Project

1/18/12 Here is my project that I did for Dr. Henkin last semster. Dr. Flores had trained me to write a proposal and fulfill the IRB requirements and I can help if you are willing to take up a project. However, Dr. Martinez wants us to just to put a proposal together and worry about the data next semester. Think about it and let me know by next week.

Kalpana M. Iyengar Dr. Roxanne Henkin/ C&I 5723 **T** ** Annotated List of Articles on Graphic Organizers ** Alvermann, the pioneer of graphic design research uses this study to assess the use of graphic organizers as an alternative to text that was not cohesive. The researcher used about 114 tenth graders who read two different texts and compared and contrasted the text discourse for their organization. The researcher used both groups as experimental and deduced that the descriptive text analyses were better than the other texts used. The researcher was able to pin point that graphic organizers were helpful when readers had to organize the text to locate the relationships between concepts. Baxendell’s research on graphic organizers is based on his understanding of Ausubel’s advanced organizers. Baxendell’s article revolves around the importance of how “when developing and using graphic organizers, [one must] remember that the primary purpose is to make abstract concepts and relationships clear” (p. 48). The article focuses on the three important ways to use the graphic organizers to help children with disabilities to learn the text as efficiently as their peers. The article explains the 3 C’s needed for graphic organizers as effective tool for teaching text structure – consistent, coherent, and creative. The researcher stresses the importance of visual aids and presentation style in graphic organizers in teaching students with special needs. This article examines the needs of ELL in content areas. The article is helpful to teachers who have a number of ELL in their classrooms who are not equipped with language skills for success across the disciplines. The author discusses three important problems that ELL teachers have to be aware of so the teachers can begin to understand the ELL needs in their classrooms – Time to acquire L2, dual responsibilities of the ELL in L1classrooms, and multimodal teaching for processing information presented to ELL. The author’s call to ELL teachers to consider curriculum that is student friendly to ELL and her approach to help ELL by offering suggestions is informative. Dye, a middle special education teacher and the author of this article explores the interdisciplinary approach to helping students with disabilities. She examines the cognitive approach to learning. This approach helps researchers look into how students receive and later process information to remember the textual discourse, which may assist students in their content areas. Graphic organizers and its benefits to students who may have difficulties to understand the text structure is discussed at length. The use of this tool as an instructional technique is also examined. This article discusses the key elements of a quality literacy program in six categories. The sections are – Breakthrough to Literacy, which focuses on the language skills, visual arts, and community building through these skills. Rules to establish workshops to foster reading and writing skills are presented. Second, Independent reading, which is important for developing interest through a selection of books and the design of mini lessons, conferences, group share, and response journals are discussed. Third, the guided reading section discusses structure structures and its organization. Fourth, literature study helps us understand the value of literature and the different ways to engage with the text content. Finally, the section on the reading and writing connection provides examples of instructional contexts including poetry, writer’s notebook and talks, genre, content literacy and student research. This publication for the Center for Measurements, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston in collaboration with the department of education in Florida identifies and addresses ELLs problem areas in English language acquisition. The document analyses ELLs needs, instruction and intervention, response to intervention using Response to Intervention Model (RTI) model, and examines the relationships between English proficiency and academic achievements. The early detection of ELLs problems with reading skill is also discussed at length. The document also offers several recommendations to the districts and educational institutions – (1) The RTI model for “The model emphasizes a careful match between student difficulties and intensive, targeted classroom-level instruction and intervention prior to consideration for special education placement (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Speece, 2002; Fuchs, Mock, Morgan, & Young, 2003 as cited in Rivera, Lesaux, & Francis, 2008), (2) Matched early literacies and interventions with a combination of skills, (3) Peer-assisted learning for ELLs with disability, (4) Instructions for at-risk ELLs, (5) ELLs using vocabulary and prior knowledge, and (6) Older