Graphic Organizers as an Aide for Reading Non-Fiction Text for Elementary Students - Essay Example

Graphic Organizers as an Aide for Reading Non-Fiction Text for Elementary Introduction Among the goals of elementary education is to help students learn about core ideas from readings and develop relational understandings from them. In order to do these, students are made to engage in analytical, critical, creative thinking and problem solving activities to develop cognitive skills. Instead of merely asking students to memorize facts, emphasis is put on the processing of information - finding information, recognizing core ideas, selecting between essential and non-essential details, using information to solve problems and communicating information to others (Ellis). One strategy for developing these skills in students is through the use of graphic organizers. What are Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers are communication devices used to show the structure or organization of concepts and the relationships between them (Ellis). They are visual tools that use visual symbols to denote ideas and concepts to convey meaning. They depict the relationships between facts, terms, and/or ideas. They are often referred to as a map because they help teachers and students map out ideas in a visual manner (Saskatoon). According to Ellis, the visual spatial arrangements which represent the information's structure reduce the cognitive demands on the learner. The learner need not process a lot of semantic information to understand the information. Graphic organizers are very powerful devices for students with language-based learning disabilities (Ellis). They are of course similarly useful, if not more so, for regular students who do not have learning disabilities. Being a visual tool, a graphic organizer allows the mind to see patterns and relationships in the information presented. One of the most common graphic organizers is the calendar. It is a descriptive matrix. At a glance it shows what month it is, the number of days in the month, what day of the week a certain date falls on, which dates fall on a particular day, and so on. The calendar helps the user gather, sift, sort and share information (Graphic.org1). Usefulness of Graphic Organizers As instructional tools, graphic organizers are very valuable because they are flexible and endless in application. They show the order and completeness of a student's thought process. They can immediately indicate strengths and weaknesses of understanding. They show different aspects of an issue or problem, whether it be the big picture or a part of it up close (Kipperman & McIntry). Graphic organizers are applicable across a wide range of curriculum subject areas such as reading, science, social studies, language arts, and mathematics (Saskatoon). However the effectiveness of graphic organizers lies in the ability of teachers teaching students how to use them efficiently. Especially in the area of non-fiction text, graphic organizers foster learning in reading, comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. The learner does not merely read a bunch of words but learns to understand the importance or lack of importance of these words, understanding the concept behind what is being read, determine a main idea and process relational information from there (Graphic.org2). Ellis identifies three compelling reasons for using graphic organizers. First, students will more likely understand and remember the subject content they are being taught. A graphic organizer highlights what is/are important, and separates these from those that are interesting but not essential. In other words, information tends to be more precise. Second, graphic organizers allow the teacher to expound on the content at more complex levels because the burden of semantic processing is greatly reduced. Showing instead of just telling students the information facilitates understanding. Third, students more likely become strategic learners with the use of graphic organizers, thereby improving reading and writing skills, communication skills, and analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills. Graphic Organizers as an Aide for Reading Non-Fiction Text According to Hembree, there are six basic types of graphic organizers. The Sequential Graphic Organizers is used for information that needs to be presented in a time line or in a sequence. The Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer is used to relate like or unlike terms or ideas. The Story and Character Graphic Organizer help in the understanding of a portion of a story or article. The Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer looks at relationships, consequences, and effects. The Vocabulary Organizer helps the reader create new vocabulary lists and define terms leading to increased comprehension. The Note Organizer as the name implies provide a way to take notes, increasing comprehension of topics noted. For reading non-fiction text, graphic organizers help students construct meaning. There are already many graphic organizers developed for this purpose and fall under one or more of the basic types listed above. The ABC Brainstorm is one such example. A list of the letters of the alphabet is constructed then words beginning with a particular letter associated with the topic for reading is listed in no particular