This is for the PD session.

1. Using Graphic Organizers to
Build Awareness of Discourse
Organization
Randy Rebman Randy.Rebman@Oregonstate.edu
INTO OSU Instructor

2. Discourse/Text Structures
Discourse structures have been
defined as “knowledge
structures or basic rhetorical
patterns in texts” (Grabe,
2003, p.1)
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3. Why Focus on Text Structure in an L2 Reading Class?
• Common practices in L2 reading instruction include:
• Checking answers to comprehension questions
• Strategy instruction—predicting, clarifying, summarizing, questioning,
goal setting, reviewing and noting text organization
• Using graphic representations of the discourse patterns in the texts
(graphic organizers)
• One of the major challenges our students face in academic
settings is learning to comprehend increasingly more dense
reading material that may likely include differing rhetorical
conventions than that of L1 texts
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4. Why Focus on Text Structure in an L2 Reading Class?
• Research on discourse analysis and language comprehension
demonstrates discourse awareness and discourse structure
instruction has a strong influence on reading comprehension
( Grabe, 2003; Jiang & Grabe, 2007, 2012; Meyer & Poon,
2001)
• There are a relatively small number of text structures that are
consistently repeated across expository texts. These include
cause-effect, problem-solution, comparison-contrast,
classification, definition, process, argument-reasoning, for-against,
time sequence, and description (Meyer, 1985; Hohad,
1986)
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5. Why Use Graphic Organizers (GOs)?
• In their review of research on the effectiveness of using GOs,
Jiang & Grabe (2007) found that “GOs representing the
discourse structure of the text can facilitate the
comprehension and retention of content area reading
material” (p. 42).
• Jiang and Grabe (2009) point out that GOs aid in the teaching
of comprehension by
• Raising awareness of how texts are organized
• Prompting students to make explicit decisions about how pieces of
information in a text relate to each other as main ideas, supporting
details and information details
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6. Challenges for Implementing Discourse-Structure
Graphic Organizers
• Lack of consistency with developing a GO structure for texts
• Takes practice and experience (for teachers) with finding ways
to represent the ideas of a text in GOs and how ensure they
highlight the textual relationships and patterns of organization
in a clear and simple manner
• Discourse structure awareness is a knowledge base that grows
incrementally due to increased exposures and explicit
instruction (Koda, 2005), so teachers must plan on repeated
use of GOs and extended student training
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7. Guidelines for Creating GOs
Jiang and Grabe (2009) provide the following guidelines for
developing GOs:
•should reflect a text’s structure as simply as possible
•need to be clear and direct as possible
•leave some items blank and some items in the GO filled out
•should be used with a text that students have already read
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8. Breakout Session 1: Text Structure & Signal Words
• Form groups of 2-4
• Use handouts 1 and 2 to identify the signal words that go with
the texts in A2-A5
• Highlight signal words and other important lexical cues to help
you determine the type of text structure
• When you have finished, discuss the following question in your
group:
• How might you structure a reading lesson focused around building an
awareness of text structure using the passages you have just read? For
example, what would you have students do in the pre-, during and –post
reading portions of the lesson?
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9. Breakout Session 1: Text Structure & Signal Words
• A1-collection of descriptions
• A2-cause/effect
• A3-problem/solution
• A4-comparision/contrast
• A5-text with no rhetorical organization and no rhetorical
signals
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10. Breakout Session 2: Using Graphic Organizers
• Form groups of 2-4
• Use handout 4 & 5 to complete the graphic organizer for
“Flying High, but Feeling Low”
• When you have completed the graphic organizer as a group,
discuss the following questions:
• How would you integrate graphic organizers into a reading lesson (pre-reading,
during-reading and post-reading stages)?
• How might you alter a graphic organizer to provide more scaffolding for
lower level students?
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11. Final Thoughts
• What are some possible complications you see with
integrating discourse awareness and graphic organizers into
the L2 reading curriculum?
• How might you work together in your cohort to build a set of
graphic organizers for texts for your courses?
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12. Thank You
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13. References
• Grabe, W. (2003). Using discourse representations for reading
development. In M. Swanson & K Hill (Eds.), Proceeding of the 2002 JALT
Conference (pp. 9-17). Tokyo, Japan: JALT Publications.
• Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to
practice. New York, NY: Pearson Publication.
• Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2007) Graphic organizers in reading instruction:
Research findings and issues. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19, 34-55.
• Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2009). Building reading abilities with graphic
organizers. In R. Cohen (Ed.), Explorations in second language reading (pp.
25-42). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages.
• Koda, K. (2005). Insights into second language reading: A cross-linguistic
approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Meyer, B., & Poon, L. (2001). Effects of structure strategy training and
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signaling on recall of texts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 141-159. November 13, 2014