This paper examines the history, rationale,
uses and abuses of writing journals in primary classrooms.
We argue that writing journals form part of a pedagogy derived
from an understanding of how children can be motivated to
express themselves, in dependently of teachers. Moreover,
they demonstrate the power of welcoming children's home
cultures into the classroom. However, we also wish to argue
that the use of writing journals is part of the teaching
profession's 'creative compliance' that can still contribute
to the marginalisation of effective educational practice.
We document how, in some schools in England, writing journals
have been reduced to token gestures towards creativity and
independence and in effect collude with and support what
is increasingly becoming a pedagogical hegemony.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing.
This article reports on the results of two
international systematic research reviews which focus on
different aspects of teaching grammar to improve the quality
and accuracy of 5-16-year-olds' writing in English. The
results show that there is little evidence to indicate that
the teaching of formal grammar is effective; and that teaching
sentence-combining has a more positive effect. In both cases,
however, despite over a hundred years of research and debate
on the topic, there is insufficient quality of research
to prove the case with either approach. More research is
needed, as well as a review of policy and practice in England
with regard to the teaching of sentence structure in writing.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor & Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This article reports on the effects of a family
literacy program for first graders that had three main characteristics:
(1) book reading with parents that adapts parental intervention
to the child's gradually increasing skills in reading during
the school year, (2) support for writing activities, and
(3) enjoyable home activities complementing the in-class
teaching. The 108 participants were assigned to two treatment
conditions: Workshop and Control. Pre- and post-test group
comparisons indicate that the workshop program has a positive
effect on the children's performance in both reading and
writing. Children produced longer texts and used better
vocabulary, sentence structure and spelling. This study
provides new data supporting the utility of family literacy
programs by demonstrating their positive effect on writing.
This confirms the importance of connecting reading and writing
activities in family literacy at the beginning of learning
and that parents should be invited by the teacher to intervene
in these two areas rather than only in reading.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Writing is a complex task. Its development depends in
large part on changes that occur in children's strategic behavior, knowledge,
and motivation. In the present study, the effectiveness of an instructional
model, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), designed to foster
development in each of these areas, was examined. Adding a peer support
component to SRSD instruction to facilitate maintenance and generalization
was also examined. Struggling, third grade writers, the majority of
whom were minority students attending schools that served primarily
low-income families, received SRSD instruction focused primarily on
learning writing strategies and knowledge for planning and composing
stories and persuasive essays. These students wrote longer, more complete,
and qualitatively better papers for both of these genres than peers
in the comparison condition (Writers' Workshop). These effects were
maintained over time for story writing and generalized to a third uninstructed
genre, informative writing. SRSD instruction boosted students' knowledge
about writing as well. The peer support component augmented SRSD instruction
by increasing students' knowledge of planning and enhancing generalization
to informative and narrative writing. In contrast, self-efficacy for
writing was not influenced by either SRSD condition (with or without
peer support).
Abstract reproduced with permission of ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com
Writers have beliefs that may influence engagement during
writing and consequently effect writing quality. Students completed
a writing beliefs inventory that identified transmissional and transactional
beliefs. Transmissional beliefs reflect limited cognitive and affective
engagement during writing whereas transactional beliefs reflect higher
engagement. Relations between writing beliefs and writing quality were
examined with a different group of students. ANOVA results indicated
that students with low transactional beliefs scored low on organization
and overall writing quality and students with high transactional beliefs
scored high on idea-content development, organization, voice, sentence
fluency, conventions, and overall writing quality. Results indicate
that individuals hold implicit writing beliefs that can be measured
and that relate in stable and predictable ways to writing quality.
Abstract reproduced with permission of ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com
This paper reports a 3-year (1999-2001) Australian study
of teacher judgement of student writing. It analyses teachers' talk
to discover how they arrive at such judgements. It focuses on the processes
teachers use as they read and appraise student writing, as distinct
from judgements recorded as numerical or letter grades. It identifies
and discusses a set of data-based indexes the teachers rely on to constitute
their judgement. In so doing, the 'global' standard-setting of external
assessment (judging the quality of student work against stated standards),
and the 'local' of teacher judgement (based on the richness of what
teachers bring to the task) are reconsidered. This study notes how teacher
judgement of student coursework may be intertwined with and shaped both
by officially authorized curriculum materials, syllabus documents, and
assessment practices, and by other essentially private, local ways of
knowing.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
This study investigated the effects of orthographic
depth on reading acquisition in alphabetic, syllabic, and
logographic scripts. Children between 6 and 15 years old
read aloud in transparent syllabic Japanese hiragana, alphabets
of increasing orthographic depth (Albanian, Greek, English),
and orthographically opague Japanese kanji ideograms, with
items being matched cross-linguistically for word frequency.
