| Research Question. How will the use of a graphic organizer affect the overall cohesiveness of sixth grade students' essay writing?Research Activities. The focus of this intervention was to teach students how to use a graphic organizer as a tool to provide structure and organization while writing a problem and solution essay, a genre of writing required by the California Content Standards for sixth grade. Context. This intervention took place in a 6th grade, self-contained classroom with 29 students. Methods and Data. The intervention spanned three consecutive weeks and took 14 days to implement. First, students were introduced to the graphic organizer and created a problem and solution essay as a whole class. Then students used the graphic organizer to create their own problem and solution essay related to a curricular novel. Finally, students used the graphic organizer to write a problem and solution essay on a topic of their choice. Data sets include students' essays before and after having used the graphic organizer. Organization was measured by a rubric score and the "overall cohesiveness" of the essay. An essay was scored as "Cohesive" if it had one main idea, stuck to that main idea throughout the essay, and if information was presented in a logical order. Also, attitudinal data includes teacher notes from a class discussion about writing before and after the intervention. Results. Overall, students' essay organization improved. About 79% of the post-intervention writing samples were scored as "Cohesive," and received higher rubric scores than the pre-intervention writing samples. Students expressed use of graphic organizers made writing more enjoyable and indicated a stronger desire to use graphic organizers as a writing strategy.Grade Level. Sixth GradeData Collection Methods. Discussion notes, Observation-Field Notes, Student Work, Survey-Attitude, Writing SamplesCurriculum Areas. WritingInstructional Approaches. Graphic organizers/concept maps, Writing-Expository, Writing-Rubrics... |
