GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
Graphic organizers can be identified by a variety of names such as concept mapping, flow charts, webbing and thinking map. Pictures are worth a thousand words because they can stimulate more associations that enhance critical thinking and memory than words alone. Visual aids (including pictures) have been used in the commercial world for as long as advertising has been around. Primary and secondary educators have tried to benefit from what the advertisers already seem to know by incorporating the use of visual aids into their teaching. Graphic organizers have been used by elementary and secondary educators from the late 1970’s until now. Because of successful secondary school teaching methods, graphic organizers have filtered into graduate courses as a tool to aid memory and adapt to individual learning styles. Despite the variety of names and the diversity of designs a graphic organizer can provide the following for a learner:
- · Make abstract information concrete
- · Provide visual relationships to text
- · Provide a means to gather information
- · Levels the playing field for learners
- · Show order and completeness of thought process
Graphical Organizers convert complex and messy information collections into meaningful displays. They sometimes act like mind maps. These mind maps have been greatly debated about the correctness of their use since their introduction in the late 1960's. The use of graphic organizers has history of use in many disciplines as a formal or semi-formal diagramming technique. How they are utilized is determined by the needs of the user.
Four Basic Patterns of Knowledge Organization
- Hierarchical - Pattern includes a main concept with ranks, or levels, or sub-concepts.
Generalizations and Classifications
- Conceptual- Pattern includes a central idea, category, or class with supporting facts.
Description, collection, problem/solution, and comparison/contrast.
- Sequential - Pattern arranges events in chronological order
Linear - specific beginning and end
Cause/effect Process/Product Problem/Solution
- Cyclical - Pattern includes series of events within a process in circular formation
No beginning or end - Continuous sequence of events
Information in a series, succession, cycle
CHOOSING OR DESIGNING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
- Determine information to be used for the graphic organizer.
- Note the main idea and key points.
- Choose a design format.
- Represent inter-relationships among ideas.
- Include personal reactions, if appropriate.
- Include items that will require the use of higher-order thinking skills.
- Include information that represents a summary or synthesis of the whole lesson, chapter, or
unit.
 Some Types of Graphic Organizers
WEBBING
A web is a visual map that shows how different categories of information relate to each other. Webs provide a structure for ideas and facts, which helps students learn to organize and prioritize information. Major topics or core concepts are located at the web center. Outward links connect supporting details.
Concept Maps
The concept mapping technique was developed by Dr. Joseph D. Novak, Cornell University, in the 1960s. His work was based on the theories of David Ausubel and the importance of prior knowledge as the key to learning new new concepts.
STORYBOARD
This graphic organizer is used to assist students in sequencing events in a logical order. Students can use pictures and/or words to record a sequence of events that they are studying. Initially, the first sequential tasks should concentrate upon the identification of the beginning, middle and end of the story or event.
VENN DIAGRAMS
John Venn developed Boole's mathematical logic and is best known for his diagrammatic way of representing sets and their unions and intersections. Venn considered three discs R, S, and T as typical subsets of a set U. The intersections of these discs and their complementsdivide U into 8 non overlapping regions, the unions of which give 256 different Boolean combinations of the original sets R, S,T.
Please check out the links. They can provide you with a lot of information AND ideas for lots of graphic organizers
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