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Essay Organization Through Graphic Organizers

Lawrence Donohue

Manhattan College

EDUC 360: Language and Literacy

Sr. Mary Ann Jacobs

March 20, 2020

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Introduction

During my field experience, one class I observed was an eighth-grade ELA class taught

by Ms. Kurtz. When I introduced Ms. Kurtz to this assignment and asked her about students that

may be struggling with literacy, she told me that there are a number of students in the class who

struggle with organizing their essays. Essay organization is something many students struggle

with, and it is an important problem, considering how central essay-writing is to middle school

and high school courses. In fact, Ms. Kurtz told me that the students will soon start writing

essays in which they take a stance on a controversy presented in the nonfiction text they were

reading. Essay-writing is also an important part of standardized exams, such as the SAT and

ACT. This is an especially relevant problem for these eighth-grade students, as they will be

taking such exams and entering high school soon.

There are a number of factors that could possibly cause the problem of lack of

organization in students’ writing. Possible causes include a lack of knowledge on essay

structure, a lack of planning before and during writing, and problems regarding working memory

and cognitive load. Possible solutions to the problem include explicit instruction on essay

structure and organization strategies, practice using these strategies, and materials and

concepts, such as mnemonic devices and graphic organizers, that will help students practice

organizing their ideas and including them in their essays.

In researching this problem, I looked for studies that addressed students’ difficulties with

essay organization and other problems in essay-writing. Three studies I found helpful were

“Effectiveness of a Test-Taking Strategy on Achievement in Essay Tests for Students With

Learning Disabilities” by Therrien, Hughes, Kapelski, and Mokhtari (2009), “Using Self-

Regulated Strategy Development to Improve Expository Writing With Students With Attention

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” by Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008), and “Self-Regulated

Strategy Instruction in Regular Education Settings: Improving Outcomes for Students With and
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Without Learning Disabilities” by De La Paz (1999). These studies all look at the effects of the

instruction and practice of organization strategies on students’ essay-writing.

Researching the Problem

According to Therrien et al. (2009), the Writing Next report of 2007 stated that many

students are not competent writers, and, they state, students with learning disabilities perform

“well below average on standardized writing assignments” (Therrien et al., 2009, p.15). More

specifically, while writing persuasive or opinion essays, students with learning disabilities

struggle with understanding the requirements of the question or prompt and with planning,

executing, and revising their answers (Therrien et al., 2009). In their article, Therrien et al.

(2009) addressed the questions of whether seventh- and eighth-grade students with learning

disabilities could acquire and apply a six-step writing strategy designed to help them improve

the quality of their expository essays and whether applying this strategy would improve the

quality of their essays’ content and organization.

The students were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control groups (Therrien

et al., 2009). Students in the treatment group received explicit instruction on a multistep essay-

answering strategy known as ANSWER (Therrien et al., 2009). ANSWER includes the following

steps:

1. Analyze the action words in the question. This step requires students to read

the question carefully and underline key words.

2. Notice the requirements of the question. Here students mark key essay

requirements and change the question into their own words.

3. Set up an outline. This step requires students to list the main ideas of their

essay within an outline format.

4. Work in detail. Here students add important details to the outline that they

plan to include in their essay.

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5. Engineer your answer. This step requires students to write the essay including

an introductory sentence and detailed sentences about each of the main ideas

in their outline.

6. Review your answer. Here students check that all parts of the question have

been answered and edit their essay. (Therrien et al., 2009, p. 17)

Daily instruction of the treatment group included introduction to the strategy, teacher modeling

and think-alouds of the procedures, activities to reinforce the concepts, guided and scaffolded

practice, corrective feedback, and a review of the information learned (Therrien et al., 2009).

Before the interventions were implemented, the essays of students in both the treatment

and control groups showed a general lack of planning, were disorganized, and lacked detail,

which is consistent with descriptions of writing products of many students with learning

disabilities (Therrien et al., 2009). After the intervention, when compared to the control group,

the treatment group improved their performance in ideas/content and organization (Therrien et

al., 2009). The researchers also found that students in the treatment group who applied most of

the strategy steps, rather than just two or three of the steps, were able to write essays that were

given similar overall ratings to the students without disabilities (Therrien et al., 2009).

