Graphic organizers

Independent Study Methods

Effective strategies for learning skills

Este compendio recoge textualmente documentos e información de varias fuentes debidamente

citadas, como referencias elaboradas por el autor para conectar los diferentes temas.

Se lo utilizará únicamente con fines educativos.

Contenido
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS......................................................................................................................... 6
Subtema 1: Cause and effect ............................................................................................................... 8
Subtema 2: Compare and contrast...................................................................................................... 9
Subtema 3: Description/Conceptualization ....................................................................................... 11
Subtema 4: Sequence ......................................................................................................................... 14
 COMPETENCIAS Y RESULTADOS DE APRENDIZAJE

Competencias Específicas

Se espera que a través de los temas estudiados en la presente Unidad; los

estudiantes logren las siguientes competencias:

✓ Linguistic competence

✓ Pragmatic

✓ Sociolinguistic

Resultados de Aprendizaje

Se espera que a través de los temas estudiados en la presente Unidad; se logre

alcanzar el siguiente Resultado de Aprendizaje:

Develop the study skills necessary to increase their chances of success in their studies

Con este propósito se ha organizado la Unidad con los siguientes temas vitales para su

comprensión:

✓ Tema 1: Study techniques

✓ Tema 2: Graphic organizers

 DESARROLLO DEL CONTENIDO DEL TEMA 2

TEMA 2

Graphic organizers

Objetivo

Guide students to categorize key concepts, surface the interconnection of ideas, and help
students construct knowledge.
 GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

Graphic organizers are active learning techniques by which concepts are represented in visual
schemes. Students must have access to a reasonable amount of information so that they can
organize and process knowledge. The level of mastery and depth that has been reached on a
topic that allows the elaboration of a graphic structure. “Graphic organizers provide teachers
with useful tools to help students on the road to higher achievement” (Drapeau, 2009).
McPherson (2014) states that “graphic organizers are basically diagrams that show the
relationships between pieces of information” (p. 188).

Graphic organizer helps students to develop the following skills:

• Critical and creative thinking
• Comprehension
• Memory
• Interaction with the topic
• Packaging of main ideas
• Comprehension of vocabulary
• Construction of knowledge
• Elaboration of the summary
• Classification
• Graph
• Categorization

Graphic organizers are outlined in how to work in the classroom according to the constructivist
model of learning. As we mentioned before, a graphic organizer is a visual presentation of
knowledge, it means that presents information rescuing important aspects of a concept or
subject within a framework using labels. They are called in different ways such as: semantic
maps, visual organizers, flow charts, spine-shaped charts, the web of stories or concept maps,
etc.

These wonderful strategies keep learners engaged in their learning because they include both:
words and visual images are also effective for different learners, even with gifted and learning-
disabled students. In this way we can make the following question: Why should teachers use
graphic organizers in the teaching and learning process?

1. They help to focus on what is important because they highlight key concepts and
vocabulary and the relationships between the system, thus providing tools for the
development of critical and creative thinking.
2. They help to integrate previous knowledge with a new one.
3. They motivate conceptual development.
4. Enrich reading, writing, and thinking.
5. They promote cooperative learning. According to Vygotsky, learning is first social; only
after working with others the student gains the ability to understand and apply learning
independently.
6. They are supported by selection and ranking criteria, helping learners to “learn to think”.
7. They help understanding, remembrance and learning.
8. The process of creating, discussing and evaluating a graphic organizer is more important
than the organizer itself.
9. They promote learning through active investigation.
10. They allow learners to participate in learning activities that take into account the zone
of proximal development, which is the area in which they can function effectively in the
learning process.
11. They serve as evaluation tools.

What types of graphic organizers are there?

There are a lot, however we are divided into four categories.
➢ Cause and effect
➢ Compare and contrast
➢ Description/Contextualization
➢ Sequence
 Subtema 1: Cause and effect

The Cause-Effect Diagram that is usually called the “Ishikawa” Diagram, because of the surname
of its creator, it is also known as the “Fishbone Diagram” because of its shape similar to the
skeleton of a fish.

Figure 1: Fishbone diagram (Canva, 2020)

It is made up of a box (head), a mainline (vertebral column), and 4 or more lines that point to
the mainline at an angle of approximately 70º (main spines). The last ones, in turn, have two
or three inclined lines (spines), and so on (minor spines), as necessary according to the
complexity of the information to be treated.

The use of this Graphic Organizer in the classroom is appropriate when the learning objective
seeks to get students to think both about the real or potential causes of an event or problem,
as well as the causal relationships between two or more phenomena. Through the elaboration
of Cause-Effect Diagrams, it is possible to generate class dynamics that favour analysis, group
discussion and the application of knowledge to different situations or problems, so that each
work team can expand their understanding of the problem, visualize reasons, reasons or main
and secondary factors of this, identify possible solutions, make decisions and organize action
plans.
Also, in this category you can use a loop network diagram.

Figure 2: Educational Causal Loop Diagram. Retrieved from https://online.visual-paradigm.com/

Subtema 2: Compare and contrast

The graphic organizers used in this category are: The Compare Map, the data grid, the
overlapping circles map and the Venn Diagram.
The compare map is used to help students to understand two concepts according to a set of
criteria (Curriculum Development Institute. Personal, Social and Humanities Education Section,
2001). Pupils can use it to record an argument between two concepts or subjects and as an
organizing tool for contrast or comparison. They need to follow the next steps

Figure 3. Steps to make a compare map.

