Post on 19-Jun-2020
MÁSTER EN FORMACIÓN DEL PROFESORADO DE
EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA OBLIGATORIA, BACHILLERATO,
FORMACIÓN PROFESIONAL Y ENSEÑANZAS DE IDIOMAS.
Contribution of Graphic Organizers to students’ reading comprehension in Secondary Education
TRABAJO FIN DE MÁSTER. CURSO: 2011 - 2012 ESPECIALIDAD: INGLÉS APELLIDOS Y NOMBRE DEL AUTOR/A: MARÍA DEL HENAR ARANDA COPA DNI: 02658073-D CONVOCATORIA: JUNIO TUTOR/A: ASUNCIÓN LÓPEZ VARELA. FACULTAD FILOLOGÍA. LITERATURA.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
2. MA Dissertation rationale …………………………………………………………….. 2
3. Objectives ……………………………………………………………………………….. 4
4. Review of literature …………………………………………………………………….. 6
4. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………. 16
5. Analysis of the results ………………………………………………………………… 26
6. Conclusions …………………………………………………………………………….. 35
7. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………. 37
8. Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………… 44
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1. ABSTRACT For years, tutors and researchers on Secondary Education have been investigating on
improving the level of students’ reading comprehension. It is undoubtedly true that most
of the students have problems when dealing with the comprehension of a text. This
paper will introduce graphic organizers as a useful tool for enhancing reading
comprehension. Graphic organizers are visual displays that help students to organize as
well as memorize both concepts and ideas better than if they were not used. There is a
wide variety of graphic organizers so that students are able to select the most suitable
one according to a particular type of text.
This research work grows with the idea of studying the contribution of graphic
organizers on students’ reading comprehension. More specifically, its main objectives
are, one the one hand, to prove if the use of graphic organizers makes students improve
their level of reading comprehension and, on the other hand, if there is a reading stage
in which the use of graphic organizers achieves better results in students’ level of
reading comprehension than in other stages in which they are also used. In order to
accomplish both objectives, the sample, composed by twenty-eight participants
belonging to first year of E.S.O., has been subjected to a pre-reading test, a period of
instruction in which graphic organizers were implemented in the class dynamics, and
three more tests, the post-tests in which graphic organizers were used as a pre-, while-,
and post-activities, respectively. In order to obtain both valid and reliable results, all the
tests except for the ones done during the instruction period were filled in individually
whereas in the period of instruction students began to deal with graphic organizers in
groups, then in pairs, and finally in an individual way. Outcomes are expected to show
that there is considerable evidence for graphic organizers to be a tool that affects in a
positive way the student’s level of reading comprehension.
Key words: graphic organizers, reading comprehension, reading stages, Secondary Education.
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2. MA DISSERTATION RATIONALE Undeniably, learning a second language always supposes a huge effort on the part of the
students, independently of their age, their motivation or their sex. However, it is true that
there are some aspects of a second language that are commonly more difficult than
others. Normally, the easiest aspects in second language acquisition are those which deal
with vocabulary, since they can be taught in many different ways depending on the
students’ needs. Some of these can be flashcards or games, and this variety allows
teachers to have lots of resources for students to select from. On the contrary, the most
difficult aspects when learning a second language are normally closely related to the
communicative competence.
The communicative parts of a language embrace many aspects, which correspond to the
different skills; speaking, listening, reading and writing. While speaking and writing are
productive skills, in the sense that students produce speeches or written compositions,
listening and reading are receptive skills, since students do not produce an output, but
they receive inputs. Among these four different skills many differences can also be found,
but the most interesting one is that, although receptive skills are more frequently practiced
in class, they are at the same time, more difficult to be acquired by students than
productive ones. The origin of those difficulties is clear: the majority of schools and
academies are really concentrated on vocabulary and grammar, most of the time
practiced through monotonous exercises and in some cases trained through short
debates or compositions, without providing students with task-oriented activities that
enhance good writing. If productive skills are poorly taught and rarely practiced, the
situation of receptive skills is even worse. Maybe, they are more frequently practiced at
schools but the current practice is not to teach them in the right way, which is good for
nothing. It would be preferable to do both listening and reading activities with the only
purpose of making students learn and not to do activities automatically.
In the particular case of readings, the common situation is that teachers opt to make
students do the corresponding reading that is included in the unit that they are learning in
a specific moment. They give them some minutes to read it, and immediately they ask
students to answer the questions to check if they have comprehended it in a proper way.
The key problem is that all this is done with the pressure of time, because the class is
maybe trying to finish the task and all has to be done before the end of it and it does not
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matter if the reading took the students the right time to read and understand it or not. Poor
results are often a consequence of this attitude.
That is the reason why the topic on which this paper is based has such a vital importance.
There is a strong need to change things, to look for other possibilities when teaching
those difficult aspects of a second language because the goal of teachers should be
adjusting both the programme to be taught and their own methodology to their student’s
needs, trying to make the best of them, even if it costs a lot. The main problem is that
practicing reading comprehension in a traditional way, which consists of reading the text
alone and answering the questions immediately, is more comfortable for teachers (and
less beneficial for students) than implementing new and researched ways which can vary
things and improve them.
Unquestionably, graphic organizers are a really great tool when teaching, and particularly
when teaching readings. They are wonderful visual aids which are not only good for visual
students, but for all of them since they summarize the ideas in the way in which students
are always looking for. Graphic organizers are also very useful because they offer a wide
variety of designs for capturing the same ideas having as a consequence the same result,
so students can choose from all of them the one which they like the most. Another benefit
of graphic organizers is that they can be used in all the stages of a reading. Firstly, they
can serve as a really good warm-up with the objective of activating student’s brain, giving
them some feedback about the topic that they are going to read about and presenting the
reading in a context for them to be more predisposed to begin reading. Secondly, they
serve students to have in a single and visual structure a lot of knowledge. For instance,
they can use a graphic organizer which is specific for comparing and contrasting if the text
is about personal opinions about a topic; students can use some other graphic organizers
to distribute vocabulary in fields if the text is an excuse only for including vocabulary in a
reading or students can even use those graphic organizers which organize events in a
chronological order if they are dealing with texts such as stories and tales.
As a summary, this paper grows from the idea that there is a need to change some
methodologies when teaching reading comprehension which are closer to students and to
their own needs. If the existence of lots of difficulties when reading in a second language
is really taken into account, some measures should be adopted to change that situation
and to give students the possibility of really comprehending a text, something that will
favour an increment on their motivation and their love for reading.
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3. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this research work is to prove if the use of graphic organizers before,
during or at the end of a reading, improves students’ reading comprehension or if there is
no relation between the use of this strategy and the students’ success. Besides, I would
like to study if there are differences when using graphic organizers in the different reading
stages: pre-reading, while-reading or post-reading. That is, investigating about in which
stage it would be more beneficial for students to use them, major if the research shows
that they are. In order to accomplish the objective mentioned above, this paper is going to deal with the
issues involved in the process of testing the hypothesis. Some of them are the
methodology, that is to say, the way that has been selected to test the hypothesis, the
materials, which are a crucial part of a research work since they act as instruments to
really prove it and the participants, and indispensable element of a research work. All
these aspects will be explained in the Methodology Section.
The results that are expected to be obtained correspond clearly to what the review of
literature argues and which deals with the evident benefit that the use of graphic
organizers has concerning reading comprehension. It is obvious that, although some
results are going to be expected due to a combination of the research’s observation of the
current situation when reading comprehension is concerned and what the review of
literature explains in favour of that practice, this research paper might show some different
results from the ones that were thought to be obtained.
According to the idea that the use of graphic organizers could be really useful to increase
students’ level of reading comprehension, the following chart tries to show in a more
clarifying way the objectives of this research work, since graphic organizers might be
useful not only to improve reading comprehension but also to sum up some information in
a really clear and concise way.
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As it can be observed in the graphic above, two are the objectives of this research work.
However, the most relevant aspect here is that the graphic not only presents in a visual
way both objectives but it also shows the relationship that exists between both, which is
based on the existence of the positive effects that the use of graphic organizers could
have in reading comprehension and the difference in terms of its benefits that exists
between the three reading stages.