ELLs using cognitive strategies. The above recommendations were based on a longitudinal study as part of the Early Reading Project that studies“the theoretical and practical understanding of the role of phonological-processing abilities for young students who are acquiring second language reading skills” (P. 32). Finally, the researchers conclude by inviting all ELL teachers to consider professional development where theory and pedagogy on second language acquisition is reiterated. **Methodology and Analysis** Quasi experimental design. ESL students from EN 0301 were considered the pre and post test group. EN 0301 students were taught using graphic organizers with six writing activities based on the different rhetorical modes/patterns from a prescribed text. GOs were used with narration, process analysis, classification, cause and effect, argumentation, definition, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. The following GOs were implemented with teaching the different modes/patterns. Process Analysis Classification Cause and Effect Argumentation Compare and Contrast Narration For example, with narration, the students were given a chapter from the novel "I'll ask you three times, are you OK?" by Naomi Shihab Nye. They were provided with an empty GO and asked to read the chapter. The students had to think of a topic/theme from the chapter and fill in the circles and squares. The circles indicate the main points and the squares indicate the examples that support the point.GO helps students understand the connection/relationships between concepts in the text. An empty GO template was provided and here is one example from a student. [|sightseeing.docx]
 * Teacher as Researcher Project** Graphic Organizers as a cognitive tool
 * Abstract** The goal of this pilot research project is to examine the impact of graphic organizers (GOs) on paragraph writing and international English as a Second Language (ESL) students. As the director of ESL, I was particularly interested in the students enrolled in the intermediate Rhetoric and Composition Course, EN 0301, which is a pre-requisite for the Rhetoric and Composition course. Graphic organizers are cognitive tools that facilitate learning. Also, Graphic organizers are one such tool that can help writers formulate their ideas and organize the concepts in ways that will be understandable to a reader, especially the ESL. This pilot study explored whether graphic organizers were beneficial to ESL in understanding the text structure as presented in different rhetorical modes/patterns. The researcher chose the quasi-experimental research design. Before-and-after design with pre and post tests without comparison group was considered appropriate for this pilot study given the subjects and time limitation (Chambliss and Schutt, 2006). One EN 0301 section was involved in the 14 week pilot study. The ESL international students were given six paragraphs throughout the semester and asked to design six graphic organizers. Later, the professor provided the students with six graphic organizers already populated with information so the students could write six different paragraphs. The students were also required to write their own paragraphs using the models provided along with designing graphic organizers for texts read for in-class and out-of-class assignments. The results indicated that nine out of eleven EN 0301 students could use graphic organizers to better understand the text structure. However, this pilot can be further researched with a control group so the effectiveness of the cognitive tool can be assessed. //Key words: graphic organizers, text structure, rhetorical modes, ESL//
 * Introduction** The main objective of this pilot study was to explore the impact of graphic organizers on ESL international students' paragraph reading and writing. Reading and writing in English can be challenging to international students who study abroad. As the director of ESL/IEP at a four year private university, I work with several international students from all over the world. I teach rhetoric and composition for international students, and I have observed the difficulties they face while reading and writing academic text. I am constantly looking for ways and strategies to help my ESL learners acquire language skills for success across the disciplines. One such discovery through my doctoral program in interdisciplinary learning and teaching was graphic organizers. According to According to Fountas and Pinnell (2001), “Organizers portray knowledge in a meaningful way, which helps bring clarity to ideas as connections are made” (P, 1). In order for the students to categorize and classify concepts, they need to develop a schematic map and GO is a simple schematic map. My preoccupation is to compare and evaluate my ESL students' reading and writing activities using GOs and hence improvement in understanding the text structure.
 * Purpose of Research** The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of graphic organizers on ESL's writing and reading activities. This pilot study used writing and reading samples with the implementation of the GOs and writing and reading samples when GOs were not used.
