Graphic Organizers

Purpose and Practice

Dr. Kristen Shand

 Why Graphic Organizers?
● Graphic organizers help the reader arrange information
in text in an organized and meaningful way.
■ Graphic organizers enable you to scaffold and buttress new
information

■ Graphic organizers allow you to focus in on key ideas

■ Graphic organizers facilitate reading by providing structure

and purpose to the activity

■ Particular graphic organizers serve particular purposes..

■ The following slides will explain the purpose of each graphic
organizer and will discuss how to use it
■ Many software and online technology tools are available to create
personalized graphic organizers
 Anticipation/Reaction Guide
● Anticipation/Reaction guides are used to activate
students’ background knowledge of a subject
before reading, and highlight important topics that
students should investigate during reading.

● The teacher prepares a list of statements from

the required reading. Some should be true and
some should be false. If applicable, some of the
statements should address possible student
misconceptions of the subject.

● Before reading, students read each statement

and check off if they agree or disagree. Then
students read the required text. After reading,
students go back and re-evaluate each statement
and determine if their responses remain the same
or have changed. Discuss as a class.
 Concept Map
● Concept maps are used to organize information
about a particular topic either during or after learning
has occurred.

● The concept map (also called a web or cluster) is

hierarchical in nature. The main topic or idea is
placed in the center or at the top and sub-topics or
categories branch out from there. Finally, supporting
details are added to the sub-topics.

● The map visually displays how the myriad ideas are

all related to the main topic.

● Concept maps are particularly useful as pre-wiring

activities as they help students organize their ideas
and graphically show how the topics, sub-topics and
details are all related, and support and explain the
main idea.
 Decision Making Graph
● Decision making graphs are used to guide
students through the decision making process
and provide structured steps to help them craft
a meaningful and informed decision.

● While reading, students identify potential

problems and goals outlined in the text. If
alternatives for dealing with these problems are
offered, the students identify these as well. If
not, students may propose alternatives on their
own and then explore possible pros and cons to
deal with the problems. After analyzing the pros
and cons of the alternatives, students state their
decision and provide reasons why they came to
their conclusion.
 Double Entry Journal
● Double-entry journals encourage students to think
about, react to, and reflect on new (and not-so-new)
ideas presented in the reading.

● Students have the opportunity to open an active

dialogue with the text. As students read they
question the ideas presented, connect the new
information to their prior knowledge and reflect on
their own views and attitudes regarding the
information and how it was delivered in the text.

● To complete the journal, students extract 5-6 ideas

or direct quotes from the text, and write these in the
Ideas from Text column. Then, students respond to
these ideas with comments, questions and
reflections in the Reaction/Connection column.
 KWL Chart
● KWL charts allow students to assess their own
knowledge about a particular topic, formulate questions
about the topic based on their interests, and look for
answers to their questions as they read.

● To begin, the teacher provides a short introduction to

the new topic and asks the students to brainstorm what
they know about the topic. The students write what they
already know about the topic in the What I Know
column. Brainstorming activates the students’ existing
schema they have about the topic.

● Next, the teacher asks the students to formulate

meaningful questions about the topic. Students write
their questions in the What I Want to Know column.
These questions provide students with a purpose and
direction for reading.

● Finally, the students read and discuss the material and

 Main Idea
● Main Idea charts are used to help students
identify and organize main ideas and supporting
details in text. The activity encourages students
to look for “Big Ideas” in the text that on which
many of the concepts focus.

● Main idea charts are hierarchical in nature.

Students look for a central idea in the text that
is fairly broad and includes several details that
explain, support or defend the idea.

● Supporting details should be directly related to

the main idea and should include factual
descriptions or explanatins, or points that argue
in defense of the main idea.
 Compare/Contrast Matrix
● Compare and contrast
matrices are used to compare
two or more subjects on
several characteristics.
Compare and contrast charts
help students to make
connections between multiple
variables discussed in the
text.

● As students read, they

identify two or more topics
that seem to share some
commonalities yet have some
marked differences. Students
place two or more topics at
the top of the columns and
place the characteristics they
wish to compare at the head
 Sorting Chart
● Sorting charts are used to help students
group topics by characteristics. This activity
enables students to classify items in different
ways and make connections between items
that are not always readily apparent.

● As students read through the text, they

populate a list of important ideas and
concepts.

● Then, the students identify characteristics

that can be used to differentiate the items.
Students place the name of the
characteristics at the top of each box, and
place the items into the appropriate boxes. A
brief reason why each item was placed
where it was is recommended.
 Venn Diagram

● Venn diagrams are used to help students identify

characteristics about two or more topics that are
similar and different. This activity helps students
make active connections between topics and
encourages them to look for similarities and
differences between the topics as they read.

● Students place the name of first topics at the top of

the first circle and the name of the second topic at
the top of the second circle. Students then read
through the text and identify similarities and
differences between the topics. Where the circles
overlap, students write characteristics of the both
topics that are similar. Where the circles do not
overlap, students write characteristics of the topics
that are different from each other.
 Goal Mountain
● The goal mountain is used to
help students identify goals and
make decisions on what they
need to achieve the goal and
what steps must be taken in the
process.

● This activity can be used for

personal goal making, or can be
used when reading text to
identify goals made by the
characters or historical figures in
the text.

● Students place the goal at the

top of the mountain. Then they
decide what is required to
achieve the goal and they write it
in under the goal. Finally they
 Concept Wheel
● Concept wheels are used to help students
evaluate the people, setting and actions involved
in an important event, and make connections
between these elements identifying how each
element influences the outcome of the event.

● After reading the text, students identify each of

the following elements: who/what, did what,
when, where, why and how. In the middle of the
wheel, students comment on how these
elements influence the outcome of the event.
Would the outcome have been different if any of
these elements are changed? How do you
know?
 Cycle Organizer

● Cycle organizers are used to show the natural

(and not-so-natural) cycle of events. Oftentimes
the cycle organizer is used when reading science
texts but can be used in the realm of social
science as well.

● Cycle organizers help students understand

processes by encouraging students to identify
and evaluate how one event leads into the next.
Students are free to question the steps in the
process and are encouraged to explain why each
event causes or leads into the next.
 Flow Chart
● Flow charts are used to show the progression of
a phenomenon or to show a cause and effect
chain. Flow charts provide a visual
representation of how steps in a process fit
together. The act of mapping a process out in a
flow chart helps students clarify the process and
think about ways the process can be improved.

● While reading text, students define and analyze

several events that make us a process. Students
place the events is an appropriate order showing
the connections between the events. Students
then define how each event affects or leads into
the next event.
 Photo Reflection

● Photo reflections are used to visually

group and display ideas that are related.
This activity helps students define
characteristics of a group that may not
always be apparent.

● While reading, students identify and

define aspects of a topic that are related.
Then, students locate visuals (pictures,
charts, graphs) that all display the defined
characteristic.