To investigate
if the use of graphics
organizers affects reading comprehension
To investigate in which stage the use of graphics
organizers benefits more
reading comprehension
Main objectives of this Research Work
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4. REVIEW OF LITERATURE According to the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), readers of all levels should bear in
mind that the main goal of reading is comprehension. Teachers lead both the lessons and
the pupils, and they should instil in them the importance of reading. Likewise, teachers
should be in charge of doing their best when teaching their students the corresponding
strategies for them to achieve the main goal of reading, which is comprehension. As The
National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) states, teachers should explain students when and
what strategies to use, what is called “explicit instruction”, but teachers can also teach
students some comprehension strategies, stating clearly that they can be used in
combination. Therefore, the teachers’ job is crucial before beginning to put those
strategies into practice, since “the effectiveness of instruction will depend on teacher’s
skills and knowledge in the development and use of graphic organizers” (Hutchison &
Padgett 2007 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 12). According to this, one of the teachers’ tasks
would be to teach students the concrete clues to select the most suitable strategy to be
applied and then, to guide them in the process of their configuration. Apart from the vital
importance of the teachers’ knowledge about a topic, the way in which the teachers
present knowledge to students is crucial. Many researchers opted for a particular strategy
after having done lots of researches on the topic and they defend that the use of graphic
organizers facilitates learning.
Hall and Strangman states in the National Centre on Accessing the General Curriculum
that, “a graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships
between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task” (n/p). Graphic organizers are
one of the various strategies that can be used to teach reading comprehension because
“they help students structure their learning, visualize the way information is presented in
lectures and organized in texts, map out stories to improve comprehension, and see the
relationships among vocabulary and concepts” (Smith 2007 quoted in Hubpages n/p).
Instead of being considered only one of the various strategies that help students to
improve their reading comprehension, it is true that they have become the most
remarkable ones. Graphic organizers are gaining more and more appreciation as the time
passes by because, according to Mayer, Vergason and Whelan (1996) these type of
strategies “organize information in a manner that makes information easier to understand
and learn” (132).
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It is commonly known that most of the students need a great help to continue studying;
maybe because they normally make a huge effort to study without obtaining good results
or maybe because they do not like studying and they need some extra support. Both
types of students, who tend to represent the majority of the population who is taking
compulsory education, need an extra help to make their learning process easier. This kind
of help should be characterized by being entertaining as well as functional, adjectives that
describe graphic organizers pretty well because, according to Gallavan & Kottler (2007),
this fantastic tool permits students to be taught the corresponding contents funnily but
without forgetting about that the methodology should be productive for students.
One of the main problems that many students experiment appear when they have to face
long and complicated texts to be read, or a huge amount of paragraphs to be learnt by
heart. Maybe, students do not know what those texts are going to be about, but the simple
fact of having long and bored texts make students refuse trying to both understand or
memorize them. Current students need things to be simple and, “there is considerable
evidence that graphic organizers are ideal methods for presenting large amount of data in
a simplified manner” (Gallavan and Kottler 2007 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 7).
Apart from the necessity of having the information in a simplified way, it is quite important
for students not to have more information than the one that is absolutely necessary when
it comes to study, and graphic organizers are a good choice to avoid it because they
“eliminate unnecessary information, which tend to hinder or retard learning process of the
students” (James, Abbot & Greenwood 2011 quoted in Huang 4). It is obvious that, if
studying unnecessary information is good for nothing, a retardation of the students’
learning processes provoked by the existence of that unnecessary information is even
worse. In order to avoid that and choose a useful tool to achieve those objectives, Lovitt
(1994) remarks that this type of learning strategy is excellent to organize content and to
learn vocabulary.
In that sense, “graphic organizers reduce the cognitive demand on the learner” (Ellis,
2004 p.1 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 10) making the learning process easier for them
since there is no need to process any information; graphic organizers already show it for
you.
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Moreover, this great strategy “helps students become strategic learners” (Ellis 2004
quoted in Lubin and Sewak 11) because, although the information in the graphic organizer
is already presented in a clarifying and concise way, a lot of previous work has to be done
work to reach to that point. But, what is unquestionably is that people tend to feel proud
when they have a good product due to a previous effort. Moreover, “the literature showed
that when students are using graphic organizers, they tend to be motivated and thus
better assimilate novel information and complete complex tasks” (Ellis 2004 quoted in
Lubin and Sewak 12). So, the use of graphic organizers motivates students, which
consequently provokes an increment of the level of comprehension of a particular text due
to the interest that they show towards it.
Although it has been stated by many authors that graphic organizers are a great tool if
students want to improve their reading comprehension, they obviously have to be created
in the right way if both teachers and students want to reach to that objective. In order to be
really useful, graphic organizers “should be composed by coherence, consistency, and
creativity” (Baxendell 2003, p. 46), which this same author calls “the three C’s”. Graphic
organizers must be coherent because “research studies confirm that graphic organizers
are not effective instructional tools unless they are clear and straightforward” (Baxendell
2003 p. 48). Poorly constructed graphic organizers can make students get confused, and
this must be avoidable at any price. They also have to be consistent, that is to say,
teachers should “create a standard set of graphic organizers” (Baxendell 2003, p. 47) for
students not to be confused and for them to know that there are some established
patterns to be followed when selecting the most suitable type of graphic organizer for a
particular task. The existence of a standard set of graphic organizers allows students to
be able to create them independently. And finally, they have to be creative to be a really
useful tool, because “students are more likely to retain information contained in a graphic
organizer if it is presented in an inviting manner” (Baxandell 2003 p. 48). But
unquestionably, this process is cyclical: “in order for students to learn to read effectively,
students must be able to generate meaning from the text or comprehend their reading”
(Duke & Pearson 2002; Pressley 2000 cited in Research Starters in an essay by Sharon
Link Ph.D. n/p). In this sense, it is important to remark that, before creating the graphic
organizer at random, students should extract the meaning of a text and select what parts
to include in the graphic organizer; in this way, graphic organizers will clearly influence
reading comprehension in a positive way.
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One of the most important aspects concerning teaching is to bear in mind that each
student has certain necessities that can or cannot be shared with the rest of the students
who compose a particular group. These necessities include, among many other things,
the type of methodology to be used and that “students need flexible models of skilled
performance, and graphic organizers are one way to succeed with this kind of
diversification” (The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum n/p). Among all
the types of students that exist, some of them are considered visual learners, other
students can be considered auditory learners and others may be kinaesthetic learners.
Graphic organizers, to be considered as a great tool, must be useful for all the different
types of learners, and they are. As Ellis and Howard (2005) states “since graphic
organizers are visual devices, a common misperception is that they are for visual learners,
and thus less likely to work with auditory learners” (1). It is really important to take into
account that if graphic organizers are becoming important tools affecting reading
comprehension, they should be applicable to all types of students, and not only to those
with a particular characteristic.
According to Ellis and Howard (2005), there are many factors that “dictate the subsequent
success in learning far more than one’s intellectual aptitude for processing information via
presentation modes” (1). Graphic organizers are so adaptable to learners that it has been
proven that “graphic organizers […] help students with learning disabilities to gain
knowledge more effectively and efficiently” (Ellington, 2006 cited in Hubpages n/p), what
shows that graphic organizers can be used by all types of students, including those who
have learning disabilities. One of the reasons why graphic organizers are good for all
types of students is that “the geometric shapes used in some graphic organizers may help
some students to better visualize patterns” (Hubpages n/p). It consequently “increases the
odds that a student can fin a format and medium that are accessible and useful for him or
her” (Hubpages n/p) and visual formats are proven to be the ones that help the most
those learners with particular disabilities.
But graphic organizers are not only useful as a product; they have a clear relevance in the
process of their creation too. It has been clearly proven that creating their own graphic
organizers “activates the learner’s cognitive skills, while at the same time triggers the use
of tactile and visual abilities to make sense of information” (Ellis and Howard 2007 quoted
in Lubin and Sewak 12).
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This supports the idea that one of the key facts of learning is to take part in the process
and to “be able to generate meaning from the text or comprehend their reading” (Duke &
Pearson 2002; Pressley 2000 quoted in Research Starters in an essay by Sharon Link
Ph.D. n/p). Pupils can be the ones in charged of creating their own graphic organizers “by
locating, recording, and organizing pertinent data” (Swanson & DeLaPaz 1998 quoted in
Huang 4). So, manipulating information with the purpose of selecting those concepts
which are vital in a text, those which act as semi important ones, and also obviating those
which are not crucial at all is a very good way to make the final achievement really
personal. Besides, creating by themselves their own graphic organizers supposes a huge
activation and running of their brain, which is translated into mental health. When learners
make up their own graphic organizers, they “can improve their ability to construct meaning
of new learning” (Banikowski & Mehring 1999 quoted in Huang 4).
