Education Commons^™

At-Risk Writer Program That Benefits Both The Students And The Educators, Bill Elgersma, Luke Hawley

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This session presented a small-college writing workshop model centered on increasing at-risk writers' persistence and motivation as they improved their writing through the use of pre-service teachers. An important component of the presentation was the one-on-one interactions that occurred and the value of these to both parties.

Blogging With Students Across The Curriculum, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This infographic helps explore the role of blogs in writing across the curriculum.

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/8635464-blogging-with-students-across-the-curriculum

Amanda understands the developmental needs of young children. She knows that each child learns differently and that students need structure and creativity in the classroom. I know she will always do what is best for students.

The New Writing Series, Fall 2015, University Of Maine Honors College

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

The New Writing Series brings innovative and adventurous contemporary writing to the University of Maine's flagship campus in Orono on selected thursdays at 4:30 pm.

The New Writing Series, Spring 2016, The University Of Maine Honors College

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

In its thirty-fourth consecutive semester of programming, the New Writing Series will host six readings featuring four poets (John Keene, Prageeta Sharma, Divya Victor, and John Yau) and two fiction writers (Emily Fridlund and Joanna Walsh).

These writers are all highly active across the full spectrum of literary activity. They are editors, publishers, and anthologists; translators and tale-tellers; art-makers and trail-blazing scholars.

The New Writing Series brings innovative and adventurous contemporary writing to the University of Maine's flagship campus in Orono on selected Thursdays at 4:30pm.

Preservice Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy For Teaching Writing: A Phenomenological Study, Kallen Dace

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the self-efficacy of teaching writing for elementary preservice teachers at a small private university in southern Missouri. Preservice elementary teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching writing was defined as the level of confidence preservice teachers possess in their ability to effectively teach writing to elementary students. This study explored how the preservice teacher participants viewed their self-efficacy as writers and their experiences as writers in both kindergarten through twelfth grade education and higher education. Additionally, the study explored how the writing experiences of these preservice elementary teachers shaped how they might teach writing …

Giving Literacy, Learning Literacy: Service Learning And School Book Drives, Anne Walker

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

Service‐learning can provide a range of literacy learning experiences for children as they work to solve real world problems and engage in inquiry, collaboration and reflection. Rather than being an extracurricular activity, service‐learning projects are designed to meet standards and align with existing curriculum. This article explores how teachers can engage their students in literacy‐based service learning using the example of a book drive that supported literacy and children's libraries in Ethiopia. The article draws on both scholarly research and personal experience and provides practical information and resources.

Writers' Club: The Effect Of Extra Writing On Fourth-Grade, Hispanic Students' Writing, And Their Attitude Towards Writing, Helen F A Barnes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nationally, as well as at state and local level, 75% of students in Grades 4, 8 and 12 have been determined to be writing at the basic or below basic level. In 2012, the standards were made more stringent for the incorporation of details and adherence to customary English conventions. After that, students’ writing scores plummeted. Hispanic students scored more poorly than their White counterparts. Earlier studies indicated that students’ attitude towards writing becomes less positive as they progress through the grades. The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of extra writing on 60 fourth-grade, Hispanic students’ …

The Accuracy Of Computer-Assisted Feedback And Students’ Responses To It, Elizabeth Lavolette, Charlene Polio, Jimin Kahng

Language Resource Center

Various researchers in second language acquisition have argued for the effectiveness of immediate rather than delayed feedback. In writing, truly immediate feedback is impractical, but computer-assisted feedback provides a quick way of providing feedback that also reduces the teacher’s workload. We explored the accuracy of feedback from Criterion®, a program developed by Educational Testing Service, and students’ responses to it. Thirty-two students received feedback from Criterion on four essays throughout a semester, with 16 receiving the feedback immediately and 16 receiving it several days after writing their essays. Results indicated that 75% of the error codes were correct, but that …

Personal Narrative Genre Study [4th Grade], Emily B. Delgado

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is intended to be a beginning of year introduction to the genre of personal narrative, with the purpose of equipping students with a solid understanding and strong examples of personal narrative writing in preparation for writing their own. Students will begin by identifying the purpose for writing a personal narrative and then uncover the components of a quality personal narrative through discussion and dissection of six mentor texts. After determining the elements of a personal narrative, students will then use those elements as guidelines for identifying and improving upon the personal narratives of others. This unit culminates with …

