Graphic Organizers and Foldables®

Graphic and semantic organizers illustrate concepts and inter-relationships among concepts, using diagrams or other pictorial devices. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters. An example of a commonly used graphic organizer is a Venn diagram, which displays the overlap between two concepts. Venn diagrams are often used in K-12 U.S. education to help students understand similarities and differences between two different concepts or groups. When they become three-dimensional, graphic organizers are commonly referred to as Foldables, a term coined and trademarked by McGraw-Hill School Education Group in reference to Dinah Zike’s interactive graphic organizers.

What are Graphic Organizers? Graphic organizers combine written words (often concepts) with symbols and arrows to represent relationships between the concepts. There are multiple formats for organizing information in graphic organizers. Most graphic organizers are two-dimensional, simply printed on paper.
	What are Foldables®? Foldables are three-dimensional graphic organizers that allow learners to interact with the concepts and other content by moving the individual parts or tabs of the Foldable.