Exploring the Role of Classroom Quality in Kindergarten Children’s Writing

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Innovative Practices Within ELA Classrooms (Table 11)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which classroom quality, assessed by emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support as defined by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), is related to kindergarten children’s writing skills. Participants included 17 kindergarten teachers and 102 kindergarten children in the U.S. Participating teachers were videotaped twice (fall and spring) during the academic year. Assessments of children’s letter writing, spelling, and sentence writing were collected twice (fall and spring). Multilevel models revealed that emotional and instructional support positively and significantly predicted children’s spring sentence writing when controlling for their fall skills. However, classroom organization was negatively associated with children’s spring sentence writing skills.

Authors

• Oluwaseun Temitope Okesola, University of Cincinnati

• Ying Guo, University of Cincinnati

• Xie Yanli, Florida State University