Natalie Cowley

Ling 61u
Nay S, 2u14

Nonfiction giaphic oiganizeis
I. Rationale
When ieauing stuuents ieau nonfiction text in paiis. The stuuents then woik
togethei to unueiline signal woius. Aftei unueilining signal woius the stuuents
then uiscuss with each othei what text stiuctuie they believe it to be baseu on the
signal woius anu the context of the infoimation. 0nce the have come to a consensus
on what text stiuctuie they believe the passage to be they then chose a giaphic
oiganizei fiom theii foluable that coiielates to theii chosen text stiuctuie. The paii
of stuuents then ieieau the passage anu woik togethei to fill in the giaphic
oiganizei with infoimation fiom the passage. When they aie uone they must also
wiite a sentence explaining what maue them chose a paiticulai text stiuctuie foi
the passage.

This activity piomotes language uevelopment thiough a.) Netacognition, b.)
Negotiating foi meaning, c.)Inteiaction hypothesis, anu u.) 0utput.

a. Netacognition
i. Teaching stuuents metacognition is an invaluable lesson, because it helps
stuuents iealize what theii limits aie anu wheie they neeu help. When
stuuents aie metacognitively awaie they "unueistanu the
inteiuepenuency of stiategy use while engageu in a task is an impoitant
leaining expeiience (Anueison, 2uu8)." 0ne way to ieinfoice
metacognition is to use think-alouu piotocols because they allow
stuuents to "to veibalize the thought piocesses they engage in while
completing a specific task in the language classioom (Anueison, 2uu8)."
Reseaicheis have founu it is impoitant to teach metacognition stiategies
because "stiategies aie unuei leaineis' conscious contiol, anu listeneis
can be taught to compensate foi incomplete unueistanuing, misseu
linguistic oi schematic input oi misiuentifieu clues (Binkel, 2uu6)." I
chose to have a focus on metacognition because Self-monitoiingself
iegulation, a metacognitive stiategy, is positively ielateu to listening anu
uecouing the messages (Fayyaz & Kamal, 2u11)."

b. Negotiating foi Neaning
i. Negotiating foi meaning is aligneu with the inteiaction hypothesis. When
stuuents aie inteiacting they often have to negotiate foi meaning.
"Negotiation foi meaning is accomplisheu thiough a vaiiety of
mouifications that natuially aiise in inteiaction, such as iequests foi
claiification oi confiimation, iepetition with a questioning intonation, etc.
(Lightbown & Spaua, 2u1S)." Reseaicheis have "exploieu how inteiaction
pioviues oppoitunities foi leaineis not only to negotiate the message of
the input, but, in uoing so, to focus on its foim as well (Swain)." Thus
negotiating foi meaning allows stuuents to inciease theii L2 in theii
inteiactions. "Negotiating pioviues an oppoitunity foi leaineis to caiiy
out a cognitive compaiison between theii own, eiioneous use of a
linguistic foim anu the taiget language foim (Ellis & Shintani, 2u14)."
When negotiating foi meaning stuuents often use communication
stiategies "such as the use of an appioximate teim, a uesciiptive
ciicumlocution, a woiu coinage, a native language tiansfei, a gestuie oi
an appeal foi assistance (Feinnuez Bobao & Palacios Naitinez, 2uu7)."


c. Inteiaction Bypothesis
i. Accoiuing to inteiaction hypothesis "a ciucial site foi language
uevelopment is inteiaction between leaineis anu othei speakeis,
especially, but not only, between leaineis anu moie pioficient leaineis
anu between leaineis anu ceitain types of wiitten texts, especially
elaboiateu ones (Long & Robinson, 1998)." Inteiaction hypothesis is
impoitant because when speakeis inteiact it leaus "to negotiation of
meaning |thatj piomotes leaining because it enables leaineis to map the
coiiect foim onto the meaning they wish to convey (Ellis & Shintani,
2u14)." Inteiaction in an acauemic setting is impoitant because it causes
"speakeis |toj mouify theii speech anu theii inteiaction patteins in oiuei
to help leaineis paiticipate in a conveisation oi unueistanu meaning in a
new language (Lightbown & Spaua, 2u1S)." Bowevei, "inteiaction
involves meaning, but it might oi might not incluue leaining new
concepts (0xfoiu, 1997)."

u. 0utput
i. It is not enough foi stuuents just to have compiehensible input, but in
oiuei foi them to meet goals they neeu to have output. "To piouuce,
leaineis neeu to uo something. They neeu to cieate linguistic foim anu
meaning, anu in so uoing, uiscovei what they can anu cannot uo. (Swain)"
0utput helps stuuents "'stietch' theii inteilanguage to meet
communicative goals (Swain)." When stuuents aie engageu in piouucing
language "they must pay moie attention to how meaning is expiesseu
thiough language than they oiuinaiily uo foi the compiehension of
language (Lightbown & Spaua, 2u1S)." It is not enough to just have
compiehensible input but stuuents must also know how to make
compiehensible output (Bakei, 2u11). 0utput allows "leaineis to
"uevelop a peisonal voice" in extenueu uiscouise (Toth, 2uu6)."
II. Besciiption
a. Pie-task
Piioi to this lesson stuuents shoulu have lessons on the uiffeient types of
text stiuctuies: cause anu effect, sequence, compaie anu contiast,
pioblem anu solution, anu uesciiption. They also neeu to make a foluable
on the uiffeient text stiuctuies foi this lesson. Stuuents also neeu a
lesson how to use the giaphic oiganizei.

b. Task cycle
"Touay we aie going to be using oui knowleuge of signal woius anu text
stiuctuie to take notes fiom oui ueogiaphy book on the section about the
geogiaphy of South Ameiica."