This study analyzed response accuracy, latency, and error
types. Accuracy correlated with depth: Hiragana was read
more accurately than, in turn, Albanian, Greek, English,
and kanji. The deeper the orthography, the less latency
was a function of word length, the greater the proportion
of errors that were no-responses, and the more the substantive
errors tended to be whole-word substitutions rather than
nonword mispronounciation. Orthographic depth thus affected
both rate and strategy of reading.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
Background: Writing is a
complex activity involving various cognitive processes in the planning,
the transcription and the revision of written texts. The present study
focused on the revision of written texts within a developmental approach.
Aims: The study aimed to examine whether
children and adults use different procedures to detect and revise erroneous
grammatical agreements. It was predicted that children would use a slow
algorithmic procedure while adults would use a fast automatized procedure.
Sample: One hundred and twenty participants
from 5th grade to undergraduate levels (24 per level) participated in
the study.
Method: The participants were asked to
decide as quickly as possible whether a visually presented sentence
had any agreement error. The French experimental sentences were of the
type 'The N1 of the N2 + Verb', in which N2 was either a plausible subject
of the following verb (e. g., The guard of the prisoners watches) or
an implausible subject (e. g., The guard of the safes watches). Correctness
and latency of the responses were recorded.
Results: The main results showed that
only the younger participants were affected by the subject-role plausibility
of N2, and that there was no difference in response latency between
their correct and incorrect responses. These observations support the
hypothesis that the younger participants systematically apply a time-consuming
algorithmic procedure to verify the agreement; since one step of this
procedure consists in searching for the subject of the verb, these participants
were frequently misled by the subject-role plausibility of N2. On the
contrary, the older participants were not affected by the plausibility
of N2, but were frequently misled by erroneous agreements between N2
and the verb. These observations support the view that these older participants
use a fast decision strategy based on the co-occurrence of formal indices.
Their correct answers, however, were slower than their incorrect ones;
this suggests that they also sometimes use a time-consuming controlled
procedure.
Conclusion: The study shows that along
with the acquisition of writing expertise, the revising activity itself
is progressively facilitated and gradually automatized by substituting
a fast direct decision strategy for a slow and laborious use of revision
rules.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
Background: Orthographic-motor
integration refers to the way in which orthographic knowledge is integrated
with fine-motor demands of handwriting. A strong relationship has shown
to exist between orthographic-motor integration and students' ability
to produce creative and well-structured written text (De La Paz & Graham,
1995). This relationship is thought to be due to the cognitive load
resulting from lack of automaticity in orthographic-motor integration
so that writers do not have sufficient resources to accomplish the more
demanding aspects of writing. Interventions to improve children's orthographic-motor
integration result in improved written text (Jones & Christensen, 1999).
Aim: This study first extended findings
related to handwritten text to the relationship between typing and the
length and quality of computer-based written text. Second, it examined
the efficacy of an intervention to develop proficiency in typing skills
on the length and quality of students' written language.
Sample: Participants in the first study
were 276 Grade 8 and 9 students. In the second study 35 students in
Grades 8 and 9 who exhibited very low levels of proficiency in typing
were the participants.
Methods: In Study 1, orthographic-motor
integration related to typing as well as handwriting was assessed for
all students. They were asked to complete a piece of handwritten and
computer-based text. Students in the intervention study completed the
same measures as Study 1, at pre- and post-test. During the intervention
half the students completed a daily typed journal and half completed
a program designed to facilitate their typing skills.
Results: There was a significant relationship
between orthographic-motor integration - handwriting and the length
and quality of handwritten text, and a stronger relationship between
orthographic-motor integration - typing and length and quality of computer-based
text. Both intervention groups in the second study showed significant
differences in writing skills from pre- to post-test. However, the typing
skills group showed significantly better scores on typing and quality
of typewritten text than the journal group at post-test. The impact
of the intervention was specific to typewritten text. There was no difference
in length or quality of handwritten text.