Obviously, this practice only benefits students who create the graphic organizers by
themselves, because, as Boyle & Weishaar (1997) explained, graphic organizers could be
also made by teachers. In this last case, students would take benefit from the result, but
not from the process. Indifferently for all students, including those who create their own
graphic organizers and those who receive them directly made from the teacher, “graphic
organizers combine the use of both the linguistic and non-linguistic modes of learning”
(Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock 2001 n/p) and, in both cases, “studies continue to reveal
remarkable improvement in students’ performance when graphic organizers are used”
(Boulineau et al 2004, Gajria et al 2007 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 13). Once again,
research proves that graphic organizers play a clearly relevant role when reading
comprehension is concerned, independently on whether they are created by the students
or whether they are created by the teacher and the graphic organizers is already made for
them.
Furthermore, one of the key points of graphic organizers is when to use them. Graphic
organizers are not only thought to be applied to favour students’ comprehension of a text
in a universally established moment; on the contrary, they are a very versatile tool.
According to Hall and Strangman (2002), “visual displays can be successfully
implemented at several phases of the instructional cycle” (quoted in Hubpages n/p). Firstly,
graphic organizers can be used as a warm-up, an activity which has many purposes.
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One the one hand, it can serve the teacher to check students’ previous knowledge about
a topic: that practice will allow teachers to adjust their programme and their own
methodology to their students’ needs, something that will determine the future success of
both students and the corresponding teacher. On the other hand, warm-ups make
students arise their interest and motivation in the topic, making their comprehension
process easier. And more concretely, if graphic organizers are used as a warm-up, they
suppose “one way in which to assist students to link new material to their existing prior
knowledge” (Dye 2000 quoted in Huang 3)
Instead of using lots of paper with endless lists of vocabulary, graphic organizers permit
students having all the information that they need in a single paper and in really concise
format. Due to the existence of various types of graphic organizers, students can also
organize old and new information in a single graphic organizer, “a way in which to process
information meaningfully” (Ekhaml 1998 quoted in Huang 3). According to Dye (2000),
“the graphic organizer has its roots in schema theory” (72), which is basically a mental
structure of ideas that is previous to new knowledge. In this sense, “graphic organizers
make it easier to link new information to existing knowledge and help students build the
schema they need to understand new concepts” (Guastello, Beasley, & Sinatra 2000
quoted in Wills 2). So, graphic organizers not only serve to help students remember new
concepts in a better way, but they also help learners to establish relationships and
connections between old and new knowledge with the purpose of creating more simple
mental structures.
Secondly, graphic organizers can be used in the while-reading stage for students to write
down important aspects as long as they are reading. This is a great tool for students to
have in a written format all the information that they need, which will allow them to retain it
better and not to mix concepts or events if they wait until the end of a reading to take
notes. Thirdly, these types of organizers can be utilized in the post-reading stage, in order
to summarize, review or reinforce both concepts or events, which will serve students as a
basis to create talks such as debates or discussions and “to establish the foundation for
future projects and activities, and serve as an evaluation tool” (Vacca & Vacca 2001 cited
in Research Starters in an essay by Sharon Link Ph.D. n/p) In addition, there is no need to
say that creating graphic organizers after reading a text help students “to maintain content
even after instruction has ended” (Boulineau et al., 2004 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 14).
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If spite of the fact that it has been proven that graphic organizers are an effective tool for
all stages, Moore and Readence (1984) report that “the point of implementation is a
crucial factor in determining the magnitude of improvement in learning outcome. When
graphic organizers were used as a pre-reading activity, average effects sizes were small.
In contrast, graphic organizers used as a follow-up to reading yielded somewhat large
improvements in learning outcomes. Thus, efforts to improve learning outcomes may be
more successful when graphic organizers are introduced after the learning material”
(quoted in The National Center on Accessing General Curriculum n/p). So, another
important aspect to take into account when including the use of graphic organizers in
class is the point of implementation of these types of organizers since, as The National
Center on Accessing the General Curriculum has stated, “graphic organizers generate
larger improvements in learning when used as a follow-up to reading rather than a pre-
reading activity” (n/p), although these improvements exist in both cases because studies
have shown graphic organizers have been shown to be useful as an advance organizer
as well as a post organizer” (Simmons, Griffin & Kameenui 1988, quoted in Wills 4)
Additionally, “graphic organizers cater to the multi-faceted classroom as it enhances
teacher instruction plus student performance” (DiCecco & Gleason 2002 quoted in Lubin
and Sewak 13). One of the most important benefits of graphic organizers is the existence
of the variety of types that they offer; they can “connect important words or statements to
diagrams, show a process or present a sequence” (Smith 2007 cited in Hubpages n/p),
among many other uses. More concretely, the different types of graphic organizers that
exist can be grouped in four sections, which are cyclical, hierarchical, sequential and
conceptual, all of them including many other different types. This supposes a great help
for students to select the most suitable one for them according to their needs; a student
could feel more comfortable using a certain type of conceptual graphic organizer whereas
another one could prefer using another type of conceptual organizer.
This consequently means that “the freedom to select tools based on personal interests
and strengths can help maintain a good level of interest and even re-engage learners”
(The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum n/p). And that is not only a
matter of students, it is important to realize that “some graphic organizers may be more
useful as an advance organizer and other as a post organizer” (Griffin and Tulbert 1995
quoted in Wills 4). So, the graphic organizer’s choice depends on each student and the
type of graphic organizer which naturally fits best to a particular activity.
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The key point here is that teaching should be adjusted to both the different students’
needs and the contents to be taught, and the strategy of using graphic organizers is one
of those which provide students with lots of types from which to choose. In this sense, it is
important to remark that “concrete graphic organizers can assist students in organizing
and making relationships among ideas” (Mautone and Mayer 2007 quoted in Lubin and
Sewak 10). Then, the next step should be selecting the most suitable graphic organizer
according to a particular purpose.
For instance, concept diagrams are “chart-like graphic that describes a concept and its
various relationships, with general concepts at the top, supporting concepts at the bottom,
and lines showing the connections between the concepts” (Cesarone 2007, p. 191). This
is a vital type of graphic organizer that permits students ignoring information that is not
essential at all to concentrate on pivotal concepts, the ones that are going to show
students the key point of the reading, for them to comprehend it properly. According to
Vaughn & Edmonds (2006), it helps students to understand definitions, characteristics and
concepts, since this type of graphic organizer is not only focused on pivotal concepts but
also on secondary ones with which they are related. So, some graphic organizers are
useful for students to retain information, as it is the case, instead of being useful for
comparing and contrasting ideas, for instance.
In the case of story maps, they “improve students’ literal, interpretative and applied
comprehension skills” (DiCecco and Gleason 2002 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 5), as well
as they “assist students in integrating previous knowledge with existing knowledge” (Keel,
Dangel & Owens 1999 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 6). This is a really important aspect
because students normally tend to memorize and study what is new, forgetting about
previous knowledge. In addition to this “story maps help students clarify concepts, make
predictions and summarize key points” (Sorrel 1990 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 6).
Furthermore, this type of graphic organizers “help students sort, simplify, show
relationships, make meaning, and manage data quickly and easily” (Crawford & Carnine
2000 quoted in Research Starters in an essay by Sharon Link Ph.D. n/p). In turn,
semantic graphic organizers are useful to provide students with “an overview of key
vocabulary and concepts” (Vaughan & Edmonds, 2006, p. 135). The cause-effect graphic
organizers serve to show students the clear relationship between a cause and what it
provokes. Sequential episodic maps or series of events chains are a really good type of
graphic organizer which can be applied to stories, in which students can find many events
in a text which are impossible to remember in order.
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Venn diagrams are a wonderful tool to compare and contrast two concepts, since they are
composed by two bubbles that are joined by the middle, so each bubbles shares a part of
it with the other. In this sense, each bubble is composed by some different characteristics
but both concepts converge in the middle of the bubble showing some characteristics in
common. This is really good because it substitutes endless lists of characteristics, and by
using Venn Diagrams students can have all of them in a single, concise and clear format.
