What is a Graphic Organizer and how are they Helpful?
A graphic organizer is a visual display that is used to depict the relationships betweens facts, terms and/or ideas within a learning task. They form a powerful visual picture of the information and this allows the mind to discover patterns and relationships it otherwise may have missed. It uses visual symbols to convey meaning. Its purpose is to facilitate learning by presenting the most complete picture of all the available facts and the potential relationships that could develop among them. Graphic organizers can be constructed with a number of different structures or designs. They are called by different names such as knowledge maps, concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers or concept diagrams. One of these organizers can make a curriculum more supportive of students and teachers as it allows them to actually see rather than have to imagine the possibilities contained within.
