A guide to creating your own knowledge organisers for your class

What is their role in the absorption and retention of subject specific knowledge and how could creating them for your class benefit your learners?

In this blog, we will be looking at why knowledge organisers are such an effective resource for teachers and learners, why it is always a good idea to think about making your own for your class, and how your learners can benefit from helping to create them.

We will also be covering the essentials that every good knowledge organiser should include and, to help get you started, we will be providing you with links to some great examples of universal knowledge organisers to inspire you when creating your own resources for your subject.

The idea of knowledge organisers was first conceived by teacher Joe Kirby in 2015, who asserts that the knowledge organiser is “the most powerful tool in the arsenal of the curriculum designer.” Kirby’s aim was to bring together all the most powerful and vital information on a topic and present it to learners in a concise, visually engaging document, ideally on a single page. What this document looks like and the information contained within it naturally depends on the subject and level being taught.

Broadly speaking, as the term suggests, knowledge organisers offer a systematic way for teachers to clarify, condense and categorise key information about a subject and over time, build up a robust set of resources. If your knowledge organisers are created effectively and used properly, they can greatly benefit learners, fellow educators, head teachers and schools as a whole.

Knowledge organisers provide learners with the ‘big picture’ for a subject or topic, which can help them to process and remember more detailed information about that topic further down the line, and hopefully retain the knowledge for years to come. This goes beyond getting all the answers right in exams - building a bank of knowledge that is retained in a learner’s long-term memory promotes critical thinking and conditions a learner’s mind to continue absorbing, processing and using subject specific knowledge appropriately throughout their lives. This is one of the key roles played by a good knowledge organiser and why they are a great addition to your lessons, as well as a foundation for independent learning.

If they are designed effectively, knowledge organisers break down complex information into digestible chunks using an accessible format that learners can engage with. Knowledge organisers complement and consolidate the in-depth teaching done in the classroom, provide a brilliant revision aid for learners and crucially, promote the long-term retention of knowledge. They can also offer you, as a teacher, a clear overview of the progress being made by individual learners in your class, as well as helping you to identify any overall trends or general gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed.

In addition to offering a clear and concise summary of a topic that learners are studying and helping the information to become ingrained in their minds, knowledge organisers can also help students to grasp key concepts of a topic they may be struggling with. This can facilitate further learning and help them develop a deeper understanding of the subject.

Visit another of our blogs for more information on what makes knowledge organisers such a great tool to use.

Whether you are teaching photosynthesis, quadratic equations or the fall of the Roman Empire, there will be lots of subject-specific information that your curriculum and individual lesson plans will have to include. Whilst the fundamentals of what you are required to teach may be largely fixed, who you are teaching it to, the level you are teaching it at and the environment you are teaching it in, will inevitably affect your choice of delivery style, lesson structure and how you present the information to your class in order for your learners to get the most out of the session.

This same approach should be applied to the creation of knowledge organisers. Whilst using an existing template as a guide is a great starting point when you are new to making knowledge organisers, it is important to remember that no two schools and no two classes are exactly the same, and because of this, it will be very difficult to find a readymade knowledge organiser that is the perfect fit for your class. You know your class best: what your learners respond to the most, the things they struggle with and the most effective way of presenting information for them. You can use all this information to your advantage when you have a go at creating your own knowledge organisers. Whether you use a template as a basis to build on or create your own from scratch, tailoring the layout and content of your knowledge organiser to suit the topic you are teaching, and the needs and abilities of your class, is key to its success.

To further promote learner engagement with your resources, both you and your class will gain even more from using your knowledge organisers if you get your learners involved in helping to create them.

Learners are more likely to engage with resources that they have played a part in creating, and the process of locating, recording and presenting the relevant information themselves will increase the chances of them digesting and retaining this knowledge. By giving learners the responsibility of finding, formatting and categorising the key facts rather than simply presenting them with them, you will be encouraging them to interact more deeply with the subject matter and take ownership of their own learning.

