2006 年6 月
第 29 卷　第3 期
中国英语教学
（双月刊）
CELEA Journal（Bim onthly）
Jun．2006
Vol．
29 No．
3
AN ACTION RESEARCH ON FOURTH YEAR
FILIPINO STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARD
THE USE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AS AIDS TO
COMPREHENSION OF EXPOSITORY TEXT
Elena C ．Cutiongco
University of the Philippines
Introduction
Most high school teachers presu m e that students w ho reach this level can co m prehend any selection
they are asked to read． When they discover that so m e of the students just na m e call w ords but can t
understand w hole sentences and m uch less ，w hole paragraphs ，they start to co m plain and bla m e the
Grade 6 teachers for graduating these students． When Grade 6 teachers hear this ，
they bla m e the Grade
5 teachers and the buck－
passing continues．
But buck passing does not solve the proble m ． So m ething has to be done to help slow learners
co m prehend w hat they read．Zwiers（2004），a content literacy expert ，posits the use of visuals ，
such as
pictures ，graphic organizers ，diagra ms ，acrony ms ，and charts to acco m pany expository text．For m any
students ，particularly those w ho struggle the m ost in school ，verbal activities are tortuous．According to
Gardner（1999），
father of the theory of m ultiple intelligences ，
students often respond better to activities
that incorporate other intelligences．Of Gardner s eight m ain intelligences ，
visualintelligence see ms to be
m ost akin to high－
quality teaching practices．
Visualintelligence is the m ental skill of seeing and creating im ages that a person can use to organize
and process inform ation．Since textbooks in science ，English ，m athe m atics ，history ，geography ，civics
and other content area literacy m aterials contain predo minantly ideas and concepts ，
they pose the greatest
challenge to readers． To help students m eet this challenge ，Zwiers reco m m ends the use of graphic
organizers．To develop the skillin using an organizer ，he suggests that teachers take stock of w hat they
the mselves visualize w hile reading in order to help students do the sa m e．They then transfer the skill to
the learners so that in the end ，they not only use the skill but also develop their visual abilities as they
learn．
Since the inception of graphic organizers in reading instruction ，teachers have tried the m out for
different types of reading m aterials．However ，no study has ever been m ade to find out w hat the learners
think about the m ．
The Proble m
This action research was an atte m pt to get the students reactions toward the use of graphic
organizers in understanding expository text．Specifically ，here are the questions it tried to answer ：
1． What do students think of graphic organizers ？
2．How do they rank graphic organizers based on usefulness ？
3．How do they justify their ranking ？
4．In w hat subjects areas are they m ost useful ？
19
An Action Research on Fourth Year Filipino Students Attitude To w ard ．
．．　Elena C．Cutiongco
5． What co m m ents or suggestions do they have about the use of graphic organizers ？
The Sa m ple
Fifty－
nine（59 ） Fourth Year Section 2 students of the Marikina High School in Concepcion I ，
Marikina City （located in Metro－Manila ），were given four one－
hour lessons on using these graphic
organizers listed according to thinking skills involved in preparing the m ：
Analyzing －Hierarchy ；Topical Net ；Linear Sequence
Categorizing／Classifying －Matrix
20
CELEA Journal 67
Cause and Effect
Problem Solving
Co m parison and Contrast
Data Gathering
The researcher m et the class fro m Tuesday to Friday fro m 11 ：
50 AM to 12 ：
50 PM in Septe m ber ，
2005 ，and took up the following
21
An Action Research on Fourth Year Filipino Students Attitude To w ard ．
．．　Elena C．Cutiongco
Day 1 ：A ．Introduction of the seven graphic organizers and how to use each one in understanding
expository text in science ，geography ，health and a newspaper s opinion colu m n．
B ．Metacognitive discussion of how each thinking skillis applied to arrive at the form ation of
a particular organizer．
Day 2 ：A ． Group w ork ：Applying the graphic organizers on the different selections （Expository
Text）
Day 3 ：Presentation／Evaluation of the groups organizers
Day 4 ：Presentation／Evaluation continued
Ad ministration of the questionnaire