 * 1. Alvermann, D. (1980). The Compensatory Effect of Graphic Organizers on ** ** Descriptive Text. //The Journal of Educational Research 75//(1), 44-48. **
 * 2. Baxendell, B. (2005). Consistent, Coherent, Creative: The 3 C’s of Graphic ** ** Organizers. Teaching Exceptional Children 53(3), 46-53. **
 * 3. Carrier, K. (2005). Key Issues for Teaching English Language Learners in ** ** Academic Classrooms. //Middle School Journal//, November 2005. **
 * 4. Dye, G. (2005). Graphic Organizers to the Rescue! Helping Students Link- ** ** and Remember-Information. //Teaching Exceptional Children, 32//(3), 72-76. **
 * 5. Fountas, L and Pinnel, K. (2001). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: ** ** Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth: Heinemann. **
 * 6. Fisher, D., Frey, N., and Williams, D. (2002). Seven Literacies that Work. //Reading and Writing in Content Area, 60//(3), 70-103. ** This article deals with the seven literacies that every teacher has to master in order to help his/her students succeed. The authors describe how they helped a specific school in California that was in trouble because of low student scores. The researchers formed a task force of teachers, administrators, and professors to help the at-risk school. Seven instructional strategies were designed and applied to different subject areas. Every teacher in the school was required to use them after approval. Ultimately, it was found to help students in all areas and hence was considered for adoption by other schools in the state. The seven strategies are – read-alouds, K-W-L charts, graphic organizers, vocabulary instruction, writing to learn, structured note taking, and reciprocal teaching. The graphic organizer section deals with a science teacher’s revelation of how this tool can help students understand the relationships between different parts of an atomic model through the use of collaborative group work.
 * 7. Hawk, P. (2005). **** Using graphic organizers to increase achievement in ** ** middle school life Science. //Science Education 70//(1), 81-87. **** DOI: 10.1002/sce.3730700110 ** The major preoccupation of most educators is the need to explore methods that will result in better cognitive learning along with enabling students learn by using lessons that are engaging to them. Given the costs involved in curriculum design, teachers constantly strive to find something affordable and result oriented. One alternative solution to the expensive materials and training sessions can be the use of graphic organizers to teach students the text structure. In addition, graphic organizers or concept maps are both appealing and beneficial to students and it does not cost the teachers any out of pocket costs. Graphic organizers may be a solution to help students understand the text organization, which is vital for success in content areas. ** 8. Lopez, M., Ponce, H., & Quezada, R. (2010). **** Use of Interactive Graphic Organisers for Developing Cognitive Skills in Higher Education. ****// International Journal of Digital Society 1 //**** (2), pp. 67-75. Retrieved from: [] society.org/IJDS/Use%20of%20Interactive%20Graphic%20Organisers%20for%20Developing%20Cognitive%20Skills%20in%20Higher%20Education.pdf ** This is case study based research conducted by engineering faculty in their Industrial Civil Engineering Class in a university in Chile. A set of eight graphic organizers to facilitate cognitive development in students, were used in the study. The findings reveal that curricular integration experience of a software application denominated Interactive Graphic Organiser (IGOs) was beneficial in understanding the text presented. The methodology was quasi experimental with a control group and experimental group. The qualitative and quantitative approach yielded better results. The qualitative data analysis suggested that students could organize their thoughts better and focus on the important information. The quantitative data helped the researchers infer that IGOs helped produce efficient materials and work flow. ** 9. **** Rivera, M. O., Moughamian., A. C., Lesaux., N. K., & Francis, D. J. (2008). Language and reading interventions for English language learners and English language learners with disabilities. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction **** . **** Retrieved from: [] **
