Graphic organizers provide students with visual information
that complements the class
discussion or text in ways that really aid students’
comprehension of text. Organizers can be used in many forms and are a great way
to get students to get students engaged. In 2007, a Northern Arizona University
study suggested that graphic organizers can significantly improve student comprehension
in a wide variety of students. However, their findings where very interesting.
The authors suggest that teaching text structure awareness in the content
areas, and training students in using organizers as they read, will increase their
ability to identify text types, increase students’ ability to fill graphic
organizer with appropriate information, summarizing, and aid in comprehension
of text. As the authors point out:
“To
this point we have argued that there is a strong set of research studies from
L1 context to support the use of GOs to raise text structure awareness among
students”.
This information
is very interesting and certainly uses a good number of studies to support
their conclusions. I find that this is something to keep in mind, and definitely
a model to keep in mind. I can definitely see how it would be easy for me to
implement such strategies in my particular content (I am a Social Studies
teacher).
References:
[1] Jiang, Xiangying, and William Grabe. "Graphic Organizers in Reading Instruction: Research Findings and Issues." Reading in a Foreign Language. 1st ed. Vol. 19. N.p.: n.p., 2007. 34-55. Print.
[2] Akhondi, Masoumeh, Faramarz Aziz Malayeri, and Arshad Abd Samad. "How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension." Reading Rockets. WETA, Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2015.
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