This study was undertaken to examine two fundamental questions related
to the use of graphic organizer instruction with fifth-grade, normal-
achieving students: (a) Does graphic organizer instruction facilitate
comprehension, recall, and transfer of information contained in an exp
ository textbook? and (b) To what degree is explicit instruction neces
sary for independent generation and use of graphic organizers by stude
nts? In four experimental conditions, participants read social studies
information with or without the graphic organizer. The conditions wer
e further separated by the presence or absence of explicit instruction
. Participants in the control condition received traditional basal ins
truction, as prescribed by the teacher's manual of the district-adopte
d textbook. Participants in all groups performed comparably on acquisi
tion and retention measures. However, when required to read and recall
novel social studies content, participants receiving the graphic orga
nizer and explicit instruction performed better on the measure of tran
sfer than students who received traditional basal instruction did.