Caitlin Campbell #6

6/28/17 CI5326

Graphic Organizers are a learning strategy

used as an educational tool to visually express
knowledge, concepts, thoughts, and ideas.
Graphic Organizers are used widely in the
classroom amongst all students.

Graphic Organizers widely

benefit students with...

Learning Disabilities
GOs & Students with Learning Disabilities
Students with a learning disability who were taught reading using
graphic organizers scored much higher on reading comprehension Mild Intellectual
Disabilities
tests than those same students who were taught using standard
methods of instruction. Students with LDs need explicit instruction to
understand how concepts are related, to recognize the differences
Autism
between main and subordinate ideas, and to put all the pieces
together to make a clear picture of the content being learned.
Emotional & Behavioral
Disorders
There are many different forms of graphic organizers.
The main five are displayed below.

ADHD
Cognitive Mapping

Visual Display Semantic Mapping

Syntactic/Semantic Semantic Feature

Feature Analysis Analysis
 Caitlin Campbell #6
6/28/17 CI5326

Graphic Organizers

Allow students to translate Facilitate understanding

Improve reading Promote more meaningful
concepts into a visual and retention of new
comprehension levels learning
blueprint learning

Visual and spatial displays Students are better able to

Focus student's attention
that make relationships learn, extract and tailor Making abstract concepts
to the most important
between related facts and information into their more concrete
parts of reading passages
concepts more apparent exisiting schema

Especially affective if given Ignites confidence when Connecting new

Visuals reduce cognitive
to the students prior to learning within students information with prior
demands among students
reading and improves self-efficacy knowledge

Visual tools can alleviate

Raises students' text
the anxiety often
structure awareness
experienced by students

References:
Ciullo, S., & Billingsley, G. (2013). Strategies for improving understanding of an engagement with expository text for
students with emotional and behavior disorders. Beyond Behavior. 23(1), 3-11.
Dexter, D., & Hughes, C.A. (2011). Graphic organizers and students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. Learning
Disability Quarterly. 34(1), 51-72.
Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2007). Graphic organizers in reading instruction: Reading findings and issues. Reading in a Foreign
Language. 19(1), 34-55.
Kim, A., Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., & Wei, S. (2004). Graphic organizers and their effects on the reading comprehension of
students with LD: A synthesis of research. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 37(2), 105-118.
Knight, V.F., Spooner, F., Browder, D. M., Smith, B.R., & Wood, C.L. (2013). Using systematic instruction and graphic
organizers to teach science concepts to students with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability. Focus
on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. 28(2), 115-126.
Ozmen, R. (2011). Comparison of two different presentation of graphic organizers in recalling information in expository
texts with intellectually disabled. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice. 11(2), 785-793.
Singleton, S. M. (2015). Graphic organizers for secondary students with learning disabilities. Teaching Exceptional
Children. 48(2), 110-117.
Stenson, B. A. (2006). Programs and methods to improve reading comprehension levels of reading resource special needs
students at austin road middle school. International Journal of Special Education. 21(2), 37-46.