Chatper 10: Graphic Organizers for Organized Reading

The chapter this week focused on the importance of noticing text structure when approaching a reading task. The authors explain that "perceiving structure in text material improves learning and retention" (Vacca, Vacca & Mraz, 2011, p. 319). When students see the relationship between different ideas, they organize their knowledge in a similar fashion, allowing deeper comprehension and better recall.

The authors point to two different kinds of text structure, external and internal. The external structure refers to the features built into a text to facilitate reading. For instance, a textbook will generally have information organized into chapters, with different subject categorized by headings and sub-headings. Additional text guides are found in the table of contents or appendices.

The internal structure indicates the manner in which the author organizes his/her ideas. The authors note that good readers search out the internal text structure which helps them to "differentiate the important ideas from less important ideas in the material" (Vacca, Vacca & Mraz, 2011, p. 320). For language learners, identifying the text structure can help to anticipate certain vocabulary or grammatical structures. The book has a list of signal words associated with each type of text structure on page 323.

Graphic organizers are a great way for students to see how texts are structured and distinguish main ideas from supporting details. Education Place features a fantastic list of graphic organizers at their website, and they are also available in Spanish. Of course, the structure of the graphic organizer should follow the structure of the text or what you want students to get out of the text. As Vacca, Vacca & Mraz note, "Authors do not write in neat, perfectly identifiable patterns," and they often use several different structures within one text. The teacher's job is to identify the text structure that best serves their instructional purpose.

As Frye & Frager (2010) mention in Focus on the Essentials of Reading Instruction, "good reading instruction is grounded in the gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the students" (p. 57). Graphic organizers are a great scaffolding method for beginning or struggling readers, but as students progress, the responsibility should shift to them to identify text structure and organize it in a way that makes sense. With plenty of practice, students will understand how to identify important information and how that information is structured. Eventually, students can make their own graphic organizers to organize their reading.