It is widely recognised that the act of writing down information yourself makes you more likely to remember it. Asking learners to write information in their own words or getting them to accurately summarise it in the form of a list, bullet points or a flow chart for example, gives a clear indicator as to whether they genuinely understand the content they are engaging with. If you take this a step further by also encouraging them to source or create pictures, diagrams, charts or other effective graphics to support the written information on the knowledge organiser, learners can form even more meaningful connections with the topic content and just as importantly, have fun whilst they are learning.

Presenting information in multiple formats and creating a visually appealing layout will optimise learner retention of the information on the page. You can also use this as a basis for encouraging self-checking, asking learners to quiz each other on the content, facilitating class discussions, and getting learners to explain to their peers the key facts on the knowledge organiser in their own words. Making the creation of knowledge organisers an interactive and inclusive experience can increase their positive impact in the classroom, their value as revision aids and their effectiveness in the long-term retention of subject-specific knowledge.

So, now that we have established why making knowledge organisers can be extremely beneficial for you and your learners, how do you go about creating one?

Fundamentally, a good knowledge organiser needs to include all the key information about the topic you are teaching, which must be presented in a concise, logical and engaging way to maximise learner retention. Typically, a well-crafted knowledge organiser should include a combination of the following features, depending on the subject:

• Key dates, people, quotations, themes, actions or timelines laid out in a logical, easy to follow sequence
• A glossary of key vocabulary or terminology, accompanied by definitions and examples
• Visual representations including photos, diagrams, charts, tables or maps
• Different colours, shapes or fonts to capture and emphasise key points

Overall, there is no right or wrong way for a knowledge organiser to look - providing it does the job, contains everything it needs to and is presented in an engaging way that strikes a chord with your learners.

Knowledge organisers will naturally vary in form and content from class to class and subject to subject. A knowledge organiser for an English literature class, for example, may include key information about characters, themes, quotations and vocabulary for a specific novel summarised in a table or flow chart, with the use of colour, different fonts, bold and italics to make the key information stand out and easier to digest. By contrast, a knowledge organiser for a chemistry class may be much more pictorial in nature, with heavier use of diagrams and charts.

The specific detail will obviously depend on the subject and the level you are teaching. The layout and any visual representations you decide to include will partly be determined by the topic itself, and partly based on you making a judgement call about the most engaging way to present it to your learners - you can of course invite their input on this if you have asked them to participate in making the knowledge organiser.

Keyword glossaries are an excellent column to add to any subject-specific knowledge organiser. Whether it is you sharing a pre-filled knowledge organiser or providing templates for your learners to fill in themselves, providing a keyword glossary provides learners with a revision tool, ensuring they know all of the vocabulary they need to understand a topic fully. This section can be pre-filled with necessary Tier 3 vocabulary - we have a list for each subject available here - or it can be left blank, allowing learners to fill it in with words they individually do not understand. Teachers can then check over learners’ knowledge organisers and fill in gaps in learners’ vocabulary.

Frayer models allow learners to compare new vocabulary/concepts to their prior learning. Included in Frayer models are four segments for the definition of a new term, characteristics of the term, an example of the term in use and antonyms/opposites. This model is excellent for breaking down the Tier 3 language of different subjects, creating a bank of knowledge for each subject-specific word that can be referred back to when necessary.

Even if you are completing knowledge organisers for your class to use, it’s a great idea to leave a paragraph block blank to allow for learners to put the knowledge into their own words. For example, it may be a slot for a learner to write their own definition, or to use the word in the context of an exam question. This moves knowledge organisers beyond just a visual revision tool; they are something learners can interact with and contribute to over time, building on their knowledge and developing mastery.

When they are used as intended and constructed well, there is little doubt that knowledge organisers have a hugely positive impact on teaching and learning as a means of checking existing knowledge, facilitating knowledge retention and monitoring progress, in addition to being a valuable revision tool and a building block for further learning.

Making your own knowledge organisers for your lessons is particularly beneficial, as they can be tailored to fit the way you teach the topic and structured in the way that will be most engaging for your learners. Knowledge organisers can become even more effective when you get learners involved in creating them with you as a fun and interactive activity.

Here at Bedrock, we have lots of templates available to inspire you when creating knowledge organisers for your class to help you make learning enjoyable and optimise the long-term retention of subject-specific knowledge.