The effects of graphic organizers on third grade students' narrative writing

Research question. In what ways do graphic organizers along with teacher guided questions affect third grade English Language Learner's performance on Narrative Writing prompts?;Subquestions. How will this improve ELL's organization and focus on narrative prompts? How will this affect student's use of sensory details? How will this affect student's confidence about themselves as writers? How will this affect student's attitudes toward writing?;Research Activities. Context: This inquiry took place in a third grade classroom at Lincoln Elementary School. The school implemented Response to Intervention (RTI) which required students to be grouped based on their reading abilities and sent to their leveled classroom to be taught reading and language arts. Three out of the four target students were English Language Learner's (ELL's) as indicated on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). The remaining student was classified as Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP). The target students were chosen based on their low performance on a district mandated narrative writing assessment. Methods and data. The Narrative writing intervention occurred over a period of eight weeks including a two week winter break. The main goals were to increase student's organization, use of adjectives, and use of story connectors. Other components studied included effects on confidence and interest in writing. Students practiced using the Quick Sketch graphic organizer as a pre-writing tool to organize their narrative writing with a beginning, middle, and end. They also practiced using the Adjective Organizer as a revising tool to include more adjectives in their writing. Students used the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) for each writing task. Data sets include six narrative writing pieces, including a pre-assessment and two post assessments. Results: Comparisons of baseline and outcome data indicate one student made significant gains in both her organization and use of adjectives, one student made moderate gains, and two students showed slight improvements throughout the intervention, but did not show improvement on their post assessments. Conclusions: Comparisons of baseline and outcome data indicate using graphic organizers that included guided questions along with illustrations helped students to organize their ideas and write a more organized paper. It also helped improve the use of story connectors and adjectives. Generally, students' interest in writing went down slightly, but they showed increased confidence in their writing ability.;Grade level. Third Grade;Data collection methods. Writing Assessments, Interviews, Survey-Attitude, and Observation -- Field Notes.;Curriculum areas. ESL/ELL, Writing;Instructional approaches. Writing-Narrative, Writing-Explicit instruction, Student Engagement, Graphic organizers/concept maps, Note-taking...