If students want to establish a hierarchy between lots of elements, a network tree would
be the best choice to do it. It is composed by many bubbles growing from the top to the
bottom of a page and they connected by means of lines. In this way, students can
establish a clear difference between concepts that are superordinate with those that are
subordinate, and this type of graphic organizer can also show the connection that exists
between all of them. Spider maps are closely related to this last type of graphic organizer
because they also serve to establish relationships, but not in terms of hierarchy but in
terms of main ideas or themes and less important ones. The Problem-Solution graphic
organizer facilitates students the organization of several solutions to a problem. The
Continuum Scales organize information according to a dimension such as high to low or
less to more. K-W-L Chart serves to organize important dates or events and a Cycle Map
is effective for organizing information which has not an absolute beginning or ending.
But one of the most remarkable benefits of the use of graphic organizers is that they can
be also used when teaching English through content. According to Garjria et al, (2007),
when dealing with areas in which the content to be taught might be difficult, graphic
organizers play an important role since they make students arise their interest, so that
they are motivated, something that allows them to memorize things better. This is a really
important benefit because pupils who study English through content tend to feel boring,
something which has its repercussion in their learning process of the language. Graphic
organizers are also good for students who study English through content, since it is more
difficult to organize information for a student who studies English through content than for
a student who does not, since the first one has to deal with both a second language and
the corresponding content.
As it has been stated before, each student is different from the rest and teachers should
know each of them pretty well in order to offer them the most suitable way of teaching.
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When dealing with graphic organizers, individual differences do not suppose a problem
since, according to Horton, Lovitt and Bergerud (1990) it is important to consider that
graphic organizers are a wonderful tool that is valid for pupils of all levels as well as those
with or without any kind of disability, since they are mechanisms that help students to
memorize content-related information. Independently of the students’ needs “graphic
organizers provide practical classroom tools that immediately engage students and
connect them with content and processes while working independently, with partners, in
small groups, or as a whole class” (Hew et al. 2004 quoted in Research Starters n/p in an
essay by Sharon Link Ph.D.). When these types of organizers are created individually “it
can be argued that graphic organizers empower students to take responsibility for their
own learning, facilitate and personalize meaning” […] (MacKinnon & Deppell 2005 quoted
in Research Starters n/p in an essay by Sharon Link Ph.D).
In short, graphic organizers are “a visual representation of knowledge” (Bromley, Irwin-
DeVitis, and Modlo 1995 quoted in Research Starters n/p in an essay by Sharon Link
Ph.D.), because they can capture the exact information in its corresponding format.
Moreover, as Boulineau et al, 2004 explains, they not only help in the acquisition process
but graphic organizers also assist in retaining the information that these type of tools
present. Therefore, the use of graphic organizers can imply, in some cases, their making
up, which is a really beneficial exercise. As a consequence of all these advantages,
“graphic organizers should benefit all learners while enabling them to be successful and
motivated learners” (McMackin & Witherell, 2005 quoted in Research Starters n/p in an
essay by Sharon Link Ph.D.), because for them to be a good tool, they should be
adaptable to all types of learners independently on their race, level, age or sex. This is
also supported by many researchers who argue that “the literature review supports the
assertion that graphic organizers are scientifically based and empirically validated tools
that “facilitate(s) learning for most students in … reading comprehension and content
areas across a wide range of ages, grades and learning abilities” (Ellis & Howard 2007,
p.1 quoted in Lubin and Sewak 12). Graphic organizers, as Vygotsky (1962) states, serve
as cognitive mechanisms to help the students understand and retain important information
and relationships, so that “students can connect ideas and concepts and improve their
text comprehension” (Vaughn & Edmonds, 2006, p. 134) and its efficacy can be confirmed
at all levels. In order to prove, once more, the importance of graphic organizers, it is
important to remark that “graphic and semantic organizers as one of seven categories of
instruction that is the most effective in improving reading comprehension” (National
Reading Panel 2000 quoted in IARE et AEL. Institute of Advancement of Research in
Education n/p).
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5. METHODOLOGY This section is going to embrace a fully and detailed explanation of the methodology that
has been selected in order to test the previously formulated hypothesis. In order to do that,
it is important to consider that one of the most important aspects when selecting the most
suitable type of methodology to be applied in a research is to take as a basis the situation
that the researcher wants to explore as well as the hypothesis to be tested, both the
dependent and the independent variables which are derived from the hypothesis and
obviously, the research questions that could arise from the research.
If the situation here explored is taken into account, it is a point worthy of mention that
reading comprehension is a really important aspect of a second language, since it
basically implies the understanding of a text. This understanding is obviously composed
by a combination of both written words and the inferred meaning that each reader can
extract from the text, together with his or her knowledge about the world that can be useful
to understand the piece of reading in question. Successful reading depends on many
aspects; on the one hand, it implies the ability to recognize words quickly and, on the
other hand, it is also based on the capability to link the meaning of those words to be able
to construct meaning, forgetting about taking each word in isolation. As it has been stated
before, the current situation is that many students have problems when they face a
reading comprehension exercise in a language which is not their mother tongue. It can be
due to their lack of vocabulary or simply due to their inability to construct meaningful
sentences in English, mainly because they also have problems when forming them in
Spanish. Another current problem derives from the existence of those reading
comprehension exercises which are composed by true or false tasks in which the
statement is presented using different words from the ones that were used in the text,
although both statements express the same idea.
Undeniably, this situation must be mended because, as it has been stated before, the
main goal of reading is comprehension, and neither the type of reading comprehension
exercises nor the personal level of English might affect negatively to the correct execution
of the tasks. Many researchers argue that the best choice to help those students who
have problems when understanding a text is instruction. It basically consists on some
guidance that must be carried out by teachers and applied to students. This guidance can
be of several types, according to the text to be read or the students’ needs.
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Taking it into account and considering that graphic organizers, as the review of literature
shows, are one of the tools that need some instruction before being implemented, its use
might be the solution to the problem that many people want to solve.
The main purpose of this research work is to investigate about the relationship between
the use of graphic organizers in whatever stage of a reading and students’ success. In
order to do that, it has been crucial to study the current situation found in Secondary
Education concerning reading comprehension, since it is the only way to compare pre-
and post- results, which are those that have been obtained after having implemented the
use of graphic organizers and after having tested the benefits of that practice. The study
of the situation has been based basically on observation, which was carried out during the
first period of the teaching practice. Taking that situation as a basis, and once hypothesis
was formulated, the next step was to create the research questions that might arise from
them. The first research question tries to answer to what extent the use of graphic
organizers has an influence in reading comprehension and this section is going to offer an
explanation of the corresponding steps that have been followed in order to answer that
first research question. Furthermore, the second research question tries to answer in
which reading stage students using graphic organizers obtain better results, in case that
using graphic organizers improves reading comprehension. The method that was used to
answer that second question is also going to be fully explained here, as well as the
materials that have been used to accomplish it.
For this experiment to be carried out, there are several variables that must be noted. The
picture below consists of a visual representation of both the dependent and the
independent variables that are involved in this research work, as well as the
interrelationship that exist between them. As it can be seen, the dependent variable is,
according to the main objective of this research work, students’ reading comprehension of
a foreign language. In turn, two are the independent variables that have been used to test
the hypothesis. Firstly, the insertion of graphic organizers in the reading comprehension
instruction is an independent variable which may or not affect reading students’ reading
comprehension. The second one is in which of the three reading stages graphic
organizers are more useful, in case the study shows that they are useful. In this sense,
students’ reading comprehension can vary depending on what is applied to it.
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According to the diagram above, which is funnily a type of a graphic organizer, the
dependent variable, located in the centre of it, corresponds to the students’ level of
reading comprehension. This dependent variable, as the graphic represents, is clearly
affected by two independent variables. The main one deals with the use of graphic
organizers itself which at the same time embraces the other independent variable, which
is in which stage implementing the use of graphic organizers is more useful for students to
improve their reading comprehension. In this way, both circles that correspond to the
independent variables round the dependent variable, meaning that it is affected by them.
Apart from the hypothesis, the research questions and the variables, it is crucial to
describe the participants who have been involved in this research, in order to comprehend
the methodology that is explained below. The participants who have taken part in this
experiment belong to the same environment, what ensures results’ validity, since all
students are on equal terms.