According to Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008), many students have difficulties with

mastering the writing process, and many do not know strategies they can use to overcome

obstacles presented by writing. One group of children in particular who struggle with writing are

students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, who not only have difficulty with

prerequisite skills, such as transcription and spelling, but also with planning and organizing their

writing (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008). In their study, Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008)

specifically looked at the effects of an intervention known as Self-Regulated Strategy

Development (SRSD), which has been demonstrated in the past to be effective for children with

learning disabilities and could be useful for children with ADHD, as well.
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The participants were four fourth and fifth graders, who were nominated as poor writers

by their teachers and have been diagnosed with ADHD, and have a stable medication status if

medication for ADHD was being taken (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008). The students took at

least 3 baseline probes before beginning the treatment phase and then individually received

instruction on an opinion essay writing strategy called POW, which requires students to “(a)

Plan their essays by choosing a topic or idea to write about, (b) Organize their notes and ideas

into a comprehensive writing plan, and (c) Write their essays using their writing plan and add to

it as they wrote their composition” (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008, p. 473). The researchers

used this strategy as a “framework” for the genre-specific strategy TREE, which prompts the

basic elements of a persuasive essay: “Topic sentence, Reason, Explanation, and Ending”

(Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008, p. 473). The strategies were scaffolded and explicitly and

systematically taught through SRSD, through which students were also taught strategies for

self-regulation and motivation (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008). When each student could

“independently [write] an opinion essay with all the parts of TREE” (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid,

2008, p. 475), they individually moved on to the independent performance phase, in which each

student wrote three opinion essays without assistance from the instructor (Ortiz Lienemann &

Reid, 2008). After completing each essay, the students were given a graph to monitor the

number of essay elements they included and their essay’s length (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid,

2008).

Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008) found that, after the instruction, the number of essay

elements students included in their essays increased, with all students in the study including at

least all eight essay elements in their essays during the independent performance phase (Ortiz

Lienemann & Reid, 2008). The number of words the students used in their essays and the

holistic quality also increased from before the instruction (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008). These

qualities maintained above baseline levels two and four weeks later (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid,

2008). One limitation to this study was that Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008) were unable to
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determine whether the students’ improvements resulted from the content instruction, the self-

regulation instruction, or both. For this reason, they suggest that future research use a

components analysis to determine which component of this study led to the students’

improvements (Ortiz Lienemann & Reid, 2008).

In the third study I looked at, De La Paz (1999) sought to extend knowledge on effective

writing instruction and the SRSD model for students with and without learning disabilities. De La

Paz (1999) specifically notes that students with learning disabilities often minimize the role of

planning, evaluating, and reworking in their writing and have difficulties with “sustaining their

thinking about topics when retrieving ideas from memory” (De La Paz, 1999, p. 92). They also

appear to have less knowledge on the structure or frames of expository writing (De La Paz,

1999).

The participants of this study were seventh and eighth grade students with and without

learning disabilities and students who were considered low-, average-, and high-achieving

writers (De La Paz, 1999). The teachers in this study provided the students with SRSD

instruction, in which they activated the students’ background knowledge on basic essay parts

and taught and modeled the planning and writing strategies the students would be using (De La

Paz, 1999). Students then practiced planning and writing essays with the strategies as a class

or in small groups. They later engaged in an independent practice phase, in which they received

assistance from instructors along with essay sheets, cue cards, and feedback (De La Paz,

1999). Teachers gradually reduced their assistance, feedback, and the students’ use of essay

sheets and cue cards throughout this phase (De La Paz, 1999).

Students remembered the steps of the strategies used in this study with the mnemonics

PLAN and WRITE. PLAN stands for 1) “Pay attention to the prompt,” 2) “List main ideas,” 3)

“Add supporting ideas,” and 4) “Number your ideas,” in which students arranged their ideas in

the order they planned to use them (De La Paz, 1999, p. 98). WRITE stands for 1) “Work from

your plan to develop your thesis statement,” 2) “Remember your goals,” 3) “Include transition
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words for each paragraph,” 4) “Try to use different kinds of sentences,” and 5) “Exciting,

interesting, $100,000 words” (De La Paz, 1999, p. 98). Students followed PLAN during the

planning process, and they used WRITE to continue the planning process as they composed

their essays (De La Paz, 1999).

Following instruction, all students improved in their essay writing (De La Paz, 1999). The

lengths of their essays increased, the amount of essay elements the students included

increased, the amount of irrelevant, nonfunctional text in the students’ essays decreased, and

overall quality of the students’ essays improved (De La Paz, 1999). Four weeks later, students

with learning disabilities and the low- and high-achieving students maintained their

improvements and showed evidence of planning (De La Paz, 1999). The average-achieving

students also maintained most of their improvements, but essay length decreased 50% (De La

Paz, 1999). Even so, their essay length still improved from the baseline, and they did show

evidence of planning (De La Paz, 1999).

Why is this information important in relation to my problem?

This information is important and dependable in relation to my problem for three

reasons. One reason is that these three studies all address difficulties students have with the

organization of essays, the same problem experienced by the students in my fieldwork. They

also address different issues that may cause this problem, such as lack of planning and self-

regulation. I feel it’s important to address multiple possible causes, especially since I will be

implementing my plan with more than one student. A second reason this information is

important is because the studies work directly with expository writing. This is relevant to the

students in my field experience, as this is the type of essay they will often be assigned to write

(e.g. their upcoming opinion-based essay). Thirdly, Ms. Kurtz informed me that, while the class

is not an ICT classroom, a few of the students that I will be working with do have IEPs. Because

of this, I feel that the knowledge I gained from the above studies is important, as the studies

address students of varying abilities.

