• Modules

  • OPTIONAL: To search for specific strategy tools please click on the + icon

  • Reset

LC Module: Graphic Organizers

"A graphic allows readers to see relationships, understand organization, connect ideas, and make abstract ideas concrete.” (Perfect Learning Corporation, 2014)
"Using graphic organizers to represent similarities and differences has been shown to improve students’ understanding of content as well as their ability to recognize and generate similarities and differences.” (Ohio Dept of Ed, 2014)
“According to Joseph Novak and Alberto Cañas, the human brain remembers information by organizing it into hierarchical structures; since concept mapping requires the intentional construction of this “scaffold,” it helps individuals to learn better, remember more, and apply what they have learned in novel situations.” (Temple.edu, n.d.)
“(Graphic) Organizers portray knowledge in a meaningful way which helps bring clarity to ideas as connections are made. Having a way to organize ideas, facts, and concepts graphically facilitates effective student learning. Graphic organizers match the mind.” (Mentoring Minds, 2014)
"Mind mapping allows students to imagine and explore associations between concepts represented. Concept mapping allows students to understand the relationships between concepts.” (Davies, 2010)
“Every concept map responds to a focus question, and a good focus question can lead to a much richer concept map. Concept mapping is so powerful for the facilitation of meaningful learning is that it serves as a kind of template or scaffold to help to organize knowledge and to structure it.” (Novak & Canas, 2008)
As researcher David P. Ausubel has shown, the mind arranges and stores information in an orderly fashion. New information about a concept is filed into an existing framework of categories called a schema. A schema already contains preexisting knowledge about that concept. Graphic organizers arrange information in a visual pattern that complements this framework, making information easier to understand and learn.” (Mentoring Minds, 2014)

Achievement Points - The gears located on each module provide some research specifics why the strategy used in each module raises student achievement. You can click on the gear to read and click on the gear again to eliminate the research box retrieved. For more citation reference information, please refer to the Learning Connect Research Resource Guide in the left hand column of this website.