Using Graphic Organizers as a Means for Strengthening Writing Skills

Megan Escareo

Action Research Project

Graduate Teaching Certification Program
Grand Valley State University
Grand Rapids, Michigan
March 2017
 Graphic Organizers as a Means for Strengthening Writing Skills
In a classroom of 17 first graders, 4 students were exhibiting signs of frustration,
confusion, and severe lack of interest in writing. The class as a whole seemed to
struggle with writing organized, detailed pieces. However, the four students in
comparison with their peers and classmates, had a severe lack of organizational skills
and seemed to need a greater amount of explicit direct instruction. The classroom
teachers met and discussed the issues that needed to be addressed. They decided that
a new approach to the writing curriculum would need to be taken for the class overall as
well as provide better scaffolding that was specifically tailored to these 4 students. This
report takes a look at the research and the practices used as a means to find strategies
that would benefit the students and their writing skills.
The approach of this research was birthed organically. After examining the
students progress, or lack thereof, the classroom teachers made adjustments according
to the needs that arose during the data collection process. The original plan of action
was to simply use graphic organizers as a rough draft version and not just as the one
and final copy of the students written work. This proved to be an improvement, but
certainly, it was not enough. Mentor texts and a longer gradual release period (4
weeks), and finally the use of turn-and-talk collaboration as a means of processing
thoughts and ideas were employed. As each new strategy was introduced, new gains
began to appear in the work of all of the students. In particular, improvement was
evident in the work of the four students who struggled the most in their writing.
Research conducted by Margorie Brown (2011) found that graphic organizers
can be used as a way for students to break down the concrete to abstract thought
process of writing. Graphic organizers create a visual link to more complex thinking.
She goes on to say that research has found that an overwhelming number of students
(90%) noted they struggled with organizing their thoughts in the pre-writing process.[]
An additional study conducted by Harrington et al., (1998) found that students work,
which utilized graphic organizers for the writing process resulted in greater focus, more
details, and order of organization (Brown, 2011). According to The National
Assessment of Educational Progress, three quarters of American students only ever
achieve basic level writing skills. Approximately one quarter students perform at the
proficient level. It should be noted that basic level achievement, according to the study,
implies that partial mastery of writing skills necessary for proficiency are acquired
(Capretz, Ricker, Sasak, 2003). This prompted the teachers to reexamine their delivery
of the writing lessons, and approach the curriculum with more scaffolding supports than
before.
Originally, during the writing block, the students would receive a prompt, a
teacher model, and graphic organizer that was sectioned off with the key elements of
the specific writing style. They may or may not publish the writing that was on graphic
organizer. If they did, the publishing piece lacked correlating element sections, so the
students would often try to fit all of their writing on one page of the publishing booklet,

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making it disorganized and hard to read. The students were divided into 5 groups where
5 days of the week, either 3 or 4 students would meet with the teachers to have their
work evaluated and discussed on a one-to-one level. During the rest of the writing
block, the teachers would circulate the room and help as needed. It was during this data
collection process, that the teachers attention was brought to the four students who
were struggling significantly compared to their peers. It was noted that one of the
students was refusing to work or working so slowly that he had 5 finished pieces of
writing at the end of the December, whereas his peers had nearly 15 finished pieces.
Two of the four students were also producing significantly less work, but also, showed a
lack of depth and independence in their writing skills. The fourth student moved to the
classroom during the last week of December. He was an ELL student who had attended
another school that was entirely Spanish speaking and his home language was
Spanish. His attendance at both his prior school and his current school was intermittent
with a large number of absences. These factors deeply affected his learning. These four
students were placed with the student teacher for the remainder of the school year as a
small group who would meet and work together during the writing block.
Instead of using the graphic organizer as a final publishing piece, the teachers
reevaluated their approach. The first change made was to use the graphic organizer as
a rough draft piece (rather than just a section by section writing page) and adding two
map/web organizers. This approach started with the How-to writing unit. The teacher
would model a how-to piece, using the graphic organizers. Research has shown that all
students benefit from using graphic organizers [] (Lott and Reid, 2015). This was
good news because the reality was that all of the students needed improvement in their
writing. Keeping this in mind, we began with web and then a map to record and
organize our ideas before writing. First a web was used to list the various things that
each student was an expert at; i.e. making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, riding a
bike, braiding hair, etc. From there, a map was used to map out one of the how-to ideas
step by step. The teacher modeled how to use the idea map to transfer their story over
to a graphic organizer page that had a space for each step of the how-to. After the
graphic organizer was checked and approved by the teachers, the students could then
publish the page using a blank publishing booklet.
The teachers noticed some great improvement among the higher achieving
students who had previously been writing at a basic or nearly proficient level. They
began to write sentences that had more depth and thought into them. The four students
who had struggled from the beginning seemed to show some improvement, but needed
step by step instruction through the entire process. Their sentences were often started
by one of the teachers in an effort to help them to finish even one piece of how-to
writing. Their peers again, were producing nearly double the amount of how-to pieces.
Opinion writing was the next unit in writing, and it was determined that mentor
texts and a much longer gradual release period would be needed. Also, it was decided
that this unit should be studied for a longer period of time in order for the students to