 * 10. Robinson, D and Kiewra, K. (1995). Visual argument: Graphic organizers ** ** are superior to outlines in improving learning from text. //Journal of Educational Psychology 87//(3), 455-467. doi: **[|**10.1037/0022-0663.87.3.455**] Keeping in mind the difficulty of deciphering the relationships between concepts in a long text, Daniel and Kenneth describe the use of graphic organizers to help students better understand a text. This research article discusses the advantages of graphic organizer use as against the outline use while teaching students to understand text organization. The two experiments that the researchers conducted to answer their question about the text information and choice of a graphic organizer or an outline. The results suggested that students who had more time with graphic organizer understood the text better than the students who used an outline to understand the same text. The following difference may help other researchers understand the difference between an outline and a graphic organizer. Text – Schizophrenia Outline – (1). Simple/A,B,C, (2). Paranoid/A,B,C, (3). Catatonic/A,B,C, and (4). Hebephrenic/A,B,C Graphic Organizer - Schizophrenia **Background** While our international students excel in their chosen area of study (major), they have inadequate English language skills that are needed for success across the disciplines. We accept students based on their Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing (IELTS). As the director of English as a Second Language (ESL) and Intensive English Program (IEP), the university requires me to access the international students’ above test scores and place them in appropriate ESL classes. I teach EN 0301 (the prerequisite course for EN 1313), EN 1313 (Rhetoric and Composition for International undergraduate Students), EN 1314 (for graduate students), and SE 1321 (Oral Communication for International students. I will not be teaching this course beginning 2012 because I would like to focus on the writing courses). A few students are admitted on a conditional basis with the requirement that they take ESL courses that they are placed in and pass the courses with a grade of B or higher. I nternational students may not be taught English like we do here in American higher educational institutions. Hence, it is important for English professors to expose them, offer them with instruction and materials that are both beneficial and conducive for their language skills acquisition and enhancement. The choice of graphic organizers to teach them schemata required to understand text structure and hence acquire the ability to read and write academic papers for all the classes they are enrolled in was beneficial based on my pilot study. I tried teaching with linear texts by explaining what a topic sentence or a thesis statement and supporting details were, but some students were left without able to decipher the interconnectivity of concepts within a paragraph or an essay. I used to make them underline each and every sentence so they could model the sentences in their own writing, but again some students did not understand how to adapt the relationships while writing their own paragraphs or essays. Now, I use the graphic organizers (GO) as a cognitive tool to teach schemata so my students can understand the relationships and make sense why sentences are arranged in a particular way in texts that they read and write. My university is a private, catholic (Marianist) institution that admits about 200 freshmen each year. It is a tuition driven institution and hence the conscientious obligation and responsibility on my part to give the best tools possible so they can learn and later use the knowledge that they gain in English classes across curriculum and later in their lives. Our international students are culturally diverse with first time study- abroad experience. Initially, they suffer from culture shock because they are far away from home environments with some support on campus. A few international students are day scholars/commuters and others live in the dormitories on campus. We organize International Education Week in collaboration with The International Offices in November, where entertainment and sports events such as performances, world cup soccer, and other religious activities like “Visit a Mosque” once a year to help our students from far away to feel at home. ** Description of students ** My students are from different parts of the world. They come from Saudi Arabia, China, Korea, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Peru, Portorico, and Mexico. Several of these students come on sports related scholarships. Others get scholarships from their governments or pay the tuition. Undergraduate students come to Business department and are interested in majoring in Accounting and International Business. Graduate students predominantly come to St. Mary’s University to seek a graduate degree in Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or International Relations. We get both male and female students who have a good standing in their high school performance. The students are both traditional (ones who come as soon as they graduate from high schools) and non-traditional (older students who may have graduated some years ago and may have worked in their related fields back home). The students range from 19 years old to 30 years old.
 * Courses Taught in Fall 2011** EN 0301 - Intermediate Rhetoric and Composition for International Students EN 1313 - Rhetoric and Composition for International Students SE 1321 - Oral Communication for International Students
 * The project and your questions** a. Graphic Organizers (GO) b. Does the implementation of GO have an impact on students' understanding of text structure?
