Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Utilizing graphic organizers to improve reading comprehension skill for the grade 11th students at Nghi Loc 2 high school

 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
A. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 
1. Reasons for the study ............................................................................................ 1 
2. The objectives of the study. .................................................................................. 1 
3. The method of the study. ....................................................................................... 2 
4. The scope of the study. .......................................................................................... 2 
5. The design of the study. ........................................................................................ 2 
B. INVESTIGATION.............................................................................................. 3 
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ....................................................................... 3 
 I.1. Reading Comprehension. ................................................................................. 3 
 I.1.1. The definitions of reading comprehension. .............................................. 3 
 I.1.2. Types of questions in reading comprehension .......................................... 3 
 I.2.Graphic Organizers ........................................................................................... 5 
 I.2.1. Definition of Graphic Organizers. ............................................................. 5 
 I.2.2. Types of Graphic Organizers ..................................................................... 6 
 I.2.2.4 -KWL Graphic Organizer ......................................................................... 11 
 I.2.3.The advantages of Graphic Organizers to reading comprehension. ......... 11 
 I.2.4. How to Create a Graphic Organizer ........................................................ 13 
 I.2.5. How to Use Graphic Organizers Effectively ........................................... 13 
II. PRACTICAL BACKGROUND ......................................................................... 15 
 II.1. A description of the objects. ......................................................................... 15 
 II.2. Some difficulties of students and teachers in learning and teaching reading 
 comprehension skill at Nghi Loc 2 high school. ................................................. 15 
 II.2.1.The students’ difficulties ......................................................................... 15 
 II.2.2. The teachers’ difficulties .......................................................................... 16 
 II.3. An overview about teaching and learning reading comprehension skill to 
 grade 11th students at Nghi Loc 2 high school. ................................................... 16 
 II.4. Contents of reading lessons in the English 11th form textbook .................. 17 
III. THE SOLUTIONS ............................................................................................ 18 
 III.1. The necessity of the Solutions. .................................................................. 18 
 III.2. Solutions. ..................................................................................................... 18 
 A. INTRODUCTION 
1. Reasons for the study 
 Nowadays, with the tendency of globalization and integration, English plays 
the role of an effective international communicative language. Therefore, learning 
English has been considered a very important duty of many students. One of the 
most important skills in learning English as well as other languages is reading 
 Moreover, dealing with students at high school for several years, I also find 
out the fact that many students can write and speak English very well but they can 
not do reading text correctly. Through classroom observations at Nghi Loc 2 
school, I find that in reading lesson, my students often have difficulties in 
identifying explicit information in a text, and comprehending the text as they lack 
of vocabulary; they are also unable to find main idea in a paragraph as well as to 
infer the meaning of the text. 
 Students have to take a GCSE examination after three years . In this test, there 
are two reading comprehension exercises which accomplish a large propotion of 
score. Therefore, applying GO will help students get higher score in the 
exammination. 
 Furthermore, graphic organizers are considered as wonderful techniques to 
make students actively engaged in their learning. Because organizers include 
words, visual images, illustrative shapes, meaningful labels and logical displays, 
they are effective for a variety of students with different language levels and 
different multiple intelligences, especially for those with a visual modality 
preference. 
 Using graphic orgnizer can help teachers to create contexts in which the 
language is useful and meaningful. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will be 
significant for both teachers and students of English. In addition, it will become a 
good source reference to those who concern for reading teaching. Particularly, this 
study is carried out with the hope to provide teachers knowledge about using 
graphic organizers which can be used to help students learn English effectively. 
Hopefully, it can help students to improve reading skill as well as the teachers to 
upgrade their teaching method. 
 These reasons have given me a desire to do a research entitled “utilizing 
graphic organizers to improve reading comprehension skill for the grade 11th 
students at Nghi Loc 2 high school”. 
2. The objectives of the study. 
 - To study different types of GO 
 - To study the way how to apply GO in teaching reading comprehension 
 1 B. INVESTIGATION 
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 
I.1. Reading Comprehension. 
I.1.1. The definitions of reading comprehension. 
 According to Merisuo and Storm (2006), reading comprehension is a complex 
process: the reader constructs meaning by interacting with text using his or her 
previous knowledge and experience and the information that can be found in the 
text. 
 According to Grellet (1998: 3), reading comprehension is understanding 
written text or extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. 
In addition, White (1997: 22) states that comprehension involves recognizing 
the significance of the message, understanding the intentions of the writer, and 
going beyond what is written to guest at hidden, unstated or implied meaning. 
 Moreover, Howel (1993: 182) writes that comprehension is the act combining 
information in passages with prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. 
 From the theories above, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a 
complex process in which the reader interacts with the text and employs his/her 
previous knowledge, experience and information to extract the significant inform 
ation, understand the intentions of the writer, and goes beyond what is written to 
guess at hidden, unstated or implied meaning on the text. 
I.1.2. Types of questions in reading comprehension 
 Reading comprehension is a crucial part of the verbal section in GRE. If your 
aim is to score high in the verbal section then you must practice the reading 
comprehension questions rigorously. Despite the fact that the sections included 
under comprehension relate to various topics, the questions posed under them 
follow some distinct patterns. 