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gain confidence in their skills and to become comfortable using the procedures
expected of them.
The first mentor text used was The Perfect Pet by Margie Palatini. The teacher
modeled how she would write the opinion piece if she were the main character of the
book, starting with the graphic organizer. The students listened to the teacher as she
modeled her thinking. The next day, the teacher modeled how to use the graphic
organizer to publish this opinion piece. On the following day, the text was read again.
This time, the students were asked to consider the parents opinion of the pets, in
particular, that of the cat. The teacher repeated the process, inviting the students to
have more say in the process of filling out the graphic organizer. The students were
then released with the final publishing booklet, and asked to practice filling it out using
the teacher-version of the graphic organizer. This final publishing booklet was organized
with the same headings that were marked in the graphic organizer. This allowed for an
easier transition from the organizer to the final writing, and thus, more independence.
The next two opinion pieces were prompts that asked the students to choose
between (1) indoor and outdoor recess and (2) two recess activities. The students then
needed to state which activity they enjoy better and then give two reasons why. The
pages had a sentence starter and did not require a conclusion sentence.
The students were provided with a topic sentence starter and a conclusion
sentence starter handout. The handout had 3-4 sentence prompts for each type of
sentence. From this point on, the students were asked to use this handout with each of
their opinion pieces.
The teacher read Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal as a mentor text. The
teacher used the graphic organizer to demonstrate the starter sentence for each side of
the duck/rabbit argument. After choosing which side of the argument they wanted to
side with, the students were released to complete the rest of the graphic organizer
sheet on their own, listing their two reasons and a concluding sentence. Afterward, the
organizer was checked by the teacher and edits were made as necessary. The four
students in particular, worked with the student teacher each day where she was able to
assist these students in processing their thoughts and assisting in the organization of
their ideas. The next day, the mentor text was revisited before writing the final draft. The
students were given the animal (duck or rabbit) that corresponded with their opinion.
They colored the image and added details to match their description of the animal. This
activity caused great excitement for the students as it involved more hands-on creativity
than the prior assignments. Due to the animated nature of the story, the students began
to write their own opinion piece with more details than earlier exhibited. However, the
ELL student struggled with the concept of choosing his own opinion. He wrote both
sides of the argument as was presented by the teacher model. The teacher worked with
him individually as a way to provide more explicit instruction.
The teachers began to see improvement in all of the students performance, but
especially in that of the four students who were of the highest concern. These students
were the same who seemed to fall behind the class in most subject areas. The teachers

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knew that if they could improve their writing skills, the higher the chance that gains
could be made throughout their learning. Students who develop the ability to produce
quality writing with assistance from instructors are more likely to prosper significantly
(Capretz, Ricker, Sasak, 2003). While there were gains being made, there was still
room for further improvement. The teachers began to use turn-and-talk as a way to
spark higher-level thinking. Using a daily opinion prompt, the teachers would model their
thinking and how they would fill out the graphic organizer with their thoughts. The
students were then asked to turn and talk to their elbow partner for one minute each.
Partner one would state their opinion on the topic and provide 2 reasons and a
concluding statement. Afterwards, partner two would do the same. The students were
then released to their seats where they filled out the graphic organizer and used a
checklist to ensure that key elements (capitals, punctuation, nouns, and verbs) were
present for each sentence. They raised their hand to have the teachers check their work
before they moved on to their publishing booklet.
Once the turn-and-talk method was employed, the four students began to really
flourish in their writing. They would come to the meeting table ready to work and knew
exactly what they were going to write. Prior to this, the simple questioning of the student
teacher (What are you going to write about today?) did not have this same effect. It
would appear that, along with becoming comfortable with the procedures of the opinion
writing unit, the process of turning and talking to a peer made a considerable difference
in the students writing. Each of these four students made personal strides in their
writing skills. They each gained confidence in their writing, began to work with more
independence than before, and wrote with surprising details that were absent prior to
this procedure. These students began to write as much or nearly as much as their
classmates. Their graphic organizers and their publishing booklets began to match;
whereas before, two of the four students, in particular, would fill out the graphic
organizer and not consult the organizer as a means to fill out the final publishing
booklet. The extra labeling that was added to the publishing booklet may have been
most beneficial in this matter, but even with it, in the early stages of opinion writing, it
was hard for these students to match which sections of the organizer with where they
needed to be written on the booklet pages.
There is no way to know for sure which of the strategies that were added to the
writing block had the best impact on the students. However, it is logical to assume that
each strategy had a positive effect on the students to some degree. It maybe that one
strategy worked better for some of the students than for others, but whatever the case
may be, the class as a whole made strong gains in their writing skills. The four students
who were of greatest concern made excellent improvements, not just on a personal
level, but also in general, they too gained momentum in the organization of their writing.
Further research can be conducted through the continued use of graphic organizers in
other writing styles to see how the students respond when writing in an unfamiliar
genre.

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 References

Brown, M. (2011). Effects of graphic organizers on student achievement in the

writing process Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/964186647?accountid=39473
Capretz, K., Ricker, B., & Sasak, A. (2003). Improving organizational skills
through the use of graphic organizers. (). Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/62230978?accountid=39473
Lott, K., & Read, S. (2015). MAP IT THEN WRITE IT! Science and
Children, 53(3), 46-52. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/1728349112?accountid=39473