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Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension, Year
2 Developing Measures for Interpreting What the
WIRC Data Tell Us About Reading-Writing
Connections Jim Collins, Jaekyung Lee, Janina
Brutt-Griffler, Mary McVee, Tim Madigan, Jeff
Fox, Sean Turner, Eric Vosburgh, Pavithra
Babu University at Buffalo
Project Abstract
Highlights of Year 2 in the WIRC Study
The Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension Study
is a three-year project testing the effectiveness
of using writing to enhance the reading
comprehension and writing performance of fourth-
and fifth-graders in low-performing urban
schools. The purpose of the study is to determine
if guided reading and writing supported by
thinksheets ? guides to reading, writing and
problem solving which teachers use interactively
with students ? will improve the reading
comprehension of fourth- and fifth-graders.
Where We Are in This 3-Year Study Targeted
Reading Select and Connect Thinksheets Internal,
External, and Dialogic Connectedness
Thinksheets to Bring Reading Writing Together
Experimental Data Analysis
Connectedness Measures and Thinksheet Analysis
Assessing the Benefits of Writing Intensive
Reading Comprehension (WIRC) Measurement and
Design of the WIRC Experiment Jeff Fox, Jaek Lee
Jim Collins Writing Intensive Reading
Comprehension (WIRC) is a progressive
instructional intervention designed to enhance
the competence of struggling readers and writers.
One goal of the three-year WIRC study is to
subject the intervention to a rigorous scientific
evaluation of its effectiveness. This paper
describes decisions made by the WIRC research
team related to development of the experimental
design, sampling and generalizability,
psychometric properties of the assessment tools,
cross-condition equivalence in reading competence
prior to delivery of the intervention, and
cross-condition equivalence in instructional
practices that are unrelated to the WIRC
intervention. Results are discussed in terms of
outstanding research issues and challenges.
Bringing Reading and Writing Together The Two
Year History of Interactive Thinksheets in the
WIRC Study Tim Madigan, Jim Collins Jaek Lee
A thinksheet is an interactive scaffold that
helps students write about their reading. This
paper presents the two-year history of
thinksheets in our grant. Using data from
student writing and classroom discourse, we tell
what we learned from designing and testing
thinksheets and how students and teachers
responded to our evolving design. This evolution
can be described generally as moving from Write
to Read thinksheets in Year 1, which had the
purpose of helping students to write about their
reading by targeting information in literary
selection, to Select and Connect thinksheets in
Year 2, which had the further purpose of
choosing details and organizing them into
coherent writing, first in graphic organizers and
then in written texts. We analyze this movement
in terms of our theoretical model of
reading-writing relations.
Connectedness Analysis Janina Brutt-Griffler,
Jim Collins Jaek Lee A comparison of two data
sets from the 4th and 5th grade students on three
measurements of reading and writing achievement
employed in the WIRC study reveals improved
student performance over time. Essays written at
the mid-point of the school year by the 4th and
5th grade students demonstrate higher mean scores
on the ELA rubric, internal and external
connectedness and automated analysis, all of
which speak to the increased quality of writing.
This growth also has something to say about (a)
reading comprehension and (b) a developmental
stage that both groups of students demonstrate.
We are currently using the same measures to
analyze a third data set from the same students
at a later point in the school year to see if the
pattern of growth continued.
Papers Presented