eRevise: Automated Formative Feedback System to Improve Students' Use of Text Evidence in Writing

• In Event: 34.036 - The Promise and Reality of Technological Tools in Support of Literacy and Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

We present a pilot study of eRevise, an automated writing evaluation (AWE) system that provides automated formative feedback on elementary students’ use of text evidence – a dimension of writing increasingly important for college and career readiness. Unlike most other AWE, eRevise’s feedback messages reflect research on effective feedback and conceptual frameworks for effective text evidence use. Seven 5th and 6th-grade teachers used eRevise with students (n = 143). Findings show students understood the feedback and regarded it as a learning that could be applied to future writing. Students’ evidence scores improved significantly from the first (M=2.61, SD=1.16) to the revised draft (M=2.78, SD=1.15; t(142)=3.31, p=.001). Student motivation emerged as a key factor influencing variation in improvement.

Authors

• Elaine Lin Wang, RAND Corporation

• Richard James Correnti, University of Pittsburgh

• Lindsay Clare Matsumura, University of Pittsburgh

• Diane Litman

• emily howe, University of Pittsburgh

• Rafael Quintana, University of Pittsburgh

• Colin Zhang, University of Pittsburgh

• Ahmed Ezzat Abdelgwad Magooda, University of Pittsburgh