Use of Graphics
organizers
Differences between the
three reading stages
Students’ reading
comprehension
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The sample here tested is composed by students belonging to a private but non-state
institution located in the South of Madrid, whose name is not going to be given as neither
the names of the students forming part of the sample, trying to carry out the agreement of
privacy that all researches imply. The students not only belong to the same school, but
they are in the same class. In this sense, the majority of the students have the same age
(except for those who have repeated a course) being the average age 12/13 years old. It
obviously means that students have more or less same level of English; at least they are
exposed to the same teacher and both the same methodology and class dynamics. The
sample is composed by 28 students in total including both males and females, who are
those who have been described before. As the sample is homogenous, this research
ensures results’ validity and reliability.
Taking as a basis both the hypothesis, the variables and the participants implied in this
research, a particular methodology has been chosen and some materials were needed to
be used. Firstly, the materials used to test the hypothesis have been four English reading
comprehension tests. One of them was distributed as a pre-test and the following three
were allotted as post-tests. In any case, all of them maintained the same format: they
were composed by some instructions at the beginning, explaining students the research’s
goal since they took part in it, the time that they had to complete the task and
remembering them that they results would be taken with confidentiality and not individually,
but as a whole. Each of the four tests was composed by a different reading followed by
five true or false reading comprehension statements, according to what was told in the
reading. In order to have both valid and reliable results, the four chosen readings have
been selected from the same source, a book published by a famous editorial composed
by many readings written for students with the same level of English. Therefore, all the
readings fitted perfectly well to the students’ level of English; the pre-intermediate level. It
is important to remark that all the tests ended thanking them their participation, since
without their help it would be impossible to have a sample and to test the hypothesis.
The following table consists of a brief description of the texts that have been used in order
to prove the main hypothesis, which was to investigate about the influence of the use
graphic organizers in students’ reading comprehension.
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Main texts used in the methodology
Texts’ titles Book’s description
Do you know who Helen Keller was?
GALAXY, Lecturas programadas Inglés 8º
E.G.B. Santillana, 1985. Why play sports?
Captain Cuddle’s treasure map
Are dolphins sad?
Apart from the four different tests and considering the main objective of this research
paper, which is to investigate if using graphic organizers has an effect in reading
comprehension, there have been more materials that were used in order to accomplish
that objective. In the instruction period, a powerpoint presentation was employed to show
students the definition of a graphic organizer, as well as showing them the huge variety
that these visual aids offers. Likewise, in this period of instruction students were given
some printed graphic organizers of all types, and in the moment in which the tests were
given to students, they were also given some printed graphic organizers to be filled in.
The table below offers a visual representation of the particular graphic organizers that
were used only during the testing period, since they were those which largely contributed
to the results that were obtained in the analysed tests. As the table shows, the concrete
types of graphic organizers that were employed in that period have been specified, as well
as the category to which they belong and the stage in which they were applied.
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
Stage Category Name Pre-reading Comparing, contrasting and concluding “Discussion map” While-reading Chain of Events “The Storyboard” Post-reading Main idea/supporting ideas “What’s the main idea?”
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Once the situation has been presented, and the hypothesis, the research questions, the
variables, the participants and the materials used for this research work to be carried out
have been mentioned, it is important to state clearly the methodology that has been
followed in order to test the hypothesis. The observation week, which took place in
January, corresponding to the first period of the teaching practice, was very useful to
study the situation at school, in order to reflect on what I liked to investigate, the
participants with whom I wanted to work and the ways in which I could do it. The second
period of practice, which had a duration of approximately three months, served to carry
out what I had planned before. It was then when the selected methodology was
implemented, following various steps.
The first one, and as it has been explained before, consisted of a brief explanation of the
study in which students were going to take part. In order to begin to collect the information
that I wanted, a pre-test was distributed among the students at the beginning of the
second period of the teaching practice at the assigned school. This pre-test was
composed by some instructions and the beginning informing the students about many
important aspects of the test, such as they way in which the task should be done, the time
that they had for the task to be completed or the results’ treatment, reminding them that
they were going to be treated not individually, but in a collective way. There was no
instruction period before letting students to do the task in the stipulated time; they were
only told to do it individually, reading carefully the short text and answering true or false for
the sentences below. After that, and according to the review of literature, before
implementing the use of graphic organizers in a reading comprehension class, students
were explained what graphic organizers are as well as their uses and their different types
of formats, according to the different reading purposes. Taking that explanation as a basis,
the use of graphic organizers was introduced little by little to students in their reading
lessons.
The whole class, composed by 28 students, had three English lessons per week, as the
all the degrees at that school have. Although reading exercises were implicit in all the
English lessons, the last day of the week was totally devoted to reading and reading
comprehension exercises. Each of those days, students were asked to do a different
reading comprehension exercise with the help of graphic organizers. During the two first
months, students were in the period of instruction, where I explained to them how to use
them.
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More concretely, the first lesson in which graphic organizers were introduced consisted of
using a particular type of graphic organizer before reading the text. In this sense, that
concrete graphic organizer helped students to be introduced the topic of the text and to be
prepared for what they were going to read.
All these first tasks which included the use of graphic organizers were done thanks to my
previous explanation before each task. Once they began to use little by little graphic
organizers by themselves, I did not leave them to do it alone; on the contrary, each
reading lesson consisted of explaining them the use of each particular graphic organizer
and monitoring their actions, as well as giving them the corresponding advices. The first
particular task in which graphic organizers were involved were done in eight groups of four
people and this distribution was maintained during the following two sessions. This
particular distribution was applied due to the difficulties that using graphic organizers for
the first time imply, so, when students were grouped with the purpose of doing something
difficult, they felt more motivated because they already knew that each member of the
group could be helped by the rest.
The second session in which graphic organizers were implemented, followed the same
mechanism as the first one; students had to do a reading comprehension exercise in
groups. The only difference was that, this time, the use of graphic organizers was
implemented in the “while-reading” stage. As they were dealing with a story, the particular
graphic organizer was very helpful for them to sequence in a proper way the events that
they observed as long as they read. The third session also followed the same steps as the
previous ones, but in this case, the use of graphic organizers was implemented after
reading, in the “post-reading” stage. This exercise was applied to a reading in which
students were told about a concept and its characteristics. In this sense, students used a
graphic organizer in which they could write down the characteristics of a concept, for them
to remember them rightly.
From that particular moment, students continue their reading comprehension lessons
using graphic organizers, always with my own monitoring and help but with a minimum
change. From then until two sessions more, students were grouped in pairs instead of in
groups. This was thought for students to begin to use graphic organizers without the help
that people forming their group gave them. In this sense, students still had some help for
them not to create graphic organizers alone, although this help was minimum.
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Since those lessons, and having in mind that students had only three more instruction
lessons, the pupils worked, this time individually, on several reading comprehension texts
using graphic organizers. Obviously, they had my help, because they were still in the
graphic organizers’ instruction stage, but not their classmates’ help. It is important to say
that the graphic organizers that were used during the instruction period were of several
types, for students to see that graphic organizers not only have one universally
established use, but that they can be of different formats, according to the type of the
reading provided. Once the instruction period ended, students then faced the tests whose
results have been compiled and analysed in this research work. They were given three
tests corresponding to appendix two, three and four, and each one was done in different
days.
All of them shared the characteristics that the pre-test had; some instructions at the
beginning, the same time was provided to students to complete the task and the same
reading extension and the same type of reading comprehension exercise; five true or false
statements to be answered. The first day, in which students had to complete the reading
comprehension exercise that corresponds to appendix two, each student was given a
sheet with a graphic organizer to be filled in. As a pre-reading activity, I introduced them
the topic that the text was going to be about and the each student began to brainstorm
about it and to write down their ideas. This activity took us about five minutes and then,
the test was distributed among the students, one sheet per each. Students had fifteen
minutes to complete the task and once this time was up, the tests were given back to me.
The second test was given to students the following week. That day, I distributed two
sheets at the same time per each student; one was the test with the same characteristics
as the previous ones and the other one was a sheet containing an empty graphic
organizer. As it had been done during the instruction period, students have to fill in the
graphic organizer with the information that they gathered from the text, so in this case the
graphic organizer was used in the “while-reading” stage. The text was about a pirate’s
story and the type of graphic organizer was called “chains of events” so, as long as the
students read the text, they were writing down the events in a sequential order. Then, they
had to write true or false for the sentences below.
And finally, in the last week of the teaching practice, I distributed the last test among
students, which was designed following and including the same patterns that
characterized the previous ones. In this case, the unique difference was related to the
moment in which the graphic organizer was used.