I.1.2.1. Factual Questions 
 For answering these types of questions, look for the keyword or phrase in that 
question, and locate the sentence in the passage in which this keyword or phrase 
occurs. ‘Explicit answer’ questions under passage will generally be sequential, 
implying that the response to a previous question can be found in an earlier part of 
the paragraph, and the answer to a later question can be found in a later part of the 
paragraph.For example, 
 The passage suggests that the proliferation of ragwort was particularly ill-
timed because it 
I.1.2.2.Primary Idea Questions: 
 3 I.1.2.6. Exception Questions: 
 In these types of questions, three of the four choices will logically follow 
from an argument of the author while one will not. You will be asked to mark the 
choice that is not stated. These questions are comparatively easy to answer. For 
instance, 
Each of the following is mentioned in the passage as an element of Douglass’ 
ideology EXCEPT 
I.1.2.7. Source Questions: 
 Such questions are likewise in the idea of inference and can be addressed 
effectively based on the substance of the passage.For example, 
The above passage is most probably an extract from 
 Spears (2000: xxvi) states there are eight important reading comprehension 
skills that help learners to read more systematically. They are comprehending the 
main idea, determining the author’s purpose, distinguishing between the main idea 
and supporting details, making inference, distinguishing facts and opinion, 
analyzing structure, annotating, paraphrasing and summarizing. 
 The main concern of the research is about how to find the main idea, explicit 
information, vocabulary, and inference. Therefore, I would like discussing further 
on those aspects: 
I.1.2.8. Vocabulary questions. 
 According to Schwartz and Raphael (1985: 39) vocabulary is the knowledge 
of words and words meaning. Knowledge of words is critical to reading 
comprehension, because it support to comprehension. Students are expected to 
learn the meaning of new words. They acquire these words by reading books, 
magazine, newspaper or hearing them read aloud from books by other. 
I.1.2.9. Inference 
 McNeil (1992: 77) defines inference as the derivation of some idea that is not 
directly stated. To infer, Caroll in McNeil suggests that there are three important 
ways to infer. They are from subtleties of verbal expression, reasoning, making 
involvement of the reader’s experience to determine how the character in the text 
might feel. 
I.2.Graphic Organizers 
I.2.1. Definition of Graphic Organizers. 
 There are many definitions about graphic organizers. Among them are from 
Bromley et al, Sousa, and Zwiers. 
 Bromley, et al. (1995:7) define graphic organizer as a visual representation of 
knowledge. It is a way of structuring information, of arranging important 
information aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using label. Besides, Sousa 
 5 Template 2 - Story Elements Graphic Organizer 
 Student needs to learn the elements of a story in order to understand and know 
what is happening throughout the story. This is one of the most common ways to 
help students practice there reading comprehension skill. Students can record the 
main elements of a story in this story elements graphic organizer. 
 Template 3 - The 5W's Chart 
 In order to help students understand a story thoroughly, assign them to 
complete a 5Ws Chart like below. Complete the chart of who, what, when, where 
and why. Sometimes you need to add a "How" and make a "5Ws + H chart". 
 7 Template 6 - Compare and Contrast Reading Graphic Organizer 
 This compare and contrast graphic organizer can be used for students to 
compare and contrasts stories they read. It's designed with the most common and 
practical style - two overlapping circles with lines. 
 Template 7 - Main Idea Reading Comprehension Graphic Organizer 
 Use this organizer to identify the main idea and important supporting details 
while reading. Colorful and elaborately designed graphic organizer is your best 
teaching aid. Save in your computer quickly and spare from searching again next 
time when you need this kind of chart. 
 9 Students can watch a teacher or parent fill in the information in a Timeline 
Wheel, answer questions to help a teacher or parent fill in a Timeline Wheel, or fill 
in a Timeline Wheel themselves. 
 You can stop at the last point of whatever it is you are reporting. 
I.2.2.4 -KWL Graphic Organizer 
 A Know, Want to Know, What I Leaned (KWL) Graphic Organizer allows 
students to fill in what they already know about a specific topic, what they want to 
know, and then what they learned after getting information (reading, listening, 
watching, observing, etc.) about that topic. 
 See an example below based on a student who read a book about lizards and 
filled in the KWL Organizer before and after reading the book. 
I.2.3.The advantages of Graphic Organizers to reading comprehension. 
 A graphic organizer visually depicts relationships between facts, concepts, or 
ideas. You can easily find it in school because it is a pedagogical tool to provide a 
visual aid to facilitate learning and instruction. Teachers often use graphic 
organizers to illustrate complicated concepts to understand them, while students 
use excellent means to organize their thoughts, especially in writing. 
 In terms of reading comprehension, graphic organizers can be effectively used 
in all lessons for students of all ages to check not only students’ understanding but 
also to motivate and enhance their thinking skills. Krasnic (2011, p.24) claims that 
students are able to clear their thoughts and sharpen their thinking by organizing 
and connecting key concepts related to what they are reading from the text. This 
process can help the students to improve their critical thinking, a kind of cognitive 
activity that appears in many categories of the cognitive process dimension. 
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