Teachers tend to present new knowledge to students linguistically. We talk, they take notes; we talk, they listen; we assign, they read. Students are pretty much on their own when it comes to figuring out how to represent the new knowledge in ways meaningful to them. Research clearly indicates that brain activity is enhanced when we use and teach our students to represent information in a visual way. So how do we do that? I do it by using graphic organizers. Let me explain the rationale behind them, offer some tried-and-true examples, and identify some great sources on developing and using graphic organizers.