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While in the first test the corresponding graphic organizer was used as a pre-reading
activity and in the second one, the graphic organizer was utilized in the while-reading
stage, in this third test the graphic organizer was filled in the last reading stage, which is
the post-reading. In this sense, students had to read through the whole text and then,
complete a graphic organizer designed to be filled in separating the main idea from the
secondary ones. Then, students answered true or false for the statements below the text.
As the methodology includes a lot of information, the following chart has been designed
for the purpose of presenting a visual representation of all the steps that have been
followed in this research work in order to test the hypothesis. Moreover, this graphic
shows the duration that all the steps took, the participants who were involved in the
process and their distribution along the different stages and also the different materials
that were used in order to accomplish the objective, which was to test the main hypothesis.
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Methodology Chart
Steps
Duration
Materials
Participants
Pre-test’ distribution
15 minutes
Reading
comprehension test
28 students in an
individual way
Instruction period
Two months
A reading
comprehension test
per week
3 sessions in groups
of 4
2 sessions in pairs
A graphic organizer of
each type
3 sessions
individually
Pre-reading test
15 minutes
A reading
comprehension test
Individually
“Discussion Map”
Graphic Organizer
While-reading test
15 minutes
A reading
comprehension test
Individually
“The Storyboard”
Graphic Organizer
Pos-reading test
15 minutes
A reading
comprehension test
Individually
“What’s the main idea”
Graphic Organizer
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6. ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS Once the methodology has been carried out, the different results that have been obtained
from the tests distributed among the students are going to be both presented and
analysed in this section. The presentation and the analysis of the results are going to
follow a very particular pattern; each result is going to be presented by means of a bar
chart, and, at the same time, it is going to be compared in the same graphic with other
particular results that may be interesting to be compared with.
As a type of visual aid, graphics are a really good tool to show in a quite clear and concise
way lots of different kinds of information and, what is more, to present the differences that
exist between concepts, in order to be aware of the relevance of each one in contrast with
the rest. Another important aspect concerning the graphics that are going to be employed
here is the way in which they have been created; as each one has been created
according to what was wanted to explain, a corresponding explanation will follow the
graphic organizer to facilitate its fully comprehension. Another important aspect which is
worthy of consideration is the way in which the results have been entered. As it has been
mentioned in previous sections, all the tests that were distributed among the students
shared the same format, for the results not to be favoured by a format or another, in other
words; for the results to be really reliable. Apart from including some instructions at the
beginning, all of them were composed by a reading and some reading comprehension
questions below. More concretely, those reading comprehension questions were five true
or false statements in each of the tests.
Once this has been explained, the way in which the results have been measured here has
been the following: all the graphics shows the results in terms of correct answers and, if it
is considered that 28 students composed the sample, the maximum mark that the whole
sample could obtained in each test was 140 right answers, taking into account that each
test was composed by five true or false reading comprehension questions. However, the
most important aspect here is not to consider the results of each test in isolation, but to
consider them in contrast with other particularly key results. But, before beginning to show
the results, it is important to remark what the initial hypothesis and the sub-hypothesis
were to facilitate the reader the understanding of the results’ relevance.
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The main objective of this research work was to investigate if the use graphic organizers
when dealing with a reading comprehension text could help students to improve their
reading comprehension skills. The sub-hypothesis tries to find out in which reading stage
the use of graphic organizers supposes a higher improvement when reading
comprehension is concerned, trying to confirm, as the review of literature states, that
students obtain better results if graphic organizers are used in the post-reading stage.
Beginning with the information embedded in the sub-hypothesis first, the following three
graphic organizers are going to show the results that have been gathered from the test
that were distributed in the three reading stages in contrast with the one scored in the Pre-
test. This first graphic below presents the relationship between the results that the sample
obtained in the Pre-test and the results that were collected in the pre-reading stage, once
the use of graphic organizers was obviously implemented during the period of instruction.
As it can be observed, the information on the left corresponds to a range that goes from 0
to 120, and it is distributed in multiples of twenty. That range basically corresponds to the
numbers of correct answers that the whole sample obtained, a pattern that is going to be
shared by all the graphics included in this research paper. The interesting aspect here is
that neither Pre-test’ results nor the results from the pre-reading stage were the maximum
ones, which is 140, although this graphic also shows results until 120. This means that the
sample did not obtain the best possible results in the Pre-test, something that corresponds
to the main hypothesis, which was formulated to prove if it is true that the use of graphic
organizers help students to have better results in reading comprehension tests. Therefore,
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Pre-test Pre-readingstage
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taking into consideration this first result, it can be thought that the possibility of improving
that result is quite feasible. Despite the expectations that were supported, in part, by the
review of literature, the results of the test in which graphic organizers were fulfilled during
the pre-reading stage were worse than those outcomes belonging to the pre-test’s tests.
As the review of literature has shown, there is it considerable evidence that graphic
organizers used as a pre-reading activity improve reading comprehension with respect to
those situations in which graphic organizers were not used. The graphic does not state
the same, but the difference between both results is not great: the particular result is 111
correct answers in the pre-test against 101 right answers in the pre-reading test. Despite
that minimum difference, it is fair to admit that it exists and that it is sufficient to consider
that the use of graphic organizers before the reading task, tested with the sample
previously described, has no effect in students’ reading comprehension with respect to the
absence of its use.
In order to continue analysing and explaining the results that have been obtained in the
tests, the chart below shows the marks that have been recovered from the test in which
graphic organizers were used in the while-reading stage of reading. The following graphic
also shows a comparison between those results and the ones accomplished from the pre-
test task. This time, the range of values on the left corresponds again to the correct
answers that the sample obtained in the tests and they are also grouped from 0 until the
best mark that could be got, which is 140.
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Pre-test While-readingstage
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As this chart shows, there is now a clear difference between the results obtained in the
while-reading stage test in which graphic organizers were used and the ones obtained in
the Pre-test. This time the difference between both results is really considerable, since the
result when graphic organizers were used in the while-reading stage test was 130 correct
answers in total and, as it has been stated before, the result from the Pre-test task was
111 right answers. If the review of literature is taken into consideration, it clearly supports
the results presented in this previous chart. As the researchers argued, the fact of using
graphic organizers during the while-reading stage of a reading comprehension task helps
students to have better results in the reading comprehension task.
Due to the considerable difference between both results, there is no doubt that the use of
graphic organizers during the while-reading stage makes students improve their
comprehension. The interesting aspect here is to explore the reason why the use of
graphic organizers in the while-reading stage has a positive effect on students’ reading
comprehension and why this positive effect was not shown in the pre-reading stage. A
personal reflection on the matter could arise from a simple fact; during the pre-reading
stage students do not have the reading itself in front of them and, even if they have really
imaginative brains, it seems very difficult for them to fully contextualise a topic and to
reflect on all the possible ideas about it before having the reading in from of them. In this
sense, if a teacher wants to elicit students’ participation using a graphic organizer which
can contextualize the reading that is coming, it is going to be very tricky for them, since
they would have been given only a few concepts to reflect and to comment on. However,
the result obtained in the test done during the while-reading stage is much more
explicable; students can fill in the graphic organizer writing down the ideas as long as they
go through the text, so their written words are really supported by the text itself.
Although it has been a really interesting result, the most fascinating one came when the
result from the post-reading stage test were achieved. The following graphic shows the
result obtained on the part of the sample in the immediately mentioned stage and its
relationship between the results taken from the Pre-test. This comparison has been
created by paying attention to the main hypothesis, which was to investigate if it can be
observed an improvement before the graphic organizers’ instruction period and after
having implemented it. The range of values on the left has been distributed in the same
way as it was in the previous chart; that is to say, it goes from 0 to 140 correct marks, the
maximum.
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The result performed in the post-reading stage test is really captivating for two reasons.
The first one is based on the difference between that result and the one obtained in the
pre-test task. In this case, that difference is even bigger than the one which was shown in
the previous graphic, since the number of correct answers in the post-reading test was
140 and the number of right answers in the pre-test, as it has been stated before, was 111.
