GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

Graphic Organizers in the 21st Century Classroom

Amanda Sherraden
University of Kansas
C&T 806
Dr. Hamilton
December 6, 2014

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In an age where information is at a persons fingertips, it is important that students know

how to find that information. It is more important, however, that students today learn how to put
that information and knowledge together with the real world. Therefore, the information
processing family of teaching models is one of the most important and relevant today. From
inquiry and thinking inductively to memorization and graphic organizers, this family of models
is useful in every content area in todays high schools. Every model and strategy in the world of
education is meant to help students learn better. The information processing family, however, is
meant to help students become better learners through putting information together with what
they have already learned. Graphic organizers, in particular, are excellent for helping students see
the connections between all informationnew and old.
According to Joyce et al, David Ausubel believes that the teacher is responsible for
organizing and presenting what is to be learned and the learners primary role is to master
ideas and information (Joyce, 2009, p. 249). In twenty-first century education, this seems to be
a foreign idea and almost a taboo statement. Many students today look at the teacher as being an
all-knowing individual who can, and possibly should, give students all the information that
he/she needs. Then, the student needs to memorize that information so that he/she can take and
get an A on the standardized test and move on with his/her life. This scenario, however, is not
only illogical but it is impossible. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the Kansas
College and Career Readiness Standards (KCCR) have created a situation where students are
being tested on higher level thinking skills. They have to be able to problem solve, show their
thinking, and support their thoughts and statements with evidence. To do this, they cannot be
handed information, memorize it, and then hope to do well on a test. Instead, students have to
take the opportunities given to them by their teachers and master the information and skills.

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There are many methods to help students master and make sense of the information they gain in
class. Some models work well for some students and some models are new while others have
been around for many years. Graphic organizers are an old, and in some ways forgotten, model
that are very much relevant in education today.
From my experience, there is a movement in education away from direct instruction and
toward student self-discovery and project based learning (PBL). This is not a bad movement. It
allows and forces students to get involved in their own learning and become active learners.
Teachers are forced to get out of their comfort zone, try new things, and give up control of their
classroom to help students learn. These are great things for the world of education, in small
doses. Students cannot be asked to discover something new without the foundation to do so. At
times, students can benefit from being thrown into a problem and asked to find the answer
themselves. They can be handed a scalpel and frog and cut it open. However, if they are handed a
frog and scalpel and asked to dissect the frog while explaining how certain body systems interact
and affect each other, then certain foundations are necessary. While the new CCSS and KCCR
standards do ask for a lot of higher order thinking from students, this cannot be done without first
helping students create a base line of knowledge.
Foundations are a necessity for students and one of the best ways for them to get those is
through direct instruction. This does not mean that a teacher is lecturing all class, every class.
Rather it means that the teacher is delivering the information to the students who then need to
memorize, master, and synthesize that information so that it can be used. Graphic organizers help
students with this difficult task. Their purpose is to explain, integrate, and interrelate the
material in the learning task with previously learned material (Joyce, 2009, p. 253). The job of a
graphic organizer is not to help students memorize information; it is not to give students every

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piece of information he/she needs to know. Rather, their job is to help organize new information
in a way that makes sense to the student. [T]here is a parallel between the way subject matter is
organized and the way people organize knowledge in their minds (Joyce, 2009, p. 250) and
graphic organizers are the link between the two. Teachers organize their classes in a way that
makes sense to both the content and the teacher. A history teacher decides to cover history in
either a chronological order or by looking at themes throughout time or maybe sometimes both.
As a teacher, the organization makes sense. To a student however, it is just a bunch of random
pieces of information. Until the teacher explains the organization and helps the students fill in the
information in the way that makes sense to the teacher, the knowledge will not actually have a
chance to be truly learned.
When I use graphic organizers in my class, I do my best to make them as basic as
possible or make them to where they are easily manipulated. I want them to be helpful to my
students. Therefore, there are times when I know that a venn diagram is the most helpful
organizer for what the students are going to be asked to do. For example, I know that my
students are going to have to compare and contrast the American and French Revolutions in
written form. Therefore, creating a venn diagram where students have to give information for
each revolution individually then put the commonalities where the circles cross is extremely
helpful. The visual of seeing the similarities and differences has helped my students writing
become more focused and specific. However, when I ask my Advanced Placement U.S.
Government students to explain how a bill becomes a law, I know that the students will be best
served if they can create their own organizer. By having set information but the freedom to put it
together in a way that makes sense to the student, there is more learning occurring. Not only has

