Education Commons^™

Exploring Peer Revision In Writing Through Online Collaboration In A Middle Grades Classroom, Sarah Hunt-Barron

All Dissertations

Using the method of a formative experiment, this investigation examined how the use of peer revision and collaboration in an online environment could be implemented in a seventh-grade classroom to increase revision of writing over multiple drafts and improve the quality of student expository writing. Thirty-six students in two sections of a seventh-grade English language arts class participated in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected prior to the intervention to establish baseline data and determine progress toward the pedagogical goal. Qualitative data were also gathered and analyzed throughout the intervention to assess progress toward the goal. Quantitative data …

Developing Students’ First Language Through A Second Language Writing Intervention: A Simultaneous Approach, Hannah Marie Dostal

Doctoral Dissertations

Deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) children often acquire an L1 after age 3, thus are arguably more diverse than that of the general bilingual population. A unique problem therefore exists among d/hh late language learners—they often do not have an L1 to later develop an L2. This study investigated the impact of an English writing intervention (Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction, SIWI) that incorporates support for the development of American Sign Language in an effort to illustrate the necessity of explicitly addressing the proposed interdependence of language learning.

The research involved providing 23 upper elementary and middle school d/hh …

The Open Source Composition Space, Carly Finseth

All Theses

This paper integrates composition theory with pedagogical practice in order to redefine what is traditionally viewed as the `writing classroom.' Specifically, it explores a new way of considering composition as both a term and a cultural ideology that encompasses many forms of creative expression: traditional alphabetic texts, digital alphabetic texts, multimodal texts such as videos and podcasts, and programming code. The work explores a pedagogical model that can be used to teach composition in its various forms. It also examines what it means to instruct in a classroom in today's digital age by incorporating ideas from traditional classroom teaching, online …

Rhetorical Outcomes: A Genre Analysis Of Student Service-Learning Writing, Thomas Brady Trimble

Wayne State University Dissertations

Service-learning continues to be a popular pedagogical approach within composition studies. Despite a number of studies that document a range of positive impacts on students, faculty, institutions, and community members, the relationship between service-learning and student writing outcomes is not well understood. This study presents the results of a genre analysis of student-authored ethnographies composed in four distinct sections of a service-learning--based intermediate writing course at a Midwestern urban research university. Results of the analysis are then used to develop a contextualized writing assessment framework to evaluate student writing outcomes and to consider the implications of using contemporary genre theory …

Addressing The Decline Of Academic Performance Among First-Year Composition Students: A Usability Analysis Of Two Important Online Resources, Kate Zephyrhawke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of students entering college lack the academic skills necessary to perform well at the college level, forcing professors and academic institutions to lower standards. Students approach higher education as a commodity, and as consumers they assert their desire for easier course work by giving poor evaluations to instructors whose courses they find too demanding or difficult. Eliminating student evaluations is one necessary change that will help reverse declining standards in higher education and increase performance; providing effective venues for supplemental instruction is another. Teaching basic writing skills in freshman composition courses would waste valuable instruction time that …

An Evaluation Of Writing Samples By English Learners In Special Education, Brett Patrick Frayseth

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate if there was any pattern in the types or frequencies of errors made within writing samples produced by English Learners (ELs) in special education and whether those patterns differentiated them from ELs not in special education or whether there was commonality between the types or frequencies of errors made by ELs in special education and native-English speakers in special education. The intent is that once a pattern is recognized that the written work of ELs can help aid in determining placement in special education. The quantitative method was applied in this study. …

Response In Real Time : Bringing Context To A Semester's Responses To Student Writing, Scott James O'Callaghan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the field of Composition, research into responding to student writing has most frequently studied individual responses outside the material contexts in which those responses were produced. Advice given to teachers of writing on how best to respond to large amounts of writing--perennially a feature within the reality of the work writing teachers do--has tended to be similarly acontextual. However, further research into response must take into account writing teachers' material conditions and situatedness.