Prewriting and Achievement on the Seventh Grade Writing Test

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Prewriting and Achievement on the Seventh Grade
Writing Test

• Rebecca Schuyler
• Department of Education
• UNC-Asheville

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Background

• National emphasis on testing
• Mokhtari, Norris and Reichard (1998)
• Drawing for narratives
• Improved writing
• LaRoache (1993)
• Prewriting in the writing process
• Improved writing and attitudes

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Research Question

• How does instruction in prewriting affect
  performance on the seventh grade writing test?

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Subjects

• Urban Middle School
• Mixed Socio-Economic
• Mixed Ability
• 20 AIG, 4 E.C., 5 504s, 6 in AVID
• 23 White 13 Minority 36 Students Total

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Research Design

• Pretest
• Prewriting Instruction
• Posttest

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Instruction

• PAC
• Purpose
• Audience
• Context
• Brainstorming
• Graphic Organizers
• Modeling, Guided Practice, Independent Practice
• Individual writing conferences

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Graphic Organizers
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Results 2 Main Questions

• Did students learn how to prewrite?
• Did it help their test scores?

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Change in Amount of Prewriting
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Prewriting Survey
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Did students learn to prewrite?

• Yes!
• Understood personal need
• Ownership of preferred graphic organizer
• Question 2 Did it help their scores?

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Grading the Writing Test

• Consensus Scoring

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Mean Pretest and Posttest Scores
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Linear Regression

• Dependent Variable (Y) Posttest Scores
• Independent Variable (x) Scores on a Prewriting
  Class Assignment
• Positive correlation
• Statistically significant

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Did prewriting help?

• Lowest scores increased significantly
• In-class assignment correlated to tests
• Self-reported improvements

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Confounding Variables

• Difficulty of posttest prompt
• Previous understanding
• Basic paragraph skills

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Conclusions

• Students could define and implement the skill
• Posttest scores correlated to in-class
  assignments
• Independently of other writing instruction mean
  scores were not passing
• Benefited all, but showed the greatest
  improvement among lowest achievers

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References

• Hicks, Mark. (2005). Discovery Education Clip Art
  Gallery. Retrieved April 5, 2006 from
  http//school.discovery.com/clipart/
• LaRoche, K.M. (1993). A focus on using prewriting
  knowledge level strategies and skills to improve
  the attitudes and writing skills of middle school
  students. Florida Nova University. (ERIC
  Document Reproduction Service No. ED366 974)
• Mokhtari, K., Norris, E., Reichard, C. (1998).
  Childrens use of drawing as a pre-writing
  strategy. Journal of Research in Reading, 21 (1),
  69-74.
• NCDPI Division of Accountability Services/Testing
  Program. (2004) North Carolina Writing
  Assessment at grades 4, 7, and 10 grade training
  manual. Retrieved October 17, 2005, from
  http//www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability
  /testing/writing/trainingmanual2004.pdf