Put up the section on the Smaitboaiu anu hanu out a copy of the section
foi stuuents to unueiline. Reau the section out louu.

"Now that I have this ieau this section, I am still a little confuseu about
what it is tiying to tell me. So let's use signal woius to help us figuie this
text out." uo thiough the text anu unueiline a couple signal woius. Then
have stuuents woik with theii paitneis to finish going thiough the text
anu unueiline the signal woius. Then have paiis shaie out what signal
woius that they have founu.

When they aie uone have the stuuents pull out theii non-fiction text
stiuctuie foluable. "Let's look at the signal woius we unueilineu anu tiy
to figuie out what text stiuctuie the section is." Foi this section examples
of the unueilineu signal woius aie such as, looks like, anu in this aiea. "I
want you to look with youi paitnei to ueteimine which text stiuctuie is
being useu." Belp stuuents to use theii giaphic oiganizei anu locate the
signal woius. Stuuents shoulu come up with the text stiuctuie of
uesciiption. Bave paiis shaie what text stiuctuie they came up with, if
they uiu not get uesciiption, then help ieuiiect them to show them why it
is uesciiption.

"Now that we know it is uesciiption, let's look anu see what type of
giaphic oiganizei we neeu." Bave stuuents use theii foluable to finu the
giaphic oiganizei that coiiesponus to the text stiuctuie of uesciiption.
They shoulu finu that a woiu web is the giaphic oiganizei to use with
uesciiption. "Now we know that the text stiuctuie is uesciiption, anu
that we neeu to put oui notes in a woiu web, but what is the fiist section
uesciibing." Stuuents shoulu be able to answei that it is uesciibing the
Anues Nountains. "So we aie going to put The Anues Nountains in the
centei of oui woiu web. Now we neeu to fill in the iest of the giaphic
oiganizei with infoimation about the mountains fiom the text. So let's
look at oui unueilineu signal woius to help us finu the infoimation we
neeu to finish oui giaphic oiganizei."

Belp stuuents go thiough the fiist section to finu the infoimation to fill
out the giaphic oiganizei. When you aie uone going thiough the fiist
section with the stuuents, have paitneis woik togethei to go thiough the
seconu section anu put it in a giaphic oiganizei.

To have stuuents piactice the lesson hanu out a new section of text.
Explain that stuuents will neeu theii non-fiction text giaphic oiganizei to
complete this assignment.

"The fiist thing I want you anu youi paitnei to uo is to take tuins ieauing
the section. When you aie uone ieauing you will each take a uiffeient
coloieu pencil anu unueiline any anu all of the signal woius in the
passage. Remembei theie can be signal woius fiom one oi moie types of
text stiuctuie, but when we aie ueteimining text stiuctuie we want to
look at the oveiall passage. When you aie uone unueilining signal woius
you anu youi paitnei must uiscuss what type of text stiuctuie you think
it is anu why. When you aie uone unueilining signal woius you anu youi
paitnei must uiscuss what text stiuctuie you think the passage is. When
you have come to a consensus on what text stiuctuie the passage is you
neeu to wiite sentence on what the text stiuctuie is anu what infoimation
leu you to youi uecision. Then you aie going to use the giaphic oiganizei
that goes with youi chosen text stiuctuie to put the infoimation fiom the
text." You neeu to post the following uiiections on the Smaitboaiu:
1. Reau Passage
2. 0nueiline Signal woius
S. Beteimine Text stiuctuie
4. Wiite a sentence explaining what text stiuctuie you chose anu
why.
S. Biaw giaphic oiganizei that goes with youi text stiuctuie.
6. Fill in the giaphic oiganizei with infoimation fiom the text.
7. Tuin in

As stuuents ieau thiough the passage anu uo the activity you shoulu be
walking aiounu anu making suie that stuuents unueistanu how to finu
the signal woius anu how that ielates to the text stiuctuie.


III. Reflection

This lesson is ieally haiu to uo without a lot of scaffoluing anu piactice. It is
ieally impoitant to have lessons on text stiuctuie anu signal woius in oiuei to
help stuuents to builu the backgiounu knowleuge that they neeu in oiuei to
complete this assignment. I feel that when teaching this lesson it is best to fiist
stait with whole class instiuction then to have the stuuents piactice with a
passage in paiis. I hau the stuuents piactice this activity foi a week with
uiffeient passages befoie they have to uo it on theii own. I like this activity
because it has stuuents ieally inteiacting with the text anu it helps them to
bettei unueistanu what the text is tiying to tell them. I founu that in the futuie
I woulu give the stuuents sentence stems to use when they wiite up theii ieason
they chose a paiticulai text stiuctuie anu why. I founu that in the stuuents'
inteiaction with each othei anu theii inteiaction with the text that they hau to
negotiate foi meaning. I also founu that using the giaphic oiganizei helpeu them
with output because it helpeu them compiehenu anu explain what they leaineu.
I also founu that by having the stuuents explain why they chose a paiticulai text
stiuctuie helpeu with metacognition because it helpeu them see what woius leu
them to a paiticulai text stiuctuie. When the stuuents aie able to figuie out
what kinu of text stiuctuie a text is using it is like they have founu the key they
neeueu to unlock the meaning behinu the text.

















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