 * Related literacy research ** The first readwritethink activity on **9/16** at St. Mary's university. Christina and I decided to use the Concept Map (Graphic Organizer/GO) to teach my EN 0301 students vocabulary building using a chapter from the novel, //I' ll Ask You Three Times: Are You Okay// by Niomi Nye Shihab. Kalpana I explained the activity to the students so they could begin to fill in the circles and squares (see GO below) based on their reading of the chapter on //Sight Seeing//. I did not explain that they had to look for relationships between the words in the circles and squares. I consciously decided not to label any word so the students could make their own connections. [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png caption="external image vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png" link="http://integratingrdgandla.wikispaces.com/file/view/Template+0301.docx"]][|Template 0301.docx] Evaluation 1. How did it go? The students enjoyed reading the chapter from a novel. They had to clarify culture bound words like totilla etc. It may be a first time activity to some international students. 2. What were the highlights?A novel is a new genre for some of the incpoming freshman. They were asked to read one chapter because next semster they will read a full length novel. Students seem to have trouble when asked to underline the connections between concepts in atext, but the GO seem to have put them on a trajectory.3. What would you do differently next time?I would discuss the benefit/value of the exercise with the students and give them time to reflect on the activity.4. Will you use this acttivity again? Yes. **9/23 (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking)** First, I gave them a graphic organizer (GO) with some words filled in and required them to write a paragraph based on the information in the GO. Next, I gave them a paragraph and asked them to create a graphic organizer.Once the ELL were comfortable with using the GO for understanding the text structure, I invited Christina to my EN 0301 (Pre-requisite class for the Rhetoric and Composition/remedial English) to help my students participate in the the ReadWriteThink activity required for Dr. Henkin's class. The following GO and paragraph will help you understand the activity. [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png caption="external image vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png" link="http://integratingrdgandla.wikispaces.com/file/view/GO.docx"]][|GO.docx] "My sister an I have three different characteristics. One, our personalities are not the same. While I am quiet and shy, my sister is talkative and bold. Two, my lifestyle does not match with hers at all. My sister is a married woman with no children. She has been to college, and she teachers school. I am divorced with two children, a students yet, and I work night shifts. Last, our relationship with our mother is very different. I am always there for her, but my sister hardly visits my mother. I feel pressure because of the burden, yet I love to do it. In spite of our differences, my sister and I are close in life" (student response). The students were asked to work with a "concept map" (retrieved from readwritethink website. The instructions were as follows: The concept map below is a way for you to show relationships between words and concepts. An arrow connecting two words shows that words are related in some way. You can add more arrows and more bubbles to the map as needed. When you're done, you can group words that go together with a circle or box (from the readwritethink activity site) The students were given a chapter from the novel "I'll ask you three times, are you OK?" by Naomi Shihab Nye. They were provided with an empty GO and asked to read the chapter. The students had to think of a topic/theme from the chapter and fill in the circles and squares. The circles indicate the main points and the squares indicate the examples that support the point. The GO helps students understnd the connection/relationships between points in the text. EN 0301 students are here in the US for the first time. [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png caption="external image vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png" link="http://integratingrdgandla.wikispaces.com/file/view/temp1.docx"]][|temp1.docx]**10/ 5/11**[[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png caption="external image vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.png" link="http://integratingrdgandla.wikispaces.com/file/view/sightseeing.docx"]][|sightseeing.docx]ReadWriteThink 2 We made the students present the paragraph about travel abroad in class. I asked students to write down the gist of other students' paragraphs and we also encouraged questions from the peers. Evaluation 1. How did it go?Students were enthusiastic about the reading because it was somethig that they coud relate to based on their experiences in life. They used words that they were confortable using and other stduents understood the reading well.2. What were the highlights? This activity called for active reading and listening skills. Students were able to reproduce what the other students had gathered. 3. What would you do differently next time? I would use two class periods for the activity; one to read their stories, and the other to write a reflrction of other readings. 4. Will you use this activity again? Yes! **10/20**
 * (Writing and Reading)** [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/pdf.png caption="external image pdf.png" link="http://integratingrdgandla.wikispaces.com/file/view/Diamante+Poem.pdf"]][|Diamante Poem.pdf] This activity was intended to help international students understnd the importance of parts of speech/word classes and poem. Poetry is a difficult genre for some students, but diamante format is easy to understand and work with. The students wrote their poems and read then aloud in class. I will submit these poems to the literary magazive that StMU publishes each semester. Evaluation 1. How did it go?Some students were not familiar with poetry a s a genre, so I though it was a beneficial activity. The students were able to produce beautiful poems2. What were the highlights?It was amazing to watch the students brainstorm and later string the words together. 3. What would you do differently next time? I would write along with them and we would spend more time sharing the same. 4. Will you use this acttivity again? Yes! [] [] **11/2/11** 1. My EN 0301 students were asked to write a stanza about a person they admired in life. The activity was based on the form of "Dear Teachers" by Sonya Sones from Voices from the Middle 9.2 9Dec 2001): 38-39).
