Factors Contributing to Writing Skills of Fifth-Grade Learners

• In Event: Content Area Reading Comprehension and Writing in European and American Schools

Abstract

Objectives
We-Write Persuasively is a teacher-managed web-based learning tool designed to improve source-based persuasive writing with 4th and 5th grade learners.
Perspectives & Methods
The system presents instruction using the self-regulated strategies development (SRSD – Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2006) model for writing and the text structure strategy (Wijekumar, Meyer, & Lei, 2013) for selecting and encoding source materials for writing. Since our We-Write instruction involved teaching students to (1) plan in advance and enhance their strategic approach to writing (strategic writing); (2) increase the quality and use of basic structural persuasive elements in their writing (see measures for introduction, reasons, and conclusion above), and (3) improve their self-efficacy and attitudes toward writing (writing motivation), we examined if these basic aspects of writing predicted the overall quality of students’ writing (using the pretest data) after controlling for text transcription skills (handwriting fluency; spelling miscues in text); reading skills, and gender. In addition, motivation variables were first controlled when predicting strategic writing, and vice versa, whereas both were first controlled when examining if specific structural elements of persuasion (introduction, reasons, and conclusion) predicted overall writing quality. We present results from the research study with 288 5th grade students with parent consent.
Data Sources
Measures administered included persuasive writing prompt, planning for writing, survey of planning frequency, motivation to write survey, attitudes towards writing, hand-writing fluency task, and reading comprehension measures. Writing measures were scored by trained graduate students with interrater reliabilities of .95 to .99
Results
The regression analyses showed that after first controlling for gender, transcription skills, reading performance, motivational variables, and strategic variables, the quality of students’ introductions, reasons, and conclusions each made a statistically significant contribution to predicting overall writing quality (all p’s < .05). For introductions, the control variables accounted for 34% of the variance in writing quality, whereas the addition of the introduction scores accounted for an additional 5% of the variance. Likewise, beyond the control variables, reasons and conclusions each accounted for an additional 17% and 2% of the variables, respectively.
The regression analyses also showed that after first controlling for gender, transcription skills, reading performance, and motivational variables, the two strategic writing variables made a statistically significant contribution to predicting overall writing quality (p < .001). The control variables accounted for 22% of the variance in writing quality, whereas the addition of the strategic writing variables for an additional 12% of the variance.
Finally, the regression analyses showed that after first controlling for gender, transcription skills, reading performance, and strategic writing variables, the two motivational writing variables made a statistically significant contribution to predicting overall writing quality (p < .05). The control variables accounted for 31% of the variance in writing quality, whereas the addition of the strategic writing variables for an additional 3% of the variance.
Scholarly Significance
These findings support our development of the We-Write approach focusing on strategic writing, self-regulation, and motivation.

Authors

• Steve Graham, Arizona State University

• Kausalai K. Wijekumar, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Karen R. Harris, Arizona State University

• Pui-Wa Lei, The Pennsylvania State University

• Bonnie J. F. Meyer, The Pennsylvania State University