Optimizing graphic organizers to improve students’ reading comprehension

Optimizing graphic organizers to improve students’ reading comprehension 1 PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale In this globalization era, English has become the important means of international communicat[.]

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In this globalization era, English has become the important means of international communication It plays recognizable roles in almost every society, whether large or small, across the globe Today, everyone needs to know English in order to get connected with world communities and to exploit their knowledge resources Indeed, the use of English has been increasing throughout the world In Vietnam, today English is taught in every level; Vietnamese students are required to study the language from primary school to university In fact, most of them spend more than six years learning English through formal education Despite such a long time of learning English in school, the results of their studying immensely vary

In teaching and learning English, there are four micro language skills, they are speaking, listening, reading and writing One of those components, reading is regarded as a decoding skill, that is interpreting codes into ideas Through reading, people can get the information entire the world without going anywhere Furthermore, people can get the information from various media of communication such as internet, television, radio, newspaper, magazines and also books As an English Teacher, I found some students’ difficulties in reading comprehension: (1) students have difficulty to identify explicit information in a text; (2) students have difficulty to comprehend the text as they lack of vocabulary; (3) students are unable to find the main idea

in a paragraph; (4) and students are unable to infer the meaning of the text The activities for reading skills in the book English are good, however, for students who are eager for new knowledge and various activities, changing the activities to make them more interesting is necessary which can contribute

to the success of the lesson as well as the final results

Based on these reasons, I am interested in conducting a study on “ Optimizing graphic organizers to improve students’ reading comprehension”

2 Aims of the study

This study aims at determining how graphic organizers can help to improve students’ reading comprehension

3 Research questions

From the explanation above, the research questions in this study can be formulated as follows:

1 How effective is graphic organizers in students’ reading comprehension?

2 How is the situation when Graphic organizers are used in the reading class?

4 Scope of study

There might be many different ways to improve students’ reading comprehension For the limited time within the scope of this study, I limit the participants to grade 11th students at Trieu Son I high school in the academic year 2016 More specifically, the total time for this study is 10 months, the number of students is 76, and I would try to focus on choosing the activities: using graphic organizers in reading lessons, evaluating the results and give implications

5 The methodology

The research will be conducted by using Experimental method Experimental method is an observation in order to know the effect of Graphic organizers on students’ achievement in reading comprehension, where the sample is divided into two groups: experimental group and control group The experimental group is the group that receives treatment by using Graphic

organizers strategy, while the control group is the one that receives the treatment by using the traditional method

5.1 Participants

This study was carried out in Trieu son 1 High school The sample was taken from the grade 11 students which consist of 2 parallel classes (class A2 and class A6) where every class consists of 38 students, so the total of students in the school year were 76 students The class A2 is experimental group and the class A6 is control group

5.2 Instrument

The instrument which is used to collect the data is multiple-choice test multiple-choice test is effective for measuring and its objective scoring is quick, easy and consistent it also encourages the students to develop a comprehensive knowledge of specific facts and the ability to make fine discrimination among them

The test consists of 10 items to measure students’ reading comprehension Each item of test consists of four options namely, a, b, c, and d I realize that multiple choice test is the most widely used and highly regarded among the selection type of items for test development The test could be designed to measure the recall understanding and applying of specific concepts, or principle because the students can answer a large number of such questions in short time, a large sample of items can be incorporated in that test They were used in pre-test, and post-test instrument

To collect opinion of my students about using graphic organizers, I also gave students a questionnaire (appendix A) The questionnaire was composed

of questions to evaluate the students’ attitudes towards graphic organizers after the intervention period They asked how the students felt about using

graphic organizers and how the use of them affected their attitudes and grades

PART B: CONTENT

I Theoretical basis.

Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from a text and involves the complex coordination of several processes, including

“decoding, word reading, and fluency along with the integration of background knowledge and previous experiences” (Klinger & Geisler, 2008,

p 65) Students’ reading comprehension can be influenced by their vocabulary knowledge, word recognition skills, understanding of text structure, oral English language proficiency, and cultural background differences. Besides, the students have lack of motivation in language learning since the students get bored with teaching method used by teachers One of possible solutions for such problems is using graphic organizers because these organizers can help students depict key concepts and construct the meaning of the reading text An application of graphic organizers that

match the structure of the message, teachers will be able to assess student comprehension of what they are reading, observe their thinking process on what they read as a class, as a group, or individually Furthermore, graphic organizers are considers as miraculous techniques to make students actively engaged in their learning Because organizers include words, visual images, illustrative shapes, meaningful labels and logical displays, they are effectively for a variety of students with different language levels

II Factual basis.

