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Graphic organizers actually have the power and potential to enhance
the learning ability of students in all age groups. Because the
use of visual learning tools is becoming widespread, the introduction
of graphic organizers from an early age has been pushed as a means
of facilitating familiarity with these extremely effective tools
as early as possible.
Graphic organizers aid in learning across all subjects by nature,
and the processes involved with them are actually applicable in
a myriad of different uses. However, the true effectiveness of
these graphic organizers actually lies in the ability of the teachers,
as it is their responsibility to show students how to efficiently
make use of them.
When used in effective ways, graphic organizers have a great
amount of potential for fostering learning in a variety of different
areas in education. The most prevalent educational areas that
are positively affected by the effectiveness of graphic organizers
are comprehension, reading and vocabulary knowledge. A number
of studies have been conducted that indicate that graphic organizers
have the ability to improve reading and vocabulary knowledge and
understanding exponentially.
This is because the child is not only being required to read
a bunch of words, but instead is being allowed to learn the importance
or lack of importance of these words in order to attain increased
clarity about them.
Through the use of graphic organizers, students are able to gain
a better understanding of the underlying concepts that can be
found within what is being read, allowing them to isolate text
that is not important to their learning. This will allow the student
to determine main ideas so that they can build entire stories
from their reading. Through this process, the reading and writing
skills for the student will be boosted, and writing applications
like essays will improve over time.
Graphic organizers can be used to allow students to structure
the most essential ideas while simultaneously removing any non-essential
ideas from the playing field. Both comprehension skills and vocabulary
knowledge have also been proven to increase at a significant rate
after using these powerful tools for visual learning.
At the most basic level, graphic organizers can allow young children
drill down concepts in order to develop better communication skills.
Through graphic organizers they will learn how to better organize
their ideas so that they make break them down for better clarity.
Teachers can make use of analogy as a way to let students compare
concepts.
Teachers should make a point to encourage their students to compare
concepts that they are already very familiar with, so that better
learning can be facilitated more easily. A great way to monitor
reading skills is to keep track of the reading progress for each
child using charting methods so that ineffective strategies may
be monitored for.
As children grow older, it would be wise to introduce them to
a myriad of different sequencing tools that will allow him or
her to separate stories into beginnings, middles and endings.
This will allow students to write in such a way that they address
the main questions to enhance reading and comprehension skills.
Addressing the 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', 'why' and 'how'
of a story will allow students to break the story down. Another
method of breaking a story down involves five components: the
introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action,
and then the resolution to the story.
Learning tools can be applied as the student continues on through
higher grades, as a means to help him or her better understand
mathematical and scientific concepts, as well as problem solving
and outlining skills as well. In grades four, five and six, students
should be encouraged to review antonyms and synonyms while simultaneously
brainstorming for their own creative ideas. At this point students
should be familiar with how graphic organizers are used in order
to construct stories with definite ideas, and beginning, middle
and ending sections as well. At this point, the student should
be able to construct five sentence paragraphs, and five paragraph
stories.
In middle school aged children, graphic organizers can be effectively
used as a means of constructing story pyramids. These story pyramids
will help to define main characters, main events and main settings
for stories. This stage is also used to strengthen the reading
and vocabulary skills for each student, and students should be
encouraged to practice journalistic writing by putting a specific
idea and purpose behind every story that they write. This process
will continue well into high school, using concept-mapping techniques
to deal with feeling words. Concept mapping is also used to compare
and contrast a variety of concepts as well.
Although graphic organizers have proven to be extremely beneficial
over all age groups, recently studies have begun to indicate that
these tools and techniques are more effective in the high school
setting than for elementary stages. Still, the process of using
graphic organizers for increased learning should begin when students
are young, and should continue to develop their learning skills
for as long as possible.
Examples that outline inefficiencies in graphic organizers generally
point to inadequacies in teacher instruction as the main cause
of failure. An effective teacher-led instruction model should
include instructions that are explicit and detailed, and that
can let students practice independently while still receiving
feedback when it is needed. The teacher should make a point to
establish a specific purpose that the graphic organizer is being
used for.
It is necessary to combine these three elements; instruction
from the teacher, independent practice by the students, and feedback
from the teacher are all linked together. What this means is that
if a failure exists at any one of these points, using the tools
will no longer be effective on any level or for any involved party.
In order to maximize the potential benefits of the use of graphic
organizers, instructors should articulate the relationships that
exist between concepts outlined in the organizer, should encourage
students to contribute their ideas, and should establish a connection
between currently learned material, and past learning.
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