Conclusion: It is suggested that developing
proficiency in orthographic-motor integration related to typing allows
writers to employ their cognitive resources more flexibly when working
on a computer, so that they can devote attention to higher-order processes
involved in ideation, syntactic and semantic monitoring and pragmatic
awareness.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
Background: This longitudinal study sought to improve
understanding of the factors at home and school that influence children's
attainment and progress in writing between the ages of 4 and 7 years.
Aims: (i) To investigate the relationship between home variables
and writing development in preschool children; (ii) to determine associations
between child characteristics and writing development (iii) to conduct
an analysis of the areas of continuity and discontinuity between variables
at home and at school, and influences on subsequent writing development.
Sample: Sixty children attending four urban primary schools participated
in this study.
Method: Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, observation
schedules and standardized assessments were used. Writing samples were
collected each term. Associations between measures and continuity over
time were assessed using multiple regression analysis.
Results: Preschool variables that were found to be significantly
associated with writing proficiency at school entry included mother's
educational level, family size, parental assessment of writing and a
measure of home writing. Child characteristics, skills and competencies
were measured at school entry and those found to be significantly associated
with writing at 7 years included season of birth, vocabulary score,
pre-reading skills, handwriting and proficiency in writing name. The
only preschool variable that maintained its significant relationship
to writing at 7 years was home writing. Teacher assessments of pupil
attitudes to writing were consistently found to be significantly associated
with writing competence.
Conclusions: This comprehensive study explored the complex interaction
of cognitive, affective and contextual processes involved in learning
to write, and identified specific features of successful writers. Results
are discussed in relation to educational policy and practice issues.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
The intersection of teacher beliefs with writing
achievement in schooling is a key concern of this paper.
The paper reports part of two-year Australian study that
set out to examine in detail how it is that teachers judge
Year 5 students' literacy achievement using writing as the
case instance. In what follows, we examine the data in the
form of concept maps that the teachers themselves made available
showing their beliefs about, and insights into the factors
that affect student writing achievement. Drawing on these
maps, we highlight the range of teacher-identified factors,
including those relating to in-class behaviour, motivation,
attitudes to school learning, social and cultural backgrounds,
oracy and even life circumstances. Additionally, we address
how the identified factors function, operating either as
stand-along elements or within a dynamic network of inter-relationships.
This article explores the idea that in order
to improve the way we teach children to write, we need to
improve our understanding of children as writers. Although
developing their metacognitive skills can give us a clearer
window into children's understanding, we must be wary of
assuming that they ascribe the same meaning to their metacognitive
metalanguage as we, their teachers, do. But we also need
to beware of making assessments based just on the children's
writing - children can use writing to hide from us what
they do not know and cannot do. Through the presentation
of three brief case studies of lower-attaining Year 4 (8-9-year-old
boys) the article considers the implications of assessing
writing without acknowledging the role of the writer.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
In this paper Graham Frater finds early signs
of a revival of explicit instruction in English grammar
to pupils of compulsory school age in England; this is accompanied
by an expectation that such teaching might play an important
part in closing the 'writing gap'. He suggest that, strengthened
by the National Literacy Strategy, this early re-awakening
invokes again some of the debates that accompanied the construction
of the National Curriculum. Rooted in a case study of a
text by a low-achieving Y7 writer, and in two surveys of
effective practice with writing (covering Key Stages 2-4),
this paper argues that purposeful text-level teaching, reading
in particular, and the creation of real leaderships offer
more secure ways of promoting progress in writing.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com/
It is sometimes assumed that the strongest
opportunities for developing imagination and empathy through
children's writing lie in narrative starting points, whereas
other less obviously literary writing forms are more readily
associated with functional literacy. Consequently, writing
regarded as non-literary is rarely analysed with these qualities
in mind. This paper presents an exploratory, textual analysis
of children's letter-writing texts, which aims to identify
and describe the uses of imagination and empathy. It is
suggested that imaginative strategies were integral to this
textual construction and that the significance of imagination
and empathy in writing development is worthy of further
exploration.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com/
This study follows from a previous study into
children's attitudes to writing test stimulus features.
