Discussion

Introduction

This study began ruminating when the researcher noticed a pattern of lower informational

text comprehension scores on standardized tests. With such a focus on narrative texts in school,

students were rarely given the opportunity to read and analyze informational texts. Informational

texts are structured differently than narrative texts, and as Bastug (2014) found narrative text

structures are easier to comprehend. With increased focus on informational texts on standardized

tests, the researcher designed a study to understand how the impact of graphic organizers would

affect students comprehension of informational texts. In this section, the researcher will discuss

and analyze the results from each research question that was studied.

Impact of Graphic Organizers on Informational Text Comprehension

The first question the researcher studied was how the use of graphic organizers impacted

students comprehension of informational texts. Researchers Braten and Anmarkrud (2013),

completed a study that showed simply reading informational text does not improve

comprehension. Students need to be working with an informational text structure at a deeper-

level. Working with the compare and contrast structure was one of the informational text

structures Braten and Anmarkrud (2013) noted in their research. This study showed that

informational text is best comprehended while using deep-level strategies. Baker et al. (2011)

found that informational text exposure and infusion did not improve students comprehension of

texts. Based on this information, the researcher had students work with graphic organizers to

practice deeper-level strategies to better comprehend informational texts.

The researcher was pleasantly surprised with how well students recognized the graphic

organizers that were used. The graphic organizers needed very little introduction and students
seemed confident in completing them. The researcher analyzed students comprehension based

on two standards. Standard one required the students to use text to support comparison

statements. Standard two required the students to craft quality comparison statements. After

working with graphic organizers to better comprehend informational texts, students made growth

in each standard. Graphic organizers were introduced after reading the text which allowed

students multiple exposures to the text; first when they read it and second when they looked back

through the text to complete the graphic organizer. The researcher believes growth occurred with

the use of the bubble map specifically, because students were given a structure to fill out, instead

of just writing in a blank space. This gave them an opportunity to better organize the information

they read. Based on the studys findings, explicit instruction that targeted text structure increased

the comprehension of informational text.

Students comprehension increased the most when working with the bubble map compare

and contrast graphic organizer. The researcher credited that increase to the layout of the bubble

map with individual spaces for students to write in their ideas. The spaces on the graphic

organizer were not too big like they are in Venn diagrams, which can often overwhelm students

with the amount of writing they assume they need to do. The researcher also credited the

improved comprehension to the compare and contrast structure, which is less complex than many

other informational text structures such as cause and effect or problem and solution.

When students first started working with graphic organizers to compare and contrast,

many of them would just contrast the differences they read about, often not finding any

similarities. As the work continued, students were able to note similarities at a very basic level,

not thinking deeply about the content. When the participants began working with bubble maps,

many of them seemed overwhelmed with the amount of blank bubbles they needed to fill out.
Other students took the numerous blank spaces as a challenge to complete. As students began

filling in and then writing out their similarities and differences, the researcher noted increased

attention to detail after students worked with the bubble map. The differences and similarities the

researcher gathered showed detailed, deeper level thinking than the responses gathered from the

other graphic organizers used. By the completion of the study, students were using bubble maps

to compare and contrast informational texts on a consistent basis. They were able to complete the

entire graphic organizer with ease, as well as respond to the prompt and write out those same

similarities and differences in the form of a paragraph.

Impact of Specific Graphic Organizer on Informational Text Comprehension

Following the researchers conclusion that explicit instruction based on the compare and

contrast structure did indeed improve comprehension of informational text, she dug deeper to

learn which specific type of compare and contrast graphic organizer would yield the most

promising results. During the research phase, the researcher learned that there are numerous

compare and contrast graphic organizers to choose from. Deciding how many graphic organizers

to expose students to as well as which ones became a difficult choice for the researcher. In the

end, she decided that working with three graphic organizers would be enough to gather multiple

data points and yet not overwhelm the participants. The researcher decided on the type of

organizers to use once she reviewed the features, both positive and negative, of each graphic

organizer.

Based on the review of literature, the researcher decided to introduce and work with the

graphic organizers after the reading of informational text. Both Ozmen (2011) and Shaw,

Nihalani, Mayrath, and Robinson (2012) studied the difference in comprehension of

informational text when a graphic organizer is presented before or after reading. In both studies,
introducing the graphic organizer after reading informational text had a greater impact on text

comprehension. The researcher analyzed why the students performed better when the graphic

organizer was introduced after the reading and came to two conclusions. First, the students could

focus in on the reading and the reading only. They were better able to comprehend what they

were reading, while not having to worry about what information was important for the graphic

organizer. Second, when it was time for the students to organize the information they read, they

often went back into the text which allowed them to re-read important information, and again

better comprehend it. They often made note of text features such as headings and titles that

assisted them in organizing the information. The researcher concluded that introducing graphic

organizers at the end of the reading was most beneficial for her students.

After analyzing the data points, the researcher found that the use of the bubble map

compare and contrast graphic organizer yielded the most positive results. This surprised her as

the most common and most widely used graphic organizer is the Venn diagram. The researcher

believed that the bubble map was the most effective graphic organizer because the layout gave

students a designated space for each similarity and difference. Unlike the Venn diagram, which is

more of a blank canvas, the bubble map gave students a structured outline to complete.

Surprisingly the Venn diagram gave the researcher the poorest results throughout her research

study. The researcher had predicted that students would perform the best with the Venn diagram

since that specific graphic organizer is most commonly used throughout schools. However, the

researcher noted that because of the lack of structure the Venn diagram provides, students may

have felt overwhelmed and confused about what information to put where and how detailed their

information should be. As a result of this information, the researcher has increased the amount of

bubble map graphic organizers to use alongside of informational text.

Conclusion

Informational text is here to stay and in order for students to comprehend this

information, they simply cannot read it and then read it again. Students must work with specific

text structures that are found in informational text, such as compare and contrast. In order for

students to organize all the information, the use of a graphic organizer is important. After

completing her study, the researcher found that students use of text to support comparison

statements as well as students ability to craft quality comparison statements was most improved

when they worked with the specific bubble map graphic organizer. In the final section, the

researcher will discuss the importance of the study, the lessons learned and the studys future

implications.