Chapter 6: Graphic Organizers

As students move into upper elementary school and the secondary grades, they are required to develop a deep understanding of various abstract concepts. Visual-spatial representations such as graphic organizers assist students in making such abstract concepts more concrete (Ausubel, 1963; Mayer, 1979). Additionally, visual representations often support memory by helping students organize and recall salient information while reading, writing, and discussing during class (Taylor & Villanueva, 2014). Graphic organizers support student success in various classrooms across multiple grades. The key purpose of a graphic organizer is to support student learning with the use of “lines, arrows, and spatial arrangements that depict text content, key conceptual relationships, and text structure” (Darch & Eaves, 1986, pp. 309-310). Learning occurs when the cognitive structure expands to incorporate new information, connecting previously learned material to new content (Ausubel, 1963). Graphic organizers support this process by making the connections visible in a graphic display (Ausubel, 1963).