In that study the views of 192 English eleven-year-olds
were surveyed using a questionnaire. The survey found that
the children were mainly influenced by features that they
felt contributed to task difficulty. A qualitative study
was designed in order to investigate children's views in
more depth. Stimuli were constructed containing various
features that children in the earlier study had suggested
contributed to task difficulty. The children's ideas relating
to the stimuli were elicited using a modified version of
Kelly's repertory grid technique.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com/
Meta-analyses were performed including 26
studies conducted between 1992-2002 focused on the comparison
between K-12 students writing with computers vs. paper-and-pencil.
Significant mean effect sizes in favor of computers were
found for quantity of writing (d = .50, n = 14) and quality
of writing (d = .41, n = 15). Studies focused on revision
behaviors between these two writing conditions (n = 6) revealed
mixed results. Other studies collected for the meta-analysis
which did not meet the statistical criteria were also reviewed
briefly. These articles (n = 35) indicate that the writing
process is more collaborative, iterative and social in computer
classrooms as compared with paper-and-pencil environments.
For educational leaders questioning whether computers should
be used to help students develop writing skills, the results
of the meta-analyses suggest that, on average, students
who use computers when learning to write are not only more
engaged and motivated in their writing, but they produce
written work that is of greater length and higher quality.
This article is available from www.jtla.org.
Background: This article addresses the question
whether communication apprehension (CA) should be regarded as a unidimensional
or alternatively as a multidimensional construct. The answer is not
only interesting from a theoretical point of view. There might also
be practical implications for the treatment of CA. If CA were to appear
to be unidimensional and a student's level of CA were to be the same
across situations and tasks, there would be no need to tailor the treatment
to particular speaking situations or specific writing problems. If,
however, CA appeared to be multi-dimensional and a student might have
a variety of different levels and types of CA, one type of treatment
might be more effective for one student than for another one. \
Aim: To examine the effects of situational, task and school effects
on speaking and writing apprehension. Sample: Use was made of the dataset
of the 1987-1988 National Assessment of Language Performance in the
Netherlands. The nationally representative sample consisted of 1448
students from 184 secondary schools; 52% of the students were boys and
48% were girls; the mean age of the students was 15 years 6 months.
Method: Speaking and writing apprehension were measured by means
of self-report measures in grade 9. Multilevel factor analysis (MLFA)
was used to determine the dimensionality of the measurement of speaking
and writing apprehension.
Results and conclusions: First, all seven speaking situations
and three out of four writing problems could be distinguished empirically.
Speaking and writing apprehension are clearly multidimensional constructs
that depend on the speaking situation and the writing task. Second,
correlations between speaking and writing apprehension were rather low.
Speaking and writing apprehension seem to represent skill-specific constructs,
which cannot be considered as equivalent forms of communication apprehension.
Third, differences between schools in the level of speaking and writing
apprehension were very small compared to measurements of speaking and
writing performance.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
Background: Research with college students has
supported a model of writing approaches that defines the relationship
between a writer and writing task along a deep and surface process continuum
(Biggs, 1988). Based on that model, Lavelle (1993) developed the Inventory
of Processes in College Composition which reflects students' motives
and strategies as related to writing outcomes. It is also important
to define the approaches of secondary students to better understand
writing processes at that level, and development in written composition.
Aims: This study was designed to define the writing approaches
of secondary students by factor analysing students' responses to items
regarding writing beliefs and writing strategies, and to compare the
secondary approaches to those of college students. A related goal was
to explore the relationships of the secondary writing approaches to
perceived self-regulatory efficacy for writing (Zimmerman & Bandura,
1994), writing preferences, and writing outcomes.
Samples: The initial, factor analytic phase involved 398 junior
level high school students (11th grade) enrolled in a mandatory language
arts class at each of three large Midwestern high schools (USA). Then,
49 junior level students enrolled in two language arts classes participated
as subjects in the second phase.
