Writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behavior predict students’ persuasive writing performance in the context of robust writing instruction

This study tested whether writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behaviors (within the context of robust writing instruction) each made a statistically unique contribution to predicting fifth-grade students’ (123 girls, 104 boys) composition quality and length on a persuasive writing task involving source material, after variance due to other predictors and control variables (reading comprehension, gender, class, and school effects) were controlled. With one exception, writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behaviors each accounted for statistically unique variance in predicting compositional quality. The exception involved writing knowledge, which did not make a unique contribution in the fall but did in the spring, when a topic knowledge measure was added. In addition, writing motivation, and strategic behaviors accounted for unique variance in composition length in the fall, and writing knowledge did so in the spring

Comprehension in Middle School Students

Children and adults of all ages have improved their reading comprehension when trained to use the Structure Strategy to read, understand, and recall information from expository text. Training on the structure strategy has been conducted in small groups or using one-on-one tutoring and some web-pages with email tutoring, all showing significant improvements in comprehension. We are creating a web-based intelligent tutoring system to present the strategy to 5th-7th grade students. The advantages of web-based tutors are: consistent tutoring technique, modeling of good practice, scaffolding, immediate feedback, and motivation. This paper presents the foundations of our project Intelligent Tutoring for the Structure Strategy (ITSS), supporting research for the design, and preliminary findings from pilot tests

Etiology of teacher knowledge and instructional skills for literacy at the upper elementary grades

The purpose of this research was to study the etiology of teacher knowledge about and factors that influence implementation of evidence-based reading and writing interventions at the upper elementary grade levels. Five data sources are used in this study: first, we used teacher surveys about their pre-service preparation on reading comprehension and literacy practices gathered during a recent cluster randomized control trial on a reading comprehension intervention conducted with 280 fourth and fifth-grade teachers and their classroom students. We also conducted focus group interviews with 43% of the teachers and observed 90% of the teachers once during the implementation years. For writing, we used data collected from 32 teachers during a 3-year design project for a teacher-led computer-supported writing intervention. We also collected data from groups of school administrators using structured interviews during both studies. Finally, we conducted an artifact review of school curricula and posted professional development (PD) plans. Our results show that in both reading comprehension and writing, all teachers reported not receiving sound evidence-based pre-service preparation and they were not currently employing any evidence-based approaches. Most teachers reported using the basal reading series with very little variation from the lesson scope and sequence. Teachers and administrators frequently reported that skills were being taught in isolation (e.g., skill of the week is summarizing) and that writing was neglected. The interviews showed very interesting patterns of curricula decision-making by school administrators and these findings were further confirmed through the artifact reviews. Based on these results, we recommend that any review of teacher practices focus also on administrator decision-making and school level factors that are driving what happens in the classrooms. The review showed that the teachers themselves do not feel empowered to learn and deliver evidence-based literacy practices and feel constrained by the system

A teacher technology tango shows strong results on 5th graders persuasive writing

A central goal of upper elementary schools is improving students’ skills to write persuasively using source materials. This study focused on three important areas of writing at the upper elementary grade levels. First, the web-based intelligent tutoring system for the text structure strategy (ITSS) was used to teach children how to read source materials, select important ideas in the text, generate main ideas, and write summaries. Second, instruction about planning and writing persuasive essays was delivered using the self-regulated strategies development (SRSD) model. Third, We Write web-based tools were used to facilitate the learning and mastery of the persuasive writing strategies taught to upper elementary grade children. The We Write computer tool is a teacher-led system choreographing the roles of the teacher and technology to achieve maximum instructional impact. Teachers received practice-based professional development with coaching and modeling to implement the intervention. In a cluster randomized trial with 12 fifth grade classrooms, this approach was effective in improving students’ writing. Results show that after 6 weeks of text structure instruction on the web using ITSS, effect sizes on writing quality and planning were 0.30 and 0.77. After an additional 12 weeks of SRSD-based writing instruction effect size on planning quality was 1.60 and writing quality 2.29. These strong results can inform the design of technology supported writing interventions for elementary grade students

We-write : A web-based intelligent tutor for supporting elementary classroom teachers in persuasive writing instruction

While current educational technologies have the potential to fundamentally enhance literacy education, many of these tools remain unknown to or unused by today’s practitioners due to a lack of access and support. Adaptive Educational Technologies for Literacy Instruction presents actionable information to educators, administrators, and researchers about available educational technologies that provide adaptive, personalized literacy instruction to students of all ages. These accessible, comprehensive chapters, written by leading researchers who have developed systems and strategies for classrooms, introduce effective technologies for reading comprehension and writing skills. This chapter provides an overview of We-Write, a system integrating teacher-led instruction and a web-based intelligent tutor for developing persuasive writing abilities and self-efficacy for writing among upper elementary school children. It presents the persuasive writing skills targeted by the We-Write system for upper elementary students. The chapter describes the use of technology in concert with the teacher to develop strong persuasive writing skills. It also presents supporting evidence on the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) -based persuasive writing approach as well as iterative design studies on We-Write. The chapter further presents information on future studies and planned extensions. The We-Write system integrates teacher-led and computer supporting modeling, practice, assessment, scaffolding, feedback, and reflection for upper elementary school children so that they may become proficient, confident, and efficacious writers. Learners develop cognitive and metacognitive skills through the six stages of SRSD modules led by the teacher and supported by the computer software