Using Embedded Institutes As Professional Development To Create A Culture Of Writing Excellence, Melanie K. Farber

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following thesis addresses the problem of creating a culture of writing excellence at a large, urban school. I will show how the Embedded Institute model helped our school to reconsider our professional development model and to create writing leaders across the content areas. The thesis will make the argument for something larger than test scores through qualitative feedback from teacher participants.

Adviser: Robert Brooke

The Writing Process: Using Peer Review To Develop Student Writing, Jennifer M. Troester

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following thesis will explore how peer review through an online writing exchange influences student writers during the writing process. I propose that when students participate in this online writing exchange to peer review, it will assure that they will have a better understanding of the writing process, and more confidence in analyzing their own writing and in themselves as writers. It also makes these students more conscientious of the writing they share with peers because they have a wider audience than just their teacher, and this motivates them to improve their writing. The last part of the document features …

Calderwood Writing Initiative At Umass Boston, Denise Patmon, Carolyn Wong, Cedric Woods, Elena Stone

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Founded in 2003, the Calderwood Writing Initiative is dedicated to improving the teaching and practice of expository writing. In the past, the Initiative has sponsored a wide variety of experimental programs & approaches.

Not A Horror Story: Competency-Based Education (Cbe) & Writing Instruction, Michelle Navarre Cleary

SCPS Competency-based Education Publications and Presentations

“Horrifying,” “dystopian,” “there be wild beasts out there” – these are not descriptions of a terrifying new movie, but recent reactions to competency-based education (CBE) on the Writing Program Administrators (WPA) listserv. However, closing our eyes and pulling up the covers is not going to serve us well.

Unlike credit-hour based programs, CBE allows students to apply learning gained in many ways (including from life experience, classrooms and MOOCS) to demonstrate competence. Many CBE programs also allow students to work at their own pace, freeing those who are ready to move more quickly from the constraints of the academic term. …

Video Review And Reflection For Ongoing Inservice Teacher Professional Development, Hannah M. Dostal, Kimberly A. Wolbers

Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Publications and Other Works

Purpose. In this chapter we describe how a rubric-style observation instrument for observing classroom writing instruction was used to focus and optimize collaborative video analysis sessions among teachers and researchers spread across six states. As part of a 3-year Institute of Education Sciences (IES) development grant, we used videos of classroom instruction both as data for researchers studying the nature and impact of a specific instructional approach, Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI), and as a vehicle for collaborative teacher professional development-- for both teachers and teacher leaders.

Design. By tying video analysis to a shared observation instrument, we were …

The Writing Performance Of Elementary Students Receiving Strategic And Interactive Writing Instruction, Kimberly Wolbers, Hannah M. Dostal, Steve Graham, David F. Cihak, Jennifer Kilpatrick, Rachel M. Saulsburry

Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Publications and Other Works

Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) has led to improved writing and language outcomes among deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) middle grades students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of SIWI on the written expression of d/hh elementary students across recount/ personal narrative, information report, and persuasive genres. Five multiple-probe case studies demonstrate a relationship between implementation of SIWI and improvements in genre-related writing performance. The effect of instruction was most immediately demonstrated with information reports and persuasive writing, whereas several sessions of recount instruction were needed for students to satisfy performance criteria. Additionally, pre …

An Analysis Of Deaf Students’ Spelling Skills During A Year Long Instructional Writing Approach, Lisa M. Bowers, Hannah M. Dostal, Jillian H. Mccarthy, Ilsa Schwarz, Kimberly A. Wolbers

Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Publications and Other Works

Numerous studies have shown that spelling presents unique challenges for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (d/hh) and most do not develop age appropriate spelling skills. However, it is critical that these skills are acquired in order to use written language for academic or vocational purposes. Spelling errors from the writing samples of 29 middle school students in a state school for the Deaf were analyzed to examine changes over time. Samples were gathered before, during, and after a year-long writing intervention using Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI). When using SIWI, students are exposed to proper spelling …

