Descriptive Pattern Organizers for Math

Creating Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are perhaps the most common way to help students generate nonlinguistic representations. One of the most comprehensive treatments of the use of graphic organizers can be found in the book Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge by David Hyerle (1996). Actually, graphic organizers combine the linguistic mode in that they use words and phrases, and the nonlinguistic mode in that they use symbols and arrows to represent relationships. The following six graphic organizers have great utility in the classroom because they correspond to six common patterns into which most information can be organized: descriptive patterns, time-sequence patterns, process/cause-effect patterns, episode patterns, generalization/principle patterns, and concept patterns.
Descriptive Patterns. Descriptive patterns can be used to represent facts about specific persons, places, things, and events. The information organized into a descriptive pattern does not need to be in any particular order. Figure 6.2 shows how teachers and students can graphically represent a descriptive pattern.