order. This activates the students' background knowledge about the topic. For example, if the topic is World War II, A can be Allies, B can be Bombers, C can be Concentration Camps, and so on. Social studies topics can make very good use of ABC Brainstorm (Jones). Science graphic organizers help students arrange information as they learn about science. The tools help in outlining key concepts, charting facts, and using Venn diagrams to arrange ideas. Understanding of natural resources, the human body, landforms, plants, animals, physics is facilitated. A Weekly Science Journal can be used to keep track of assignments and activities on a particular topic for each day of the week (TeacherVision) Other examples include a Descriptive or Thematic Map which is used for mapping generic information and hierarchical relationships; a Network Tree is used to organize a hierarchical set of information, reflecting super-ordinate or subordinate elements; a Spider Map is used when information relating to a main idea or theme does not fit into a hierarchy; a Problem and Solution Map is used to arrange cause and effect relationships (Hall & Strangman). The Continuum Scale is another graphic organizer used to describe the stages of something like the life cycle of a primate, for example; or the steps in a linear procedure like how to neutralize an acid; or a sequence of events like how feudalism led to the formation of nation states; or the goals, actions, and outcomes of a historical figure or character in a novel like the rise and fall of Napoleon. Reading non-fiction science or history topics would be more easily understood with this graphic organizer (NCREL1). A Matrix is the graphic organizer which is able to demonstrate the widest range of complexity . Matrices are constructs of rows and columns. They can a simple, one column 1xn matrix or unlimited nxn matrices. They can be used to compare and contrast any number of items, or they can be used to list objects cross-referenced with the attributes of each object (Drafke). An Interaction Outline is used to show different interaction or the nature of interaction between persons or groups. A history example would be the interaction between the European settlers and the American Indians. Groups are identified as well as their goals for the interaction. And then a series of sets of actions and reactions are listed that occur between the groups. These interactions can be analyzed to come up with the outcomes for each group (SCORE). Another often used Graphic Organizer for reading is the KWL Chart, an instructional technique created by Ogle in 1986. Teachers activate students' prior knowledge by asking them what they already Know; then students set objectives of what they Want to learn; and after reading students discuss what they have Learned. Higher-order thinking strategies are then applied by the students which help them construct meaning from what they read and help them monitor their progress toward their objectives (NCREL2). Especially for reading non-fiction, a Fact and Opinion Graphic Organizer facilitates distinguishing the two. A topic title is written at the top of the chart and facts and opinions are listed in aligned boxes. Fact 1 may be the number of females and males according to a published census statistic. Opinion 1 may be the author's statement that there are more females live longer than males, if this isn't justified by fact. Sorting out the facts from the author's opinions allows the reader to independently analyze the facts and come to his/her own conclusions while being mindful about doing a critique of the author's opinions (Eduplace). There are even interactive graphic organizers which are available on the internet. This allows you to download the organizer and use it interactively on a computer. A computer-based graphic organizer allows the user to change entries with ease and speeds up the thinking process. The Fishbone of Lexicon is one such example. It is used for brainstorming cause and effect relationships, especially when there can be many potential causes (Lexicon). How Teachers and Students May Use Graphic Organizers Teachers may use graphic organizers in their teaching as a teaching aide and students can use them to aid in the learning process. Before teaching a new topic or concept, a teacher may use a graphic organizer to provide structure for the presentation of new material while relating this new material to previous ideas and concepts taught. Teachers can create a graphic organizer on the blackboard and ask for information from students to get a better understanding of students' prior knowledge. While instruction in a topic is going on, graphic organizers can help students actively identify, process and reorganize key information. Graphic organizers assist in the thinking process and therefore allow students to approach subjects, topics or concepts cognitively. Here, with the teacher's motivation, the student can take an active role in learning while processing and reorganizing information, by identifying the elements which should go into the different boxes of a graphic organizer. The teacher, too can interactively give feedback to the students if mistakes or imperfect choices are made as to what the boxes should contain. Modifying an organized structure of information gives students an opportunity to learn from their own mistakes. It