Gay Fawcett and Patricia Rae Clayton

Summit County Schools

Graphic organizers (sometimes called semantic maps or webs) are diagrams that enable students to link existing concepts, experiences, and words to one another. Graphic organizers have been found to be among the most effective instructional strategies for comprehension (Bos, Anders, Filip, and Jaffe 1985; Beck, Omanson, and McKeown 1982), motivation (Hagen 1980), vocabulary development (Toms-Bronowski 1983), and for learning disabled and culturally diverse populations (Enright and McCloskey 1988; Margosein, Pascarella, and Pflaum cited in Flood, Jensen, Lapp and Squire, 1991). The evidence from research is clear—graphic organizers work! However, the research has not clarified why they work so well. In order to find out, we asked students who used graphic organizers on a regular basis in their classrooms. They told us: Graphic organizers work because they are consistent with how humans learn!

In recent years, the notion of the learner as a “blank slate” to be filled by the teacher has been replaced by a constructivist perspective that maintains learning is a dynamic process wherein the learner draws on prior knowledge to make meaning. Cognitive psychologists use the term schema to describe how humans organize and store information. As illustrated in Figure 1, schemata (the plural of schema) “represent elaborate networks of concepts, skills, and procedures that we use to make sense of new stimuli, events, and situations” (Vacca, Vacca, and Gove 1991, 8). Piaget (1979) said children “shape the world and are shaped by it” through assimilating new information into these existing structures or by accommodating the structures to fit new information that presents contrary evidence. Most contemporary learning theorists accept a constructivist theory of learning that proposes that people actively make meaning by making connections within cognitive structures.

Brian, an eighth grader, described how graphic organizers help learners to build and visualize such networks when he said, “I see how it all fits together!” Graphic organizers enable students to look holistically at the learning by making connections among the parts. Students form new networks or modify existing networks as they see relationships among concepts rather than isolated facts.

Throughout history, great scholars in education have stressed the importance of active engagement in learning. Piaget (1979) stressed that “knowledge comes from action” (p. 17). Dewey (1938) frequently spoke of the necessity for active rather than passive learning and about the crucial role “living experience” plays in constructing learning. He stressed the teacher’s responsibility in providing a setting conducive to active learning.

Sean, a tenth grader expressed how this principle applies to graphic organizers when he said, “It isn’t just boring, like always listening to the teacher lecture.” When students use graphic organizers, they become actively involved with text as they “trigger[ing] the brain to retrieve what is known about the topic and to use this information in reading” (Heimlich & Pittleman, 1986, p. 3).

Hagen (1980) found that graphic organizers encouraged divergent thinking. As students manipulate information to fit the organizer, they often see altemative ways to make connections. When graphic organizers are used on a regular basis, students begin designing their own frameworks. This requires application rather than memorization. Although Marty, a fourth grader, did not like graphic organizers, he admitted that they required him to think at a higher level: “I don’t really like it. I like the workbook better. I have to think about it [with graphic organizers]. I can’t just look up the answer.”

Cherrie, in third grade terms, told us that graphic organizers enhance comprehension: “This helps me to get it.” Heimlich and Pittleman (1986) said the strategy facilitates text comprehension because it draws upon and capitalizes on the categorical nature of memory. Students who use graphic organizers regularly become proficient with summarizing, an important and often difficult aspect of comprehension. Because the space on the organizer is limited, students leam to pick out what is important. As Angie, a sixth grader said, “I get good at finding the important stuff. I know that I don’t have to leam everything, just the important stuff.”

Finally, Brent, a second grader, told us that graphic organizers serve as a mnemonic device: “I can remember when I do these.” Other children described a visualization process where they closed their eyes and made a mental picture of what was on the graphic organizer they had completed.

Students and researchers have offered compelling reasons to use graphic organizers in the classroom. It is not surprising that graphic organizers can be found on the Ohio Fourth Grade Proficiency Test. The Ohio Department of Education recognizes the power of this instructional device, and by placing it on the test is encouraging teachers to make it a regular part of their instruction. Social Studies is a subject that lends itself well to the use of graphic organizers. In the remainder of this article, we will share several models for graphic organizers and give examples using objectives taken from the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum.