 * Sones' Stanza Form** To [name of the significant person], my [role that the person played], who...[describe the person's influence in 3 to 4 lines] I say...[what you would say to the person]. Here are the student responses 1. "Johnny Rodriguez Who taught me how to be understanding and kind and also helped shape into what I am I say thank you and rest in peace." 2. " To Soyeong My friend who never gets angry, listens to me all the time is the person I can rely onI say thank you" 3. "To Teacher Xia, my middle school teacher, who always push me struggle and study harder and harder. She told me that ten education is important for everyone. She not only taught me knowledge, but also taught me the meaning of life, I want to say thank you."
 * 2. (KWL Chart)** I require my ESL students to watch a documentary based on a social issue, and I chose "A Class Divided" this semester. This documentary focuses on racism and discrimination. Here is a link of the documentary. [] "After they watched the film, the students were requirted to work on the KWL chart that Christina and I provided to the EN 1313 students. The prompt was "Select a topic you want to research. IN the first column write what you already know about the topic. In the second column, write what you __want__ to know about the topic. After you have completed your research, write what you __learned__ in the third column"
 * Here is a sample response I got**
 * What I Know || What I Want to know || What I learned ||
 * "Discrimination already existed for many years in the world. many people fight for social justice for black people and Indians such as Martin Luther King" || "I want to know whether we achieved some progress through these years and do we have some ways to eliminate discimination by race?" || "The best way to eliminate discrimination is to educate people in their early stage and discimination really radiculous and amde people flet hepeless and bad" ||
 * *Student has prior knowledge || *The students is interested to learn || *Beautiful analysis ||
 * Pilot Study** The reason for this pilot study was to research for different strategies and methods to help my international students acquire proficiency in English language skills, especially reading and writing. I have used texts, documentaries, and lectures to teach the students about text structure, yet found all of them not fruitful/beneficial with all of the ESL students. Hence, the need for another tool that would facilitate learning. St. Mary's University is a private Catholic University that admits students with SAT scores of 500 and above. International students must have a score of 550 and above in TOEFL and more than 5.5 in the IELTS examination. If the scores in these English language proficiency tests are below these scores, they must take the ESL courses offered the first semester they enroll in their core courses. My students from a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national with diverse backgrounds bring a rich funds of knowledge to my classrooms. The students have prior knowledge and schemata to read, write, and speak in their native languages, yet may lack the academic proficiency to read and write academic materials in the English language. However, with the help of instruction using a text conducive for their growth and with grammar intensive instruction, they may gain proficiency eventually.
 * Methodology-what are you going to collect?** This pilot study is focused on the use of graphic organizers as concept maps to help international students understand text structure and organization. The researcher collected samples from students. The samples were graphic organizers that both teacher and students created for/in EN 0301 (Intermediate Rhetoric and Composition for International Students) class in Spring of 2011. She used a self prepared questionnaire to elicit student responses about the use of GOs in EN 0301, and she compared the learning outcome of EN 0301 (with/without GOs) (See appendix C).
