The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which a rural teacher’s knowledge and use of research-based writing instruction strategies impact student test scores. The study is based in the rural Scott County School District. This system was chosen because rural school systems face unique challenges that can hinder their ability to achieve good test scores. Rural districts suffer from declining student populations due to outmigration, which leads to loss of tax dollars and funding. Furthermore, rural districts serve an underprivileged student body, many of whom live in abject poverty (Maranto and Shuls, 2012). Research shows that writing is an often-neglected subject in American classrooms, and it is especially difficult to teach for …show more content…
To that end, this study focused on three research questions:
1. What is the training level of rural teachers regarding research-based writing instruction strategies as measured by a writing instruction survey?
Hypothesis: Teachers in this rural district possess a low level of training in research-based writing instruction strategies.
2. What is the correlation between a rural teacher’s training level regarding research-based writing instruction strategies and actual use of those strategies in their classrooms as measured by a writing instruction survey?
Hypothesis: Rural teachers who understand effective writing strategies use them in the classroom daily.
3. How does the time a teacher spends using research-based writing instruction strategies impact their students’ test scores as measured by a writing instruction survey and the TCAP Test?
Hypothesis: There is a positive correlation between student test scores and the time a teacher spends using research-based writing instruction strategies.
Interpretation of
As a student myself, I understand the dislike for writing and the idea that it's not as useful as other things. This piece shows students that writing is so much more than that, but you can only see this if you understand the purpose and
Michaela Cullington, author of “Does Texting Affect Writing,” declares texting does not affect students writing. Cullington uses facts to support her overall claim, and gets many teachers’ opinions on the subject. The author did not use valuable sources, which questioned her overall purpose. Cullington used a lot of her own opinion throughout the text, but lacked supporting facts. The story has many flaws, making Cullington argument on how texting is not affecting students writing, not reliable.
As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”
Contract grading has widely been embraced in first-year college writing classrooms, which has necessitated new types of responses to writing. Engagement-based assessment criteria such as contract grading do not require a professor's responses as a primary concern for student writers while revising their work. With this in mind, first-year writing students under contract grading ought to focus on feedback from their peer writing fellows which could guarantee their success in the course. The study discussed in the article "Crafting a Writing Response Community Through Contract Grading" by Sarah Klotz and Kristina Reardon entails a follow-up on 24 students across two first-year writing sections held in Fall of 2020. Each section of 12 students
In school students do not care about writing as much as they used to. If they would work harder in school, their grades would be higher and more colleges would want them. In Esther Cepeda 's research, she managed to prove that students test scores are going down. That is because they do not work as hard as they used to.
In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.
With greatest indication from third and fourth grade teachers who have shown evidence that these standards are being implemented more consistently through the delivery of more project based, inquiry based instruction in these classrooms. It is clear that kindergarten through second grade teachers are struggling with the implementing writing into the curriculum as reflected in principal and Instructional Coaches’ observational notes and logs. Teachers in all grades kindergarten through fourth are in considerable need of training and proper implementation of high quality literacy centers that can pinpoint specific skill deficits for students in the area of Reading Language Arts and quality centers that promote writing across the curriculum. Teachers also need to be using data more efficiently to drive their classroom instruction and create differentiated instruction for those students who are in need of
It showed that students do not believe textspeak is appropriate in formal writing assignments. They recognize the difference between texting friends and writing formally and know what is appropriate in each situation. This was proven true in the student samples, in which no examples of textspeak were used" (Cullington 367). In order words, Cullington's research showed that there is little effect on writing ability from texting. She collected sample essays and found no evidence of textspeak.
Authors do a review of literature on the topic of at risk students to see if technology will help them excel in writing and reading. Researchers included many factors that needed to be considered before making a decision about the benefits of using technology with at-risk students. The data can be used in either a qualitative or quantitative study in the future. Castek, J., Hartman, D. J., Leu, D. J., Coiro, J., Henry, L. A., & Zawilinski, L. (2007). Thinking about our future as researchers:
Writing is an essential part of an individual’s success. Writing comes in many forms, and it is not only used in an English course. It can be an email to a college professor, a resume, a lab report, a hotel review, etc. There are countless forms are writing, and it is important to understand how to approach each piece of writing. Writing is part of an individual’s daily life, and understanding the importance of rhetorical knowledge, genre knowledge, and audience awareness with make it easier to approach different types of writing, and ultimately improve one’s writing skills.
The author, Natalie Wexler is a one of the founders of the board of trustees for the Writing Revolution. In her article, Why Americans Can 't Write, with the advent of email, writing ability has become more important than ever, and writing deficiencies have become increasingly apparent. The writing skills have been lacking in America, and the reason is because schools have only 24% of the students in eighth and 12th grades were proficient in writing and just 3% were advanced. The exercise doesn 't provide kids with the tools they need to write analytically. The standards in middle and in high schools teachers expect students to know things.
Lucille Parkinson McCarthy, author of the article, “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum”, conducted an experiment that followed one student over a twenty-one month period, through three separate college classes to record his behavioral changes in response to each of the class’s differences in their writing expectations. The purpose was to provide both student and professor a better understanding of the difficulties a student faces while adjusting to the different social and academic settings of each class. McCarthy chose to enter her study without any sort of hypothesis, therefore allowing herself an opportunity to better understand how each writing assignment related to the class specifically and “what
She thinks that “we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution” (Thompson 157), which may well be true. But she only identifies and investigates one cause based solely on her inductive process. Lunsford believes that students are better writers because they type more (Thompson 158). This idea is a classic case of the post hoc fallacy, or mistaking correlation for causation (Moore 207). While these events may be related, there might be other factors at play, such as advances in nutrition, health, and public
Not So Fast”, conducts her own study with a few colleagues to take notes on how students writing skills are changing. She decides to conduct another one twenty five years later to see how much the writing skills have changed since technology has been updated and became more available to students. She found that “students today are writing more than ever before.” Although we still have the same amount of writing errors as before, the patterns of errors are different. Many people argue that technology is only making our writing skill worse, this study helps to prove a different theory.
Writing has always been an issue but yet interesting subject of mine. As hard as I try and write essays, and papers I just can’t get the hang of writing. But after taking this class, I did learn different writing technique and improved my writing proficiency, material body of formatting, and how to uncovering and properly use sources. Through class exams, essays, and a research paper, I was able to learn new writing skills. Although I have learned a variety of things, my writing still needs improvement.