 Figure 4. Overlapping circles map

Another one is the Venn diagram; this is a type of Graphic Organizer that allows you to
understand the relationships between sets. A typical Venn Diagram uses overlapping circles to
represent groups of items or ideas that do or do not share common properties. Its creator was
the English mathematician, logician and philosopher John Venn who wanted to graphically
represent the mathematical or logical relationship between different groups of things (sets),
representing each set by means of an oval, circle or rectangle. By superimposing two or more
of the previous geometric figures, the area in which they converge indicates the existence of a
subset that has characteristics that are common to them; in the remaining area, typical of each
figure, the elements that belong only to this figure are located.

Venn diagrams have several uses in education. Examples of the above are: in the branch of
mathematics known as set theory; its use as a synthesis tool, to help students to compare and
contrast two or three sets, as already said, the exclusive characteristics are included within each
component and, in the intersections, the common ones.
 Figure 5. Venn diagrams examples

The Double Cell diagram and comparison matrix also belong to this group.

Subtema 3: Description/Conceptualization

In this group, we will start with Concept maps. It is a technique created by Joseph Novak in
1988, it is an instrument, a medium. It is a strategy that helps to learn and organize the learning
object materials. It is a method that helps to grasp the meaning of the materials to be learned.
It is a schematic resource to represent a set of conceptual meanings included in a structure of
propositions, which in turn are made up of: Concepts (Key notions) and Link words.

It is used to summarize and outline, as well as to support reading, organization of writing, critical
analysis, learning meaningfully, establishing relationships with what has already been learned,
negotiating and sharing meanings collectively. It has also been used in discussion, consensus
and group work.

McPherson (2014) gives us a step-by-step process for building a concept map:

1. Articulate your focal question

2. List the key concepts
3. Describe the attributes of these concepts
4. Articulate the relationships between the concepts
5. Order the concepts in a rough hierarchy from most general to most specific, in this
context
6. Draw your first map
7. Evaluate it

Figure 6. Concept map example

 Figure 7. Concept map example / Antonio Vivaldi biography (McPherson, 2014)

Mind map
They are constituted as diagrams that enhance creative thinking that was spread by Tony Buzan.
In addition to the words, hierarchy, sequence and numbers, which are presented by logical
schemes such as networks, and concept maps; they need the inclusion of drawings, colour,
rhythm. Mind maps are more colorful and pictorial.
The neuron (nerve cell) with its dendrites or a tree with its various branches are presented as
basic models of this organizer.

McPherson (2014) indicates that a mind map has four essential features:

➢ the subject is crystallized in a central image

➢ main themes radiate from it as branches
➢ the branches comprise a key image or key word
➢ the branches form a connected nodal structure
A mind map is good to generate ideas, help to sort out the main ideas, get your head on the
right space preparatory listening to a lecture or reading a text and do a quick review. It is an
analytical tool, the dynamic is assumed in our mind (McPherson, 2014).
The spider map is included in this group.

Figure 8. Mind mapping example - Cinderella

Subtema 4: Sequence

The best graphic organizer using in sequence is the timeline.

It is used to order a story in a certain number of events or episodes that happened
chronologically. Timelines can be linear or comparative.
 Figure 9. A suggest timeline format.

Figure 10. Timeline example – History of popular Social Media Platforms from Venngage.com
 PREGUNTAS DE COMPRENSIÓN DE LA UNIDAD

What is a graphic organizer?

It is an active learning technique by which concepts are represented in visual schemes.

What is the different from concept maps and mind maps?

In a mind map the main themes are linked only to this single central image not to each other
and in a concept map, there are no restrictions on the associations between concepts.

What is the Fishbone Diagram?

It is a graphic organizer that belongs to Cause and effect group.

Who created the concept map technique?

It was Joseph Novak in 1988.
 MATERIAL COMPLEMENTARIO

Los siguientes recursos complementarios son sugerencias para que se pueda ampliar la
información sobre el tema trabajado, como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje autónomo:

Videos de apoyo:
Timeline video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o50HA6QTxj0
Mind mapping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCyjFipytRE
How to create a concept map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZJj6DwCqSU

Bibliografía de apoyo:

Dvorak, T. (2017). Studying vs learning the psychology of student success. BookBaby.

Links de apoyo:

40+ Timeline Template Examples and Design Tips: https://venngage.com/blog/timeline-template/#3

REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRAFICAS

Canva. (2020). Fishbone Graphic Organizer. Retrieved from https://www.canva.com/design

Curriculum Development Institute. Personal, Social and Humanities Education Section. (2001). The use
of Graphic Organizers to enhance thinking skills in the learning of economics. Hong Kong:
CADAL.

Drapeau, P. (2009). Differentiating with graphic organizers. Tools to foster Critical and Creative
thinking . New York: Corwin Publishing.

Fry, R. (2014). How to Study. New York: Open Road.

McPherson, F. D. (2014). Successful Learning Simplified: A Visual Guide. Wellington, New Zealand:
Wayz Press.

S K, S. N., & Tay, C. H. (2017). Styles of Learning VAK. International Journal For Innovative Research In
Multidisciplinary Field.