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the student learned the content but he has also begun to identify how he learns and thinks best
(Rhoder, 2002).
Graphic organizers were of huge importance in the past for all students. In doing my
research, I found that there were many studies done and articles written during the 1970s and
1980s. In recent years though, there has not been as much talk about them and studies have been
completed deal with the use of graphic organizers for special needs and at risk students. As many
as ten years ago (when I was in high school), they were still used frequently in the classrooms. I
created many webs, venn diagrams, cause and effect charts, etc. in most of my classes. We had
used them so frequently, that teachers did not have to really prompt us to use them but they were
second nature to us. Today, however, as a teacher I have had little training on their uses and/or
importance and I do not hear much discussion around the usefulness of graphic organizers. I find
this to be both interesting and disappointing. Interesting, because we seem to have at least begun
to abandon a method of learning where students who used pictorial graphic organizers scored
significantly higher on 100-point teacher-made achievement tests than students who did not use
the organizers (McLeod & Jonassen as cited in Story, 2014, p. 4). Disappointing, because
graphic organizers were so useful to me as a student and because I see such a great use for them
in my own classroom.
With the focus of teachers and assessment writers being on higher level thinking, students
need help mastering the task of synthesizing information. Taking new information, making sense
of it, then making it applicable to ones life is not an easy task. Graphic organizers help students
attempt to do this in a visual way. Graphic organizers help students select important
information, identify and clarify relationships among ideas, relate information from different
sources, and link it all to their prior knowledge (Rhoder, 2002, p. 501). These tasks are not only

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what teachers are asking their students to do on a daily level, but these tasks are important skills
that students will use in their lives. Students have to be able to compare and contrast information
from different sourcesthis helps them determine the validity of sources as well as get a full
picture or understanding of a situation or event; figuring out the relationship between and among
ideas is how solutions are found and problems solved; and linking information to prior
knowledge is how people remember new information.
As Rhoder explains Prawats Embedded Model of Strategy Instruction, she looks to cause
and effect, compare and contrast, and time order as not only typical text structures in school texts
but also as excellent graphic organizers to use along with concept maps, webs, and frames.
Teachers can spend quite a bit of time putting together graphic organizers but they may not work
the way they are intended to. Students and teachers need to keep in mind that there may be
more than one right answer, more than one structure, and more than one way to make a map
(Rhoder, 2002, p. 510). What is imperative for students with regard to graphic organizers is the
process of making them. The act of making a graphic organizer causes students to think about
the [information] in a much deeper, more active way (Rhoder, 2002, p. 510). According to
Story, the impact graphic organizers have on learning depends on the organizer itself as well as
the method and reason for which it is used.
Teachers get stuck in using graphic organizers as a way to review information from a unit
or an entire concept. The work put in and the intended purpose behind an organizer is clear when
teachers hand out final form organizersorganizers where all the information is already filled in.
There is no room for interpretation or thinking. Rather, after the teacher explaining the
organization, the student should be able to see the connections between information if they
understand the content. Participatory organizers, however, where the student has spaces to fill in

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

key terms and details are more useful (Hawk et al as cited in Story, 2014, p. 2). The writing of
the material involves another sense, thereby providing another pathway to the brain (Hawk &
McLeod, 1983, p. 20). With this in mind, using graphic organizers for note-taking can be an
advantage. This allows students to focus on the message of the lecture instead of focusing on the
mechanics of taking notes which results in a larger comprehension of the lesson because they can
see the outline of notes and be sure that they are getting the big ideas that they need to
understand (Sakta, 1992; Robinson et al, 2006).
Different still are organizers that are created by the students themselves. The best graphic
organizers are ones that make sense to the student, not necessarily to the teacher. If one takes the
belief that it is truly the process of making the organizer that is important, then it does not matter
what the organizer looks like. What matters is the information presented and the synthesis that is
occurring. One of the main complaints about graphic organizers is that kids hate them (Barry,
2002, p. 140). Arguably, this occurs because teachers try to force students into one way of
thinking and organizing information. If instead, we allow students to organize information in
their own way and make their own connections our students will be much more successful in
their learning. The purpose behind graphic organizers is not to force students into a box and is
not to force teachers to change their pedagogy. Rather, the use of graphic organizers is meant to
aid students in their understanding and teachers in their teaching (Hawk & McLeod, 1983).
The twenty-first century classroom looks very different from anything before it. Teachers
and students alike are being tasked with new ideas which can possibly explain the abandoning of
the use of graphic organizers in the classroom. Technology has added a new dimension to the
education field and it is important to find the positive uses for it in the classroom. There has
always been new technology for teachers to use in their classrooms: printers, email, overhead