also allows students to construct maps that are appropriate to their individual learning styles. Upon completion of instruction for a subject, topic or concept, students can construct their own organizers to isolate and organize key concepts. The summarization technique will allow the teacher to see if students can interpret what has been taught through concise and accurate statements that they use to fill the boxes in the graphic organizer. Post-instruction graphic organizers also encourage elaboration. A student who can relate prior knowledge with what was newly learned and identify relationships between those ideas are actively learning (Saskatoon). According to Ellis, graphic organizers can contribute to increasing both classroom and achievement test scores, although the degree of improvement is relative to the degree in which graphic organizers are effectively used. Ellis further expounds that test scores improve for several reasons. First is because of increased understanding and learning of the subject which is the objective of graphics organizers. Second is because students focus their energies on studying the essential information, another objective of graphic organizers. And third, students focus on the relationships between main ideas and details, main ideas and other main ideas, and so forth. The focus of study is how it all fits together rather than on just memorizing isolated, de-contextualized bits of information. And this is another primary benefit that can be derived form graphic organizers. Conclusion Graphic organizers have been used across a wide range of curriculum subject areas. Although reading is the most well studied application, science, social studies, language arts, and mathematics have also benefited from the use of graphic organizers. Operations such as mapping cause and effect, note taking, comparing and contrasting concepts, organizing problems and solutions, and relating information to main ideas or themes are all beneficial to many subject areas (Hall & Strangman). The effectiveness of graphic organizers as a learning tool rests on the teacher. Studies show that failure of these tools to achieve noticeable results in student performance point to inadequate teacher instruction. The effective teacher instruction model includes explicit and detailed instructions and independent practice by the students with feedback wherever necessary. The teacher must establish a purpose for which the graphic organizer is to be used. Failure at one of these elemental stages - instruction by the teacher, practice by the students and teacher, and feedback from the teacher - will negate the benefits of using the tools. For teachers to maximize the potential of graphic organizers, they must articulate the relationships between concepts outlined in the graphic organizer; encourage students to contribute their ideas; establish a connection between the material being learned and past learning; refer to up coming material and encourage structural analysis (Graphic.org2). Works Cited Drafke, Michael. Graphic Organizers. N.d. 3 October 2008 http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/drafke/Graphic%20organizers.htm Ellis, Edwin. Q&A: What's the Big Deal with Graphic Organizers GraphicOrganizers.com. 2004. 30 September 2008 http://graphicorganizers.com/about.html "Fact and Opinion". Eduplace. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 2008. 3 October 2008 http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/index.jsp "Fishbone". Lexicon. Interactive Graphic Organizers. N.d. 3 October 2008 http://www.lexiconsys.com/graphic_organizers/fishboneIndx.html "Graphic Organizers". Graphic.org1. n.d. 30 September 2008 http://www.graphic.org/page2.html "Graphic Organizers". North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL). 1988. 3 October 2008 http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm Hall, Tracey & Strangman, Nicole. Graphic Organizers. CAST Universal Design for Learning. 2007. 3 October 2008 http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html#types Hembree, Dahloan. The Six Types of Graphic Organizers and Their Purpose. Associated Content. August 20, 2008. 3 October 2008 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/933443/the_six_types_of_graphic_organizers.html "How Graphic Organizers Enhance Learning Ability in ALL Age Groups". Graphic.org2. n.d. 30 September 2008 http://www.graphic.org/organizers/1.html "Interaction Outline". Schools of California Online Resources for Education (SCORE). N.d 3 October 2008 http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tinter.htm "Instructional Strategies Online". Saskatoon Public Schools. 2008. 30 September 2008 http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/graphicorganizers/index.html Jones, Raymond C. ABC Brainstorm. ReadingQuest.org. 2006. 30 September 2008 http://www.readingquest.org/strat/abc.html Kipperman, Douglas & McKinstry, Melissa. Graphic Organizers. WriteDesign Online. N.d. 30 September 2008 http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/index.html "KWL". North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL). 1988. 3 October 2008 http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2kwl.htm "Weekly Science Journal". TeacherVision. 2008. 3 October 2008 http://www.teachervision.fen.com/scientific-research/graphic-organizers/57597.htmldetoured=1 Read More