Before making the topic, I had a test to examine the quality of the students’ reading comprehension Both experimental group and control group are given the same pre-test The pre -test has 10 questions including typical types of reading comprehension questions: identifying the main idea, finding supporting details, making interferences, answering questions about vocabulary, fact and opinion This test is used to find the students’ reading comprehension achievement of both groups The result of the tests would be compared to find out the effect of applying Graphic organizers Strategy on the students’ reading comprehension achievement

The table 1 below is the result of the pre-test:

Experiential groups Class A2 (38 students)

Control groups Class A6 (38 students) Types of Questions

students can answer

Percentage Number of

students can answer

Percentage

Identifying the Main

Idea

The table shows that the percentage of students who can answer questions of reading comprehension is low The problem above may be caused by several reasons, could be the students or teacher

III Solution

1 Definition of Graphic Organizers

A graphic organizer is a visual representation of knowledge that structures information by arranging important aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using labels (Bromley, et al., 1995) There are numerous kinds

of graphic organizers called maps, graphs, charts, diagrams or clusters Each

of these patterns can be expressed in different lay outs but they have a similar purpose that depicts the relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task Using graphic organizers gives students alternatives to these inefficient methods of reading or comprehending a passage In contrast

to their usual approach to reading or comprehending a passage, they classify the content of the passage and then try to decode it This study explores how classifying a reading passage using graphic organizers has shown better results compared with reading a passage without using these organizers

2 Why to use graphic organizers

In order for a learner to understand the information they have read, they must be able to comprehend the text Teachers can begin by talking about the structure of the text that will be studied There are a variety of graphic organizers that can be used to do this, and they can be done at any time during a lesson in order to help students understand what they have read Learning is extremely effective when students can connect new information with past experiences It is important to have a selection of learning strategies that can be used to master a new topic or skill Teachers may use graphic organizers to prepare students for reading Graphic organizers are effective tools for thinking and learning as they help students to:

- Represent abstract ideas in more concrete forms,

- Depict the relationships among facts and concepts,

- Organize ideas

- Store and recall information

Graphic organizers enable teachers to show and explain relationships between content and sub content and how they in turn relate to other content areas On the other hand, through the use of the organizers, students can make more abstract comparisons, evaluations, and conclusions In short, graphic organizers allow students an active role in their learning Graphic organizers have many forms and provide students with visual information that complements the class discussion or text After carrying out extensive research on the effect of graphic organizers on student reading comprehension, Fisher (2002) says that students who belonged to the experiment group consistently reported that the graphic organizer is the most helpful strategy that they employed Many teachers believe that it is not hard for good readers to symbolize key concepts and the core value from the text

or to depict the given information in different ways regardless which genres

or formats the comprehension task is presented in However, they are not

totally sure that what kinds of formats can stimulate student learning modalities, and which techniques can promote student critical thinking skills With the mentioned benefits, teachers should use graphic organizers to help students prepare themselves for reading, to explore the text with a deeper understanding, to externalize their thinking, and to promote effective learning Appropriately use, graphical organizer instructions can significantly reduce the amount of time required to achieve the objective of a reading lesson for both the teacher and learners However, the appropriate choice of organizers for the reading lesson depends on the teacher’s knowledge of the topic presented in the passage, knowledge of pedagogical content that requires the teacher to plan and conduct an effective lesson with a supportive learning environment, and knowledge of language learners in order to develop students’ creativity and critical thinking

3 When to Use Graphic Organizers

Graphic Organizers can be used to facilitate students’ activation of

background knowledge and to create anticipation for future learning at the beginning of a unit They can also be effective ways to facilitate review of previously taught materials In a reading lesson, Graphic Organizers are often used in pre-reading, note-taking and summarizing

Pre-reading: graphical reading guides showing sequences and relationships

prepare students for the important themes or concepts they will encounter in their assigned readings

Note-taking: codifying information in graphical form (such as a two-column

compare and contrast chart), while reading, helps students lock down and retain pertinent concepts, facts, figures, etc

Summarizing: summarizing information (such as cause and effect factors) in

a cause/effect diagram helps students follow processes, make inferences and draw conclusions

4 How to use graphic organizers

Graphic organizers can have various forms, from representations of objects to hierarchical and cyclical structures Although their use in learning activities is preferred by people who have a visual style of learning, graphic organizers are extremely useful to different learners Graphic organizers are known by different names such as semantic map, structured overview, web, concept map, semantic organizer, story map, graphic organizer, etc no matter what the special name, a graphic organizer is a “visual” representation of knowledge The following description of six basic graphic organizers, namely Venn diagram, sequencing Time-line, problems & solution map, compare & contrast matrix, and network tree These visual representations are followed

by specific samples taken from the new English textbook for grade 11 in Vietnam but adapted for a better use in English reading classrooms

4.1 Sequencing Time-line

Description

A sequencing time-line is a type of graphic organizer that shows specific events in sequence, usually with dates, in a linear fashion Time-lines are particularly useful for studying or reviewing history, because the time-line will visually display major events over a period of time Storyboard that adds another dimension beyond dates and descriptions, by making it easy to illustrate important events Using Sequencing Time-line helps students put events in chronological order, show progress or change, chronicle historical events

Procedures:

1 Copy the blank sequencing time-line template for students

2 List the topic of the organizer

3 Ask students to conclude the main events in sequential order using this time-line template while reading a passage

4 Discuss the events with students

Application: Unit 12: The Asian Game - reading (English 11, textbook, page 136, 137)

Sequence of time

4.2 Venn diagram

Description

The 1st Asian games began

in New Delhi, India.

Boxing, shooting and wrestling were added at The 2nd Asian Games in Manila, the Philippines

Tennis, volleyball, table

tennis and hockey were

added at the 3rd Asian

Games held in Tokyo, Japan

Squash, rugby, fencing and mountain biking were introduced at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

1951

1954

1958

1998

The 14th Asian Games were

held in Busan, Korea. 2002