 * How are you going to collect it?** The researcher collected hard copies of the graphic organizers in the classroom throughout the semester and used a self prepared questionnaire to elicit responses from students using GO in EN 0301 (see appendix A)
 * How will you analyze your data? ** Data was analyzed quantitatively by recording the frequencies of graphic organizer usage in class using SPSS (see appendix B). The results revealed a positive correlation between GO usage and text structure in EN 0301. Eleven students filled out the questionnaire (Appendix A). Out of 11 ESL students, 8 marked "agree", 2 marked "strongly agree", and 1 marked "disagree" on the likert-like scale (see table titled "statistics" below). I ran a simple frequency test on SPSS to look at the mean, mode, and standard deviation scores. I first entered all the data on SPSS and I then ran the simple descriptive (for frequency) to check the mean, mode, and standard deviation scores. I interpreted the analysis by looking at the above scores for each rhetorical mode/pattern (See Appendix D).
 * **Statistics****(Frequency)** ||
 * || Times/GO || Narrative || Descriptive || Process || Compare and Contrast || Definition || Arguementation || Cause and Effect || Other Assignments || Out-of-class || Reading a text ||
 * N || Valid || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 || 11 ||
 * ^  || Missing || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 ||
 * Mean ||  || 3.3636 || 3.3636 || 3.5455 || 3.3636 || 3.5455 || 3.6364 || 3.2727 || 3.3636 || 3.2727 || 3.6364 ||
 * Median ||  || 3.0000 || 3.0000 || 4.0000 || 3.0000 || 4.0000 || 4.0000 || 3.0000 || 3.0000 || 3.0000 || 4.0000 ||
 * Mode ||  || 3.00a || 3.00a || 4.00 || 3.00a || 4.00 || 4.00 || 3.00 || 3.00a || 4.00 || 4.00 ||
 * Std. Deviation ||  || .67420 || .67420 || .68755 || .67420 || .68755 || .50452 || .64667 || .67420 || .78625 || .80904 ||
 * Minimum ||  || 2.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 || 3.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 || 2.00 ||
 * Maximum ||  || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 || 4.00 ||
 * a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown ||
 * References** Alvermann, D. (1980). Effects of Graphic Organizers, Textual Organization, and Reading Comprehension Level on Recall of Expository Prose. University Microfilm International, Michigan and London. Alvermann, D. Graphic Orgnizers: Cueing Devices for Comprehending and Remembering Main Ideas. Dissertation Study, 1980. Baxendell, B. (2003). Consistent, Coherent, Creative: The 3 C’s of Graphic Organizers. //Teaching Exceptional Children 53//(3), pp. 46-53. Carrier, K. (2005). Key Issues for Teaching English Language Learners in Academic Classrooms. Middle School Journal, November 2005. Chamberliss, D.,& Schutt, R. (2006). Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation. New Delhi, Pine Forge Press. Dye, G. (2000). Graphic Organizers to the Rescue! Helping Students Link- and Remember-Information. Teaching Exceptional Children, 32(3), pp 72-76. 76. Ellis, E. (2004) www.GraphicOrganizers.com . Fountas, L and Pinnel, K. (2001). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Hawk, P. (2006). Using graphic organizers to increase achievement in middle school life Science. Science Education 70(1), pp 81-87. DOI: 10.1002/sce.3730700110Running Fisher, D., Frey, N., and Williams, D. (2002). Seven Literacies that Work. Reading and Writing in Content Area, 60(3). Pp 70-103. ReadWriteThink. International Reading Association (IRA) of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Retreived from: [] Robinson, D and Kiewra, K. (1995). Visual argument: Graphic organizers are superior to outlines in improving learning from text. //Journal of Educational Psychology 87//(3), pp. 455-467. doi: 10.1037/0022- 0663.87.3.455 Merkley, D and Jefferies, D. (2000). Guidelines for Implementing a Graphic Organizer. The Reading Teacher 54(4), pp. 350-357. Schleppegrell, M. (2004). //The Language of schooling. A functional linguistics perspective.// Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Tang, G (1992). The Effect of Graphic Representation of Knowledge Structures on ESL Reading Comprehension. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, pp 177-195. Doi: 10.1017.S0272263100010810. Vacca, R and Vacca, A. (2005). Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across Curriculum. New York: Pearson. Wang, L. (1995). The Relationship between the Text and the Reader. //TESOL Quarterly 29//(4), pp. 56-67.