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projectors, etc. In todays world though, technology has developed at an alarming rate which has
made it very difficult for teachers to keep up. There are not only new ways to use technology but
there are countless new modes of technology that continue to emerge. The world looks to
teachers to teach students how and when to use this new technology, as they arguably should.
Many teachers however look at technology as another hurdle to jump over. Seasoned teachers for
example, look at technology and wonder why they need use it to do what they are already
achieving in their classrooms. From experience, there are definite advantages to having and
using technology but at times, it is difficult to see the reason behind using the technology as there
is little research to show that it is truly helping students learn.
Many districts are adopting tablets and laptops at a one to one scale for their students,
especially at the secondary level, with the expectation that teachers use these on a regular basis.
Many teachers have taken this to mean that they need to drastically change their teaching
methods, that what used to be successful in classrooms will now be frowned upon. However, this
is hopefully not the case. Technology should be used to enhance what was already in place.
Students will always have to organize their thoughts. So, instead of looking at technology as
attempting to replace graphic organizers, it should be looked at as a way to enhance them.
Technology-based graphic organizers are increasingly available to all students (Smith &
Okolo, 2010, p. 259) and offer interactive features as well as templates for students to use.
Students can also take a digital version of a graphic organizer created by a teacher, add digital
literaturepictures, videos, etc.to it, and manipulate or re-organize it so that it makes more
sense to the student. Technology-based graphic organizers [] offer the teacher and student an
array of tools to enhance the visual representation of the material (Smith & Okolo, 2010, p.
261) and thus enhance student learning.

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Graphic organizers have proven over time to be helpful in student learning and
synthesizing information. Yet, in schools today they are not used or discussed on a great scale.
There are many causes that can attribute to thisthe large amount of knowledge required in
CCSS and KCCR, the view of them as an old school method, the implementation of
technology, etc. Moving forward, however, the usefulness and importance of graphic organizers
cannot be over looked. If teachers truly believe that mindful learners are active, generative,
engaged, strategic thinkers (Langer as cited in Rhoder, 2002, p. 498), then graphic organizers
are an imperative information processing model of teaching that has to be used in schools in the
twenty-first century. Teachers are responsible for organizing and presenting what is to be
learned [and the] learners primary role is to master ideas and information (Joyce, 2009, p. 249).
Graphic organizers do exactly that. They allow students to take the information presented by
their teachers and put it together in ways that make sense to them while adding new digital
literacy modes to enhance their understanding. Graphic organizers are not a thing of the past but
rather a tried and true teaching method that needs to be brought back to schools on a greater
scale.

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10
References

Barry, A.L. (2002). Reading strategies teachers say they use. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy 46(2), 132-141.
Hawk, P.P. & McLeod, N.P. (1983). Graphic organizer: An effective teaching method. Middle
School Journal 14(3), 20-22.
Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2009). Models of Teaching (8th ed.). Pearson Education.
Rhoder, C (2002). Mindful reading: Strategy training that facilitates transfer. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45(6), 498-512.
Robinson, D.H., Katayama, A.D., Beth, A., Odom, S., Hsieh, Y., Vanderveen, A. (2006).
Increasing text comprehension and graphic note taking using a partial graphic organizer.
The Journal of Educational Research 100(2), 103-111.
Sakta, C.G. (1992). The graphic organizer: A blueprint for taking lecture notes. Journal of
Reading 35(6), 482-484.
Smith, S.J. & Okolo, C. (2010). Response to intervention and evidence-based practices: Where
does technology fit? Learning Disability Quarterly 33(4), 257-272.
Story, C.M. (2014). What instructional designers need to know about advance organizers, 1-7.