The second reason is precisely related to the result that the sample obtained in the test
done in the post-reading stage. That result is simply crucial, because the sample got the
maximum mark possible, which means that the use of graphic organizers in this stage is
really helpful for students and, what is more, that the result could be equalized, but not
superseded. Trying to find a reason why that extremely good result has been achieved, it
could be thought that the success when using graphic organizers in the post-reading
stage can be related to the close relationship that has been established between the
reading and the reader. That is to say, in this stage readers have gone through the text,
dealing with both its sense and some tricky words that the text could include, whose
meaning could have been deduced from the context. So, after having read it, students
have a clear conception of the text’s sense, which can be captured in a written form.
The next chart is a visual representation of the results that the sample obtained in the
three reading stages: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading stage. The range of
values on the left has been distributed from the minimum, 0, to the maximum, 140. In this
case, the result got from the Pre-test has not been included here, since the main purpose
of this graphic is to show the relationship between the results from those tests which were
distributed among students in the three different reading stages.
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Pre-test Post-readingstage
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As it can been observed in the chart, the result in the pre-reading stage is the lowest one,
since the sample obtained 101 correct answers. The second bar shows the result that the
students got in the while-reading stage, which consists of 130 correct answers. This is a
really important result because, if it is compared with the one obtained from the pre-
reading stage; it can be appreciated that the use of graphic organizers in this stage was
considerably more helpful for students than the one got from the pre-reading stage. The
third bar shows a really important result on its own, since the sample obtained the
maximum mark possible, 140 right answers. But it is also really important compared with
the results that the sample got in the previous stages in which graphic organizers where
used because the results of the three stages experimented a gradual rose as the stages
passed by. The most characteristic difference can be found between the result from the
pre-reading stage and the result from the while-reading stage, since the sample attained
19 more correct answers in the while-reading stage with respect to the pre-reading stage’s
result.
All in all, it is important to mention the relevance that the last result showed in this graphic
has. The sample obtained the highest mark possible when graphic organizers were used
in the post-reading stage, which is a really good result on its own because it means that
the use of graphic organizers help students improve their reading comprehension skills.
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Pre-readingstage
While-readingstage
Post-readingstage
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But if the results that have been recovered in the third stages are compared it can be said
that the review of literature supports them. That assumption deals with the sub-hypothesis,
which was formulated to investigate in which stage graphic organizers were more useful
for students, in case this study shows that they are useful. The review of literature talked
about the benefits of this visual aid in all stages, but many researchers included the
review of literature of this research work affirmed that the stage in which students could
experiment a bigger improvement with respect to the others was the post-reading stage.
In the pre-reading stage students elaborated, before reading the text, on some concepts
that the teacher found interesting to comment on because they had their relevance in the
text. Although the use of graphic organizers before reading can elicit students’
participation and motivation, it is true that they have not read the text yet and they can
elaborate on many aspects on which the text can be focused or not. The results obtained
in the while-reading stage correspond to the readers’ closeness to the text, since they
could fill in the corresponding graphic organizers as long as they were reading the text, In
this case, the information with which the graphic organizers were filled in was directly
taken from the text, so the reading comprehension questions can be perfectly answered in
a correct way because of the information’s accuracy. And, as it has been stated before,
the same happens with the result derived from using graphic organizers in the post-
reading stage. If students have really worked on the reading (both in the while-reading
stage or and the post-reading stage), they can fill in the graphic organizer in a more
accurate way and, consequently, the true or false comprehension questions presented
after each reading can be properly answered.
The following chart has been designed in order to show a clear idea of to what extent the
use of graphic organizers, tested in this sample, can improve reading comprehension
skills. So, this following chart shows the answers to the main hypothesis of this research
paper, which dealt with the investigation about the benefits of using graphic organizers
with respect to those situations in which they are not used. Therefore, the graphic
presents a comparison between the result that was obtained from the pre-test task, when
the use of graphic organizers had not been implemented yet, and all the three post-tests’
average. This average has been calculated following an easy mechanism; the three
marks obtained in the post-tests have been added up and then, divided by three, which
correspond to the number of post-test tasks that the sample was asked to complete.
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By looking at the graphic, the difference between the post-tests’ average is clearly
superior to the result that the sample obtained in the Pre-test. Those results were 111 and
123’6 respectively, from which an evident difference can be concluded. Moreover, that
difference can supported by the relevance that the review of literature gave to the use of
graphic organizers to improve reading comprehension once it had been implemented
during the period of instruction. Although there was one result which was a little bit inferior
to the Pre-test task’s results, the average mark of the three post-tests’ tasks shows that
the use of graphic organizers have a positive effect in reading comprehension. Finally, this last graphic acts as a visual summary of what has been presented before, but,
this time, all the information and the consequent comparisons can be appreciated in a
single chart. This time the numbers on the left embraces from the minimum mark to the
maximum one, which is 140 correct answers.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Pre-test Post-test/Pre-reading
Post-test/While-
reading
Post-test/Post-reading
020406080
100120140
Pre-test Post-tests'
average
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This chart is composed by four bars. The first one corresponds to the result that the
sample got in the pre-test and the rest of the bars corresponds to the results that were
obtained when graphic organizers were used in all the three post-tests, and more
concretely in the pre-reading, the while-reading and the post-reading stages’ tests
respectively. As the graphic shows, there is one case in which the result obtained in the
pre-test was not exceeded. However, both the while-reading test and the post-reading
tests’ results show a great and a positive difference with respect to the pre-test’s results.
According to the review of literature and the results that have been obtained in all the
samples, it supports the idea that the use of graphic organizers, tested in the selected
sample, really improves students’ reading comprehension.
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7. CONCLUSIONS The main purpose of this research work [M1]was[M2] to investigate about the relationship
between the use of graphic organizers and the possible improvement when reading
comprehension is concerned. Furthermore, this paper grew with the idea of studying in
which stage the use of graphic organizers provoked [M3]better results. Thanks to the
investigation that has been carried out in this research work,[M4] those two hypotheses
have found their corresponding answers.
The review of literature was [M5] mainly focused on the positive effects that graphic
organizers have in reading comprehension tests. Many researchers also reflect on the
idea that, for graphic organizers to be really effective, teachers should devote a period of
instruction in which students are exposed to the use of different types of graphic
organizers applied to different type of texts. In this way, students would be sufficiently
prepared to select the most suitable graphic organizer for a concrete type of text. The
review of literature also supported the idea that the use of graphic organizers has different
effects when they are used in the different reading stages; pre-reading, while-reading and
post-reading. More concretely, many researchers argued that the use of graphic
organizers offers better results in the post-reading stage. Both ideas have been tested,
once the hypothesis and the sub-hypothesis were formulated, by means of the selected
methodology.
In order to choose the right methodology for this particular research work, many aspects
have been taken into account. Some of these important aspects are the participants, the
materials and both the dependent and the independent variables. The first two aspects
are closely related one to the other, since the different graphic organizers as well as the
tests that were used in the methodology had to be the right ones according to the
participants implied in this research paper. The third aspect, the dependent and the
independent variables, were crucial to determine the flow of the whole methodology, since
they suppose the main pillars of the hypotheses.
According to the review of literature and to the information in general that was found for
this research work to have sense, a pre-test was given to students to test the difference
between the results obtained before the instruction period and those which were obtained
after graphic organizers had been implemented in the class dynamics. Both results were
both very varied and interesting.
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Contrary to what was expected to find, the results obtained in the pre-test were a little bit
superior to those that were obtained in the test done in the pre-reading stage. Although
the review of literature did not support that idea, it[M6] is true that the difference was minor,
and for that reason, the outcomes could have varied if the sample had been composed by
different people. The tests that were done when graphic organizers were used in the
while-reading and the post-reading stages gave very interesting results. One the one hand,
the result of the test done when the selected graphic organizer was used in the while-
reading stage was clearly superior to the previous ones. This means that this research
work shows that graphic organizers, when they are used in the while-reading stage, are
more effective than when they are used as a pre-reading activity. It also shows that
students had better reading comprehension results when graphic organizers were used.
The fourth test also presented a very interesting result, since it was the highest result of all
the tests. That result confirmed what the review of literature said, which was related to the
benefits of using graphic organizers in order to improve reading comprehension, but also
to the existence of a stage in which the use of graphic organizers gives students the most
positive effects, which is the post-reading stage.