Results
In answer to the first question ，
“Can graphic organizers help you understand reading selections
better ？
”，here is the result ：
Co m pletely YES — 25 or 42 ％ of 59
Mostly YES — 30 or 51 ％
Fairly YES — 4 or 7 ％
No one answered“Just a little”or“Not at all．
”
With regard to the ranking of the graphic organizers ，here is how the respondents ranked the m in
answer to the question ，
“ Which of the graphic organizers will be m ost useful to you ？Rank the m
1，
2，
3．
．．up to 7 with Nu m ber 1 as m ost useful and Nu m ber 7 as least useful．”
No．1
No．2
No．3
No．4
No．5
No．6
No．7
．．．
．．．．Hierarchy
．．．
．．．．Linear String
．．．
．．．．Topical Net
．．．
．．．．Co m parison and Contrast
．．．
．．．．Proble m and Solutions
．．．
．．．．Cause and Effect
．．．
．．．．Matrix
In citing the reasons for their ranking ，
26 or 59 ％ chose hierarchical organizer as No．1 ；of this nu m ber ，
17 or 66 ％ of 26 said it was easiest
6 or 22 ％said it was m ost useful
3 or 12 ％said it was m ost co m m on
3 or 5 ％think that hierarchical and topical net were easiest to do
1 or 1 ％thought cause and effect was m ost useful
1 or 1 ％thought co m pare and contrast was m ost useful
1 of 1 ％thought m atrix was least useful ；one said it was also confusing．
Only one of the students said the use of an organizer was dependent on the type of selection．
In answer to the question ，
“In w hat subject areas do you think these organizers are m ost useful ？
”，
they m entioned all the subject areas in high school．
Here are the co m m ents and suggestions given ：
3－We understand essays better
1－It is easy to su m m arize a story after using a graphic organizer
2－Now Iunderstand better w hatever Iread
2－Thanks for the additional knowledge
3－These graphic organizers should be used by all teacher
（The rest of the co m m ents were on the delivery ofinstruction and the researcher s teaching style ；
all these were not considered relevant to the research．
）
22
CELEA Journal 67
Analysis of Findings
As show n by the responses ，fourth year Filipino high school students believe that graphic or visual
representations can help learners co m prehend textually im portant inform ation． In fact ， one
reco m m endation was for all teachers to use the m as teaching strategies．
Am ong the graphic organizers presented ，the students chose hierarchical organizer ，topical net and
linear string as m ost useful because they found the m easiestto understand and prepare and were co m m only
used by authorsin presenting content area topics．Because of their fa miliarity with hierarchical organizer ，
m any respondents used it without considering fitness to the m aterial being presented．
Outside the top three organizers ，
the rest were not considered useful by the respondents．Maybe they
were not fa miliar yet with the m because no one a m ong their teachers had used the m as visual aids．
Conclusion
Most fourth year students in the sa m ple considered graphic organizers as useful aids to better
co m prehension of expository text． Am ong those presented in this study ，they found hierarchical
organizer ，
topical net and linear string as m ost useful w hile the rest were quite unfa miliar to the m ．
Reco m mendations
In view of the findings of this study ，
the following are hereby reco m m ended ：
1．English and content area teachers of Marikina High School should be trained on how to use
graphic organizers to help pro m ote better co m prehension of expository text．
2．The training should include the following activities ：
a．Agreeing on the rationale for using visuals in teaching ；
b．Observing a de m onstration on how to do think－
alouds in developing acade mic thinking skills ；
c．Participants de m onstration of the skills learned．
3．Lesson plans or study guides on how to use graphic organizersin the classroo m should be prepared．
4．There should be a follow up of how teachers use the lesson plans or guides for the sake of
sustainability of efforts to im prove instruction．
References
Cooper ，
J．D ．1986．Improving Reading Comprehension．Dallas ：Houghton Mifflin Co m pany．
Richeck ，M ．A ．，
J．
S．Cald well ，
J．H ．
Jennings ＆J．Lerner．1996． Reading Problems ：Assessment and Teaching
Strategies． Massachusetts ：
Allyn and Bacon．
Zwiers ，
Jeff．2004． Developing Academic Thinking Skills．Newark ：
International Reading Association．
23