The Contribution of Assignment Quality to Students' Analytic Text-Based Writing Skills

• In Event: 14.019 - Advances in Writing Instruction, Assessment, and Interventions

Abstract

In this study we investigate the quality of the text-based writing tasks teachers assign to students, and the contribution of assignment quality to students’ analytic text-based writing skills. Results show that assignment quality predicts students’ analytic text-based writing skills holding constant other dimensions of instruction and students’ prior achievement. The cognitive demand of writing tasks was very low. Only a small percentage of tasks supported guided students to demonstrate complex thinking skills in their writing or generate a multi-paragraph response. Our results suggest that the cognitive demand of text-based writing assignments is a critical piece of the puzzle for developing instructional and professional development interventions that build students’ writing competencies aligned with the CCSS.

Authors

• Lindsay Clare Matsumura, University of Pittsburgh

• Richard James Correnti, University of Pittsburgh

• Elaine Lin Wang, University of Pittsburgh