Why do Graphic Organizers support the construction of knowledge? Consider that they: support convergent thinking, helping to combine information into a meaningful whole help students identify and remember key facts or ideas assist students in  identifying the relative importance of each  fact or idea. support students who are highly visual in connecting ideas help help both the student and the teacher see conflicts in understanding or gaps in the information more readily provides a foundation for questioning, discovery and creativity.

Selecting a Graphic Organizer: To decide which graphic organizer best fits your needs, consider the following: information you wish to be displayed in the graphic organizer; including main idea and key points. the design format which best represents the relationship between the key ideas. the higher-order thinking skills you wish to energize uses connectors that aid in the construction of knowledge from the original information

Assisting your students in using Graphic Organizers  To  successfully help your students in using a graphic organizers   demonstrate to students how they can be used, showing them examples, and perhaps creating a sample together clarify by using a graphic organizer yourself, within the context of a lesson. group the students to work together on filling in their first graphic organizer assignment allow the students to create or select their own graphic organizer for an assignment. have students present the "how" and "why" of their personally selected or designed graphic organizer

Here are some selected links that discuss the pedagogy and use of various kinds of graphic organizers, along with some examples. National Center on Assessing the General Curriculum:Graphic Organizers - This page consists of five sections presenting a definition of graphic organizers, different types and their applications, a discussion of the research evidence, useful Web resources, and a list of referenced research articles. http://www.cast.org/ncac/index.cfm?i=3015 WriteDesign Online: Cerebral Flatulence: Graphic Organizers - Five main types of graphic organizers are described with examples and a good "teacher" explanation of their use and value. http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/cerebralflatulence.html The Graphic Organizer website - This is the index of sample types of Organizers, with each described as to use, critical questions to consider and suggestions. http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html Graphic Organizers - NCREL suggests you use graphic organizers "to help students activate their prior knowledge and use it to facilitate learning". (site intro) http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm Graphic Organizers as Thinking Technology - by Jamie McKenzie This "From Now On" article highlights the "whys" in using graphical organizers and presents a number of samples to support the use. http://www.fno.org/oct97/picture.html

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