Conceptualizing Metalinguistic Understanding In Writing | Conceptualización De La Competencia Metalingüística En La Escritura, Debra Myhill, Susan M. Jones

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper will present a theoretical analysis of research on metalinguistic understanding, illustrating how current research does not yet adequately address metalinguistic development in writing. Existing research on metalinguistic understanding has focused more on language acquisition, oral development and bilingual learners. Research on metalinguistic understanding in writing has tended to look more closely at young learners developing writing skills in spelling, transcription and orthography. Thus, theoretical accounts of metalinguistic understanding are currently insufficient to explain developing metalinguistic mastery of composing text and the relationships between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge in writing. If we are to understand better the nature …

Adventures With Mr Monkey: Stimulating Creative Writing In The Primary School Classroom Through Play, Chloe Gordon

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The importance of learning through play is now accepted as an integral component of early childhood classrooms. However, including opportunities for play in the primary school classroom can be challenging when competing with an overcrowded school curriculum. In this article I share my reflections on how I used play to stimulate my Year one students' creative writing in 2013.

Effects Of Persuasion And Discussion Goals On Writing, Cognitive Load, And Learning In Science., Perry Klein, J. S. Eharhardt

Education Publications

Argument writing is challenging for elementary students. Previous experimental research has focused on scaffolding rhetorical goals, leaving content goals relatively unexplored. In a randomized experiment, 73 students in Grades 5, 6, and 7 wrote persuasive texts about difficult-to-classify vertebrates. Each student received one of three sets of writing prompts: a persuasive goal only (control); persuasive goal + rhetorical subgoal prompts; or persuasive goal + content subgoal prompts. Rhetorical subgoals increased text quality, variety of rhetorical moves, number of complex propositions, and classification knowledge. Content subgoals increased the number of simple propositions in text. A path analysis indicated that content subgoal …

Caught In The Tractor Beam Of Larger Influences: The Filtration Of Innovation In Education Technology Design, Justin Olmanson, Fitsum Abebe, Valerie Jones, Eric Kyle, Lyrica Lucas, Katie Robbins, Guieswende Rouamba, Xianquan Liu

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

While emerging technologies continue to emerge, research into their use in learning contexts often focuses on a subset of educational practices and ways of using technologies. In this study we begin to explore the extent to which educational designs are influenced by larger societal and education-related factors not usually explicitly considered when designing or identifying technology-supported education experiences for research study. We examine patterns within and between factors via a content analysis across ten years and 19 different journals of published peer-reviewed research on technology-supported writing. Our findings have implications for how researchers, designers, and educators approach technology-supported educational design …

The Techno-Pedagogical Pivot: Designing And Implementing A Digital Writing Tool, Justin Olmanson, Katrina Kennett, Bill Cope

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In educational technology, the idea of innovation is usually tethered to contemporary technological inventions and emerging technologies. Yet, using long-known technologies in ways that are pedagogically or experientially new can reposition them as emerging educational technologies. In this study we explore how a subtle pivot in pedagogical thinking led to an innovative education technology. We describe the design and implementation of an online writing tool that scaffolds students in the evaluation of their own informational texts. We think about how pathways to innovation can emerge from pivots, namely a leveraging of longstanding practices in novel ways has the potential to …

Mteg Afghanistan 2013 : Preliminary Database For Grade 6, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This is the the preliminary database for the Grade 6 Afghanistan Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) results. Published also at: https://www.acer.edu.au/files/AFG_MTEG_G6_DATABASE.zip

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth : Class 6 Girls And Boys In Afghanistan 2013, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This publication provides a summary of initial findings of the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) study in Afghanistan. Class 6 students in 13 provinces in Afghanistan were assessed in the domains of mathematical, reading and writing literacy. In total, 5,979 students, 42% girls and 58% boys, took the test and completed a student background questionnaire in either Dari or Pashto. The principal from each assessed school also completed a school background questionnaire. The initial results on gender differences show some promising outcomes as well as highlighting areas that require attention. The results of MTEG 2013 Class 6 indicate that …