Many formats for graphic organizers have been published (Davis & McPherson, 1989; Fawcett, 1991; Flood & Lapp, 1988; Heimlich & Pittleman, 1986; Vacca & Vacca, 1986). Teachers and students can also create their own. However, before a format can be selected, the organization of concepts in the text or lecture must be identified. Vacca and Vacca (1986) identified the five most common organizational pattems of school texts as: (a) problem/solution, (b) cause/effect, (c) time order, (d) compare/contrast, and (e) enumeration. Recognition of text pattem has been found to be a key strategy for comprehension and retention (Smith, 1964). However, this can be a difficult skill for students because authors do not always write in a clearly identifiable paKem. Often several pattems can be found within a single text. Teachers are encouraged to model how to analyze the overall organization of a selection by looking for explicit signal words that indicate a pattern that ties the ideas together (Vacca & Vacca, 1986). Graphic organizers can then be used to illustrate the major relationships in the top-level structure and to sort out the important from the less important ideas.

The problem/solution text structure is a common pattern that is easily identified. Students summarize the text as they fill in the graphic organizer. Texts with more than one problem can branch into additional frames. Figure 2 shows an organizer for the following objective from the Decision Making and Resources strand for grade 3 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The learner will itemize the costs and benefits of alternative consumer choices and determine the opportunity cost.

Another graphic organizer to illustrate problem/solution structure is shown in Figure 3. The content for this organizer was taken from the following objective from the American Heritage strand for grade 8 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The learner will identify significant historical developments and explain their importance.

Students are often asked to find likenesses (compare) and differences (contrast) among facts, people, events, or concepts. The compare / contrast graphic organizer can help students to organize their points. Figure 4 shows an organizer illustrating the following objective from the Democratic Processes strand for grade 6 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The learner will distinguish among the characteristics and cite examples of monarchal, democratic, and dictatorial types of govemments.

Cause/effect text shows how events, facts, or concepts happened to come into being because of other facts, events, or concepts. The framework of Figure 5 can be used for specifying causes and effects of any given event. The following objective from the American Heritage strand for grade 9 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum illustrates this framework: The leamer will work forward from some initiating event to its outcome recognizing cause and effect factors but also considering the accidental or irrational as a causal factor in history.

When one event (cause) results in multiple effects, an organizer such as the one in Figure 5 can be used. The content for this organizer is reflected in the following objective from the People in Societies strand for grade 8 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The leamer will examine the reasons why various groups left their homelands to come to North America.

When the focus of the text is the sequence of events with reference to time, graphic organizers can aid students in ordering events. One type of time order organizer that many social studies teachers use effectively is a timeline. Figure 7 shows another way of organizing events when the rise of events, climax, and resolution are important. Figure 7 reflects the following objective from the American Heritage strand for grade 7 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The learner will identify significant historical developments.

Enumeration structure, the listing of information about a topic, event, object, or person, is probably the most commonly encountered textbook pattern. Vocabularymapping is an effective method of organizing information so that students see relationships among these facts. When teachers ask students to complete an organizer such as Figure 8, they avoid the mindless search and copy of dictionary assignments. Such organizers can also serve as a prewriting tool for organizing information for term papers or reports. The information for Figure 8 is taken from the following objective from the Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities strand for grade 1 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The leamer will observe and describe changes to the local community brought about by natural and human activity.

A semantic web is another type of organizer that allows students to deal with enumeration structure. Students list and categorize information on given topics. Figure 9 shows a semantic web based on the following objective from the World Interaction strand for grade 5 of the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum: The leamer will, from a varsity of sources, give examples of human movement and compare reasons, distances, frequency, and mode of transportation.

Conclusion

Graphic organizers are simple and effective, but with so many from which to choose, the strategy could become overwhelming for you and your students. We suggest that you start with one or two basic organizers and use them repeatedly until students understand how to complete them and how the strategy helps them to learn. They can be completed as a whole group, in small groups, or by individuals. You can put them on atransparency, chart paper, chalkboard, or a worksheet. The key to success, however, is the discussion that takes place when students share their reasons for the information they put in the organizers. Stahl and Vancil (1986) compared groups of students who did not discuss their organizers with groups who had discussed and found that the non-discussion students did not show improvement in comprehension, vocabulary, or memory. They concluded that discussion is a critical element in the use of graphic organizers.

The overall goal of using graphic organizers in the classroom is that students will begin organizing information into their own mental frameworks. Such cognitive structures enhance the constructive process of learning, and students will “see how it all fits together!”