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Creating a Plan

As I have learned in my “Education 360: Language and Literacy” course, the

organization and structure of different types of essays in ELA classes falls under the language

demand of discourse. Referring to my notes on discourse, I found that one way to teach

discourse is through graphic organizers. This gave me the idea to present one or more of the

organization strategies I have learned about through my research within a graphic organizer

format. This way, the students will have a visual representation of their planning and organizing

process that they can easily fill out and refer back to when writing. I decided to focus on the

organization strategy ANSWER, as used by Therrien et al. (2009).

The graphic organizer will contain a space for each step of the ANSWER strategy

(Figure 1a, Figure 1b). I have noticed during my field experience that when given an essay

question, the students typically copy the question down in their notebooks. With the graphic

organizer, students will be able to do this within the Step A section (“Analyze the action words in

the question,” Figure 1a). The Step A section will also direct students to underline the key words

in the essay question. The next section of the organizer, Step N (“Notice the requirements of the

question,” Figure 1a), will provide students with a space to rewrite the essay question in their

own words.

While researching this problem, I also found an article by Todd H. Sundeen (2014) about

graphic organizers. Sundeen (2014) provides an example of a “Rough Draft Planner” organizer

(Figure 2) that fits in well with steps S (“Set up an outline”) and W (“Work in detail”) of the

ANSWER strategy. This organizer provides a space where students can write the three main

ideas of their paper, along with sections for the topic sentences and details of their introduction,

conclusion, and three body paragraphs. I plan to provide this graphic organizer alongside my

own ANSWER organizer to further guide the students through these steps. This way, when

students reach the Step S and Step W sections of the ANSWER graphic organizer (Figure 1b),

they can use Sundeen’s (2014) “Rough Draft Planner” to structure their outlines and add details.
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Now that students have completed their outlines, they are ready to start writing their

essays. The Step E section of the graphic organizer (“Engineer your answer,” Figure 1b) will

simply direct students to begin writing based on the outline they created in steps S and W. It will

also remind students to include their introductory sentences and detailed sentences about their

main ideas.

Inspired by Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008), I can encourage self-regulation by

providing the students with a way to check how many essay elements they have included in

their writing. Ortiz Lienemann and Reid (2008) provided the students with a graph, but I thought

that in this situation, a checklist would be helpful. This will be the purpose of the Step R section

of the graphic organizer (“Review your answer,” Figure 1b). The Step R section will direct

students to review their answer and ask if they have answered each part of the essay question.

It will include a checklist, which will list each element the students should include in their essays.

It can also have a section where the students rewrite the underlined portions of the Step A

section to ensure that they included each key point in their writing. As this checklist will vary

depending on the essay prompt and the type of essay the students are writing, it is not included

as a figure here, but most checklists would typically include essay elements, such as “At least 3

body paragraphs,” “Topic sentence for the first body paragraph,” etc.

Inspired by De La Paz (1999), I can also encourage the students to memorize the steps

of the graphic organizer and gradually start to reduce their use of the physical organizer sheets.

This would lead students to become more self-regulated in their essay-writing.

Conclusion

Like many students, the students in Ms. Kurtz’s class struggle with organizing their

essays, which can become a problem in middle and high school, where essay-writing is a major

aspect of ELA courses and standardized tests. There are several possible causes, including a

lack of planning, a lack of knowledge about essay structure and elements, and issues regarding

cognitive load and working memory. Some solutions for this problem include explicitly teaching
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students about essay organization and specific organization strategies, such as ANSWER or

POW and TREE; allowing students to practice these strategies; and providing students with

materials that will help them organize their ideas. I feel that my plan of providing students with

an ANSWER-based graphic organizer could work because it touches on many of these possible

causes and solutions.

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Figure 1a: ANSWER graphic organizer, steps A and N

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Figure 1b: ANSWER graphic organizer, steps S, W, E, and R

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Figure
2: “Rough Draft Planner” (Sundeen, 2014), which students will use during steps “S” and
“W” of the ANSWER graphic organizer.
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References

De La Paz, S. (1999). Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction in Regular Education Settings:

Improving Outcomes for Students With and Without Learning Disabilities. Learning

Disabilities Research and Practice, 14(2), 92-106. https://doi.org/10.1207/sldrp1402_3

Ortiz Lienemann, T., & Reid, R. (2008). Using Self-Regulated Strategy Development to Improve

Expository Writing With Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Exceptional Children, 74(4), 471-486. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F001440290807400404

Sundeen, T. H. (2014). Essay Development for Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities:

Graphic Organizers for Visualizing Organizational Patterns. Rural Special Education

Quarterly 33(3), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F875687051403300305

Therrien, W. J., Hughes, C., Kapelski, C., & Mokhtari, K. (2009). Effectiveness of a Test-Taking

Strategy on Achievement in Essay Tests for Students With Learning Disabilities. Journal

of Learning Disabilities, 42(1), 14-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219408326218