Graphic organizers also referred to as visual diagrams of written ideas have many advantages within and out of the classroom.

Advantages of Graphic Organizer

·         Graphic Organizers help organize thoughts into illustrations

·         They show the order and completeness of student’s thoughts.

·         Shows different sides of an issue or problem

·         Can be used to teach different genres of reading and writing

·         Allows students to see and draw/ write out what they are thinking

·         Gives students a visual image of their thoughts

·         Helps students plan for writing

·         Allows students to see the relationship between the main topic and the sub topic.

·         May help resolve a problem once it has been diagnosed

·         Helps differentiate the important from the uminportant information

·         Helps improve comparing and contrasting information, sequencing events, classifying information (Brookbank et al 1999)

·         Helps improve student thinking skills

·         A very good choice in scaffolding revision because they allow writers to see better what they are revising.

Graphic organizers, according to Griffin et al (1988), are more effective if students generate the organizers themselves. Teacher constructed pre or post graphic organizers, they continue, are no more effective than traditional instruction in comprehension. Broken down, they believe that if students are being spoon fed the information that they have to put into the graphic organizer, it not only allows them to repeat exactly what they are being told, but they are using the knowledge that they teacher poured into them..(Jug and mug principle) it does not allow for any critical thinking and use of prior knowledge. Berkowitz (1986) posits that, students who study maps do not improve as they are passively looking at someone else’s knowledge construction.

In order to ensure the effective use of the graphic organizer students should be trained how to use it. This would create an awareness of the effectiveness of the graphic organizer.

There are various types of graphic organizers. Each graphic organizer can be used to organize ideas from various subjects across the curriculum:

this is an illustration of a fish bone Graphic organizer: this organizer helps students organize their thoughts, based on a specific topic, into a visual representation. As with all organizers it can help prepare for a writing exercise however, a fish bone is usually used when the topic is a lot more complex and complicated.

 this is an illustration of a spider Graphic organizer: very useful with classifying ideas and information with supporting details. It is also used to represent the details of one specific theme and portray the ideas associated with it.

this is an illustration of a story board graphic organizer. A storyboard is an effective way means of heping students organize and sequence their ideas for writing.

this is an illustration of a venn diagram graphic organizer; is a great strategy for compare and contrast. Students are able to record both the similarities and differences of various objects.

this is an illustration of a cyclical graphic organizer; shows the relationship between ideas in a repeating cycle. Used when there is no beginning and no end.

this is an illustration of a kwl graphic organizer; effective in comparing prior knowledge to newly acquired knowledge before the new concept has been introduced.

this is an illustration of a cluster: effective in the organization of different concepts and ideas. This method can also be used to structure writing project and help to systemize the development of ideas based on a specific topic.

this is an illustration of the five w’s and h organizer. The five W’s stand for Who What When Where and Why. The H stands for How. This organizer helps organize details based on the factors surrounding the five W’s and the H