Method: Classroom teachers administered the Inventory of Processes
in College Composition (Lavelle, 1993), which contained 72 true-or-false
items regarding writing beliefs and strategies, during regular class
periods. Data were factor analysed and the structure compared to that
of college students. In the second phase, the new inventory, Inventory
of Processes in Secondary Composition, was administered in conjunction
with the Perceived Self-Regulatory Efficacy for Writing Inventory (Zimmerman
& Bandura, 1994), and a writing preferences survey. A writing sample
and grade in Language Arts classes were obtained and served as outcome
variables.
Results: The factor structure of secondary writing reflected
three process dimensions. The first factor, Elaborative-Expressive,
describes a writing strategy based on personal investment and audience
concern. The second factor, Planful-Procedural, denotes sticking to
a plan, following the rules, and 'preparing' for writing. Achieving-Competitive,
the third factor, reflects a 'teacher pleasing' strategy or doing only
what needs to be done to get a good grade. Two factors from the college
model, Elaborative and Procedural, were replicated, and two were not,
Reflective-Revision and Low Self-Efficacy. Regression analyses supported
that the processes in writing under a timed condition are different
from those used when writing over time, and that students' perceptions
of writing self-regulatory efficacy were predictive of writing success
under both conditions.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
British Psychological Society: www.bps.org.uk
In this longitudinal study, the writing skill development
of 154 Finnish-speaking children was followed from preschool
to the third grade. The focus was on predictive associations
between preschool writing readiness skills and later mechanics
of writing, as well as between word recognition skill, mechanics
of writing, and composition coherence. In addition, comparisons
were made between boys and girls to see to what extent writing
skill development is gender-specific. Multi-group structural
equation modeling was used for statistical analysis. The
results indicated that both mechanics of writing and composition
coherence could be predicted from performance on the same
skill at an earlier point in time. Preschool measures of
phonological and visual-motor skills predicted later mechanics
of writing. Word recognition worked as a predictor of later
mechanics of writing and composition coherence, but only
starting from second grade, when the development of the
word recognition skill had become stabilized at a high enough
level. Furthermore, first grade mechanics of writing predicted
second grade composition coherence, but only at this early
stage of productive writing when there were still difficulties
in the mechanics of writing. Girls were better at tasks
measuring mechanics of writing and wrote more coherent stories
than boys. The gender difference in the mechanics of writing
at the first grade level was explained by the presented
model. Educational implications were discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Kluwer Academic
Publishing: www.kluweronline.com
Background. The structured system for peer assisted
learning in writing named Paired Writing (Topping, 1995) incorporates
both metacognitive prompting and scaffolding for the interactive process.
Aim. This study sought to evaluate the relative contribution
of these two components to student gain in quality of writing and attitudes
to writing, while controlling for amount of writing practice and teacher
effects.
Sample. Participants were 28 ten- and eleven-year-old students forming
a problematic mixed ability class. Methods. All received training in
Paired Writing and its inherent metacognitive prompting. Students matched
by gender and pre-test writing scores were assigned randomly to Interaction
or No Interaction conditions. In the Interaction condition, the more
able writers became 'tutors' for the less able. In the No Interaction
condition, the more able writers acted as controls for the tutors and
the less able as controls for the tutees. Over six weeks, the paired
writers produced five pieces of personal writing collaboratively, while
children in the No Interaction condition did so alone.
Results. On pre- and post-project analyses of the quality of
individual writing, all groups showed statistically significant improvements
in writing. However, the pre-post gains of the children who wrote interactively
were significantly greater than those of the lone writers. There was
some evidence that the paired writers also had more positive self-esteem
as writers.
Conclusion. The operation and durability of the Paired Writing
system are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
Two decades of cognitive research have shown writing to
be a highly fluid process of problem solving requiring constant monitoring
of progress toward task goals. Becoming an able writer brings great
intellectual and social rewards, but the extended nature and difficulty
of this process create unique motivational challenges. Speech development
provides some models for development of writing motivation, but writing
requires special attention to motivational conditions. Four clusters
of conditions are proposed as keys to developing motivation: nurturing
functional beliefs about writing, fostering engagement using authentic
writing tasks, providing a supportive context for writing, and creating
a positive emotional environment. Teachers' own conceptions of writing
are seen as crucial to establishing these conditions in most writing
contexts. Systematic motivational research complementing our knowledge
about the cognitive processes of writing is needed to understand the
development of motivation to write.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates: www.leaonline.com
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