The Writing Attitude Scale for Teachers (WAST)

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Writing Attitude Scale for Teachers (WAST) using scores of preservice teachers to gather evidence of content, internal structure, response processes, reliability/precision, and correlations with external variables. Four contending models were compared using CFA, but the unidimensional model was championed. The WAST was further refined using IRT to 10-items and shown to have high precision across most of the latent continuum. The WAST was shown to have incremental evidence relative to the Writing Apprehension Test when predicting attitudes towards attending a professional development workshop on writing instruction and time devoted to writing instruction

“She Never Lets Me Write about It”: Children’s Perspectives on “Choice” in Their Writing Curriculum

Legislation and policies such as No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by the majority of states directly impact the educational experiences of children in classrooms. Current shifts in the U.S. education system include a greater focus on preparing all students to be college and career ready with increased expectations for teachers and children. With shifts in the curriculum and standards comes increased attention on writing performance, with a particular focus on measuring and tracking individual children’s progress in order to then evaluate teachers and classrooms (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/19/speeding-race-top). Researchers and policymakers scramble to find ways to assess the increased amount of data that are collected; yet, children’s voices and their perceptions of their educational experiences are missing

Involving Families in the Assessment Process

Although grounded in theory and philosophy, and mandated by federal legislation, there is often a gap in research to practice when it comes to involving families in the assessment process. As family involvement through the continuum of early childhood education is recognized as “best practice” in the field, the assessment process must not be excluded. However, teachers in early childhood programs may need additional strategies to invite families to join in the process. Strategies for parent participation as consumers, informants, team members, and advocates are discussed as well as outcomes for children and families

Taking Care: Understanding the Roles of Caregiver and Being Cared for in a Kindergarten Classroom

Despite concerns about the importance of teachers learning to care for their students, most teacher education programs do not utilize relational pedagogy and place little emphasis on caring. In the current study, the authors used conversational interviews with one kindergarten teacher and photo-elicitation interviews with her 22 kindergarten students to explore ways in which this teacher in a public, all-girls’ school employed caring and how her students viewed being cared for. The authors utilized Noddings’ work on the ethic of care to guide our project and the methodological approach is feministic. In this study, we discovered the ways this teacher cared and how that was translated for the students. Ultimately, we feel these ways of caring have implications for early childhood teacher preparation programs

I\u27m Not Allowed to Write about That in School but at Home I Can : Examining Elementary School Students\u27 Attitudes Toward Writing Instruction

Research on writing indicates that children’s attitudes about writing have an impact on their writing achievement (Knudson, 1995; Graham, Berninger & Fan, 2007). At the same time, we see the narrowing of curricular practices, especially in literacy, giving children less input into their educational experience and fewer choices about how and what they are learning (Genishi & Dyson, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine children’s attitudes towards writing and the experiences that have shaped these attitudes and their identities as writers. We conducted grade level focus group interviews with children in an elementary school to learn more about their writing practices (in and out of school), their perceptions of themselves as writers, and the experiences that have influenced their views on writing and their writing practices. The goal was o learn about writing experiences that motivate children to write and lead to children\u27s positive and/or negative attitudes towards writing in order to think about ways that teachers’ can help to support writing development in classrooms across the elementary school grades

Examining Elementary School Students\u27 Attitudes toward Writing

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary students\u27 attitudes towards writing and experiences that have shaped their identities as writers. Through grade level focus group interviews, we learned more about how children’s writing attitudes develop over time and how these factors can be used to improve instructional practices

Examining Teachers’ Perceptions of Effective Writing Strategies and Barriers to Implementation

For years researchers have sought to better understand how children successfully acquire literacy skills. While much attention has been paid to children’s early reading development, less attention has been paid to children’s writing development (Clay, 2001). Writing is a complex and demanding task for children (Lienemann et al., 2006). It involves a great deal of cognitive effort, attentional control, and self-regulation (Graham & Harris, 2003) as children must use and integrate a variety of skills and processes, while also attempting to make their writing meaningful for the intended audience. Given this complexity, children need strong instructional support to create coherent, well-written texts

Writing Development over Time: Examining Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes and Beliefs about Writing

Since writing ability has been found to be a key indicator of school success and successful participation in the workplace, it is important for preservice teachers to receive effective preparation in the area of writing. Reflecting on personal writing experiences allows preservice teachers to examine their own attitudes and beliefs about writing and the effects their attitudes and beliefs may have on their pedagogical decisions in the future. This article describes the findings from two focus groups conducted with preschool and elementary preservice teachers during which participants examined their attitudes towards writing that have developed over time and their plans for future writing instruction. The following three broad themes emerged related to key influences in the development of positive and negative attitudes towards writing: (a) having writing published or showcased increases positive attitudes towards writing, (b) creative opportunities and process-oriented teaching strategies provide the most meaningful writing experiences, and (c) negative feedback from teachers adversely impacts self-confidence in writing skills and leads to negative attitudes towards writing. Three themes related to views of writing instruction and pedagogical decisions for the future also emerged from the focus groups. These were: (a) embedding writing opportunities throughout the day helps provide quality writing instruction, (b) preservice teachers who struggle with writing mechanics are hesitant about teaching these skills to their future students, and (c) preservice teachers do not agree on one specific methodology for teaching writing or the amount of time that they will teach writing in the future

Creating Space: Pedagogical Choices to Encourage a Third Space in an Urban, Kindergarten Science Classroom

“The butterfly is in the chrysalis stage,” Victory informed us as she pointed to the brown chrysalis in the jar on the lab bench, “It was an egg then it formed its chrysalis or pupa and then it will become a butterfly.” When we asked her how she would describe this to her friends, she remarked, “It is like when you go into the dressing room and put on a church dress- you act like someone different.” In this example, Victory, a kindergartener, was translating the scientific language taught to her in the science classroom into a language her friends would understand. Understanding marginalized students’ ability to translate scientific knowledge in a manner that acknowledges cultural and discursive identity is needed in science education (Brown, Ryoo, & Rodriguez, 2010; Lee, 2001)