All in all, this research paper only supposes a minimum part of what the use of graphic
organizers embraces, and there are many aspects that could be studied taking as a basis
this research paper, such us investigating about the minimum difference in terms of
results between the pre-test and the pre-reading stage, taking into account that the review
of literature which was presented here pleads for the benefits of the use of graphic
organizers in whatever stage. [M7]
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8. BIBLIOGRAPHY Banikowski, A. K., & Mehring, T. A. (1999). Strategies to enhance memory based on brain research. Focus on Exceptional Children, 32, 1-16. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf Baxendell, B. W. (2003). Consistent, coherent, creative: The 3c’s of graphic organizers. Teaching Exceptional Children, 35(3), 46 – 53. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=8735 219&site=ehost-
live Boulineau, T., Fore III, C., Hagan-Burke. S., & Burke, M. D. (2004). Use of story- mapping to increase the story-grammar text comprehension of elementary students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 27, 105-121. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf Boyle, J. R., & Weishaar, M. (1997). The effects of expert-generated versus student-generated cognitive organizers on the reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 12, 228-235. Bromley, K., Irwin-DeVitis, L., & Modlo, M. (1995). Graphic organizers: Visual strategies for active learning. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf
Cesarone, B. (2007). Concept mapping in early childhood and primary education. Childhood Education, 83, 191-192. Crawford, D. B., & Carnine, D. (2000). Comparing the effects of textbooks in eighth-grade U.S. history: Does conceptual organization help? Education and Treatment of Children 4(23): 387–422. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf
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DiCecco, V.M., & Gleason, M.M. (2002). Using graphic organizers to attain relational knowledge from expository text. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35, 306-321. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf Duke, N. K., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In A. Farstrup & S. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction, (pp. 205 -242). Newark, DE: International Reading Association http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf Dye, G. A. (2000). Graphic organizers to the rescue! Helping students link - and remember information. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 32, 72-76. Dye, G. A. (2000). Graphic organizers to the rescue! Helping students link - and rememberinformation. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 32, 72-76. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf Ekhaml, L. T. (1998). Graphic organizers: Outlets for your thoughts. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 14, 29-33. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf Ellington, L. (2006). Graphic Organizers. Update on LD, 3. http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/hub/Using-graphic-organizers-to-facilitate-learning Ellis, E. (2004). Q&A: What’s the big deal with graphic organizers? http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf Ellis, E. (2005). The Theoretical and Empirical Basis for Graphic Organizer Instruction Stephen Wills. The University of Alabama. http://www.hoover.k12.al.us/hcsnet/rfbms/makessense%207.4/donotopenfolder/implmnt/d
ontopen/msstrats/stuf/TheoreticBasis.pdf
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Ellis, E. & Howard, P. (2005). Graphic Organizers: Power Tools for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities. The University of Alabama. Graphic Organizers & Learning Disabilities. http://www.graphicorganizers.com/About-MSS/graphic-organizers-power-tools-for-
teaching-students-with-learning-disabilities.html Ellis, E., & Howard (2007). Graphic organizers: Power tools for teaching students with leaning Disabilities. Current Practice Alerts, 13, 1-4. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf Gajria, M., Jitendra, A. K., Sood, S. & Sacks, G. (2007). Improving comprehension of expository text in students with LD: A research synthesis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40, 210-225. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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Gallavan, N. P., & Kottler, E. (2007). Eight types of graphic organizers for empowering social studies students and teachers. The Social Studies, 98, 117-23. Gallavan, N. P., & Kottler, E. (2007). Eight types of graphic organizers for empowering social studies students and teachers. The Social Studies, 98, 117-23. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf Griffin, C. C., & Tulbert, B. L. (1995). The effect of graphic organizers on students’ comprehension and recall of expository text: A review of the research and implications for practice. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 11(1), 73-89. http://www.hoover.k12.al.us/hcsnet/rfbms/makessense%207.4/donotopenfolder/implmnt/d
ontopen/msstrats/stuf/TheoreticBasis.pdf
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Guastello, E. F., Beasley, T. M. & Sinatra, R. C. (2000). Concept mapping effects on science content comprehension of low-achieving inner-city seventh graders. Remedial and Special Education, 20(6), 356-364. http://www.hoover.k12.al.us/hcsnet/rfbms/makessense%207.4/donotopenfolder/implmnt/d
ontopen/msstrats/stuf/TheoreticBasis.pdf Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002). Graphic organizers. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/udl/documents/GraphicOrganizersUDL.
Hall, T., & Strangman, N. (2002). Graphic organizers. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/hub/Using-graphic-organizers-to-facilitate-learning
Hew, K., J. Hur, H. Jang, & Tian, L. (2004). The eight events of instruction: An instructional method based on the constructivist paradigm. In Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, ed. C. Crawford, N. Davis, J. Price, R. Weber, and D. A. Willis, 4110–15. Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf Horton, S., Lovitt, T., & Bergerud, D. (1990). The effectiveness of graphic organizers for three classifications of secondary students in content area classes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23(1), 12-22.
Huang, P. (2002). The Effects of Graphic Organizer Use on Reading Comprehension. Southeastern Louisiana University. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf
Hutchinson, C.B., & Padgett II, B. L. (2007). How to create and use analogies effectively in teaching science concepts. Science Activities 44, 69-72. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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James, L. A., Abbott, M., & Greenwood, C. R. (2001). How Adam became a writer. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 33, 30-36. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf
Keel, M. C., Dangel, H. L., & Owens, S. H.(1999). Selecting instructional intervention for students with mild disabilities in inclusive classrooms: Focus on Exceptional Children, 31, 1-16. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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Lovitt, S. (1994). Strategies for adapting science textbooks for youth with learning disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 15(2), 105-116. http://www.mentoringminds.com/research/graphic-organizers
Lubin, J. & Sewak, M. (2007). Enhancing Learning Through the Use of Graphic Organizers: A Review of Literature. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf MacKinnon, G. R., & Deppell, M. (2005). Concept mapping: A unique means for negotiating meaning in professional studies. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 3 (14): 291–315. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf
Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. (2001). Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. http://www.mentoringminds.com/research/graphic-organizers
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Mautone, P.D., & Mayer R.E. (2007). Cognitive aids for guiding graph comprehension. Journal of Education Psychology, 99, 640-652. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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anizers.pdf McMackin, M. C., & Witherell, N. L. (2005). Different routes to the same destination: Drawing conclusions with tiered graphic organizers. Reading Teacher, 59(3), 242–252. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf
Meyen E. L., Vergason, G.A. & Whelan. R. J. (1996). Strategies for teaching exceptional children in inclusive settings. Denver, CO: Love. Moore, D. W., & Readence, J. E. (1984). A quantitative and qualitative review of graphic organizer research. Journal of Educational Research, 78 (1), 11-17. www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/udl/GraphicOrganizersHTML.asp Pressley, M. (2000). What should comprehension instruction be the instruction of? In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research, (Vol. 3, pp. 545 – 562). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf
Simmons, D. C., Griffin, C. C., & Kameenui, E. J. (1988). The effects of teacher constructed pre and post-graphic organizer instruction on sixth-grade science students’ comprehension and recall. Journal of Educational Research, 28 (1), 15-21. http://www.hoover.k12.al.us/hcsnet/rfbms/makessense%207.4/donotopenfolder/implmnt/d
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Smith, D.D. (2007) Introduction to Special Education: Making a Difference (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson. http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/hub/Using-graphic-organizers-to-facilitate-learning
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Sorrel, A.L. (1990). Three reading comprehension strategies: TELLS, story mapping, and QARs. Academic Therapy, 25, 359-368. http://www.lynchburg.edu/Documents/GraduateStudies/Lynchburg%20College%20Journa
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Swanson, P. N., & DeLaPaz, S. (1998). Teaching effective comprehension strategies to students with learning and reading disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 33,209-218. http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~phuang/600/readorgan.pdf Vacca, R., & Vacca, J.A. (2001). Content area reading. New York: Allyn and Bacon. http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf Vaughn, S. & Edmonds, M. (2006). Reading comprehension for older readers. Intervention in School and Clinic, 41, 131-137. Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hubpages http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/hub/Using-graphic-organizers-to-facilitate-learning
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Research Starters http://www.dswleads.com/Ebsco/Graphic%20Organizers.pdf The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/udl/documents/GraphicOrganizersUDL.
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10. APPENDIX This section includes some materials done by students. More concretely, it includes an
example of each of the tests from which the outcomes here presented and analysed have
been considered, as well as an example of each of the graphic organizers that were used
in each stage. It is important to remark that the documents below are attached in the
same order as they were done by students.
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