Poster #83 - The Relationship Between the Development of Reading Skills and Persuasive Writing Across Grades 2 to 5

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Proficient writing and reading are intimately related, both rely on shared cognitive processes and knowledge bases. Bidirectional and synergistic relationships exist between writing and reading development and instruction. Writing interventions can improve reading performance and reading interventions can improve writing performance. (Graham & Santagelo, 2014; Graham, Liu, Barlett, Mg, Harris, Aitken, Barkel, Kavanaugh, & Tulkdar, 2018). While research has demonstrated a clear relationship between reading and writing, developmental studies looking at how reading and writing skills relate over time are limited (Graham et al. 2018). This study examined the developmental interconnectedness between reading and writing skills. Specifically, the extent to which performance and growth in reading fluency and reading comprehension were related to performance and growth in writing length, spelling and writing quality.
Data was gathered on 796 students in grades 2-5 in this two-year longitudinal study. Children completed measures of reading fluency (DIBELS Next Oral Reading Fluency subtest) and reading comprehension (Scholastic Reading Inventory, 2017) at three time points each year (i.e., Fall, Winter, Spring), for a total of 6 measurement points. Persuasive writing was assessed twice, Spring of year 1 and 2, with an on-demand persuasive writing prompt (Student Achievement Partners, 2016). Students in grades 2-5 wrote in response to the following writing prompt: Which kind of pet is best, a cat or a dog? All writing samples were scored for writing length, spelling accuracy, and writing quality. Writing length was scored as the total number of words written. Spelling accuracy was scored as the percentage of correctly spelled words. Writing quality was scored using a 3-point analytic rubric designed for this study. Inter-coder reliability, calculated by two raters independently scoring 20% of the same texts, was large for pretest (r = .93, p <.001) and posttest (r = .89, p <.001).
Latent Growth Curve Modelling was used to examine the relationships between achievement and growth across the reading and writing measures. A baseline, unconditional, growth model was developed to estimate intercepts (starting performance) and slopes (growth) for reading comprehension and reading fluency, which also controlled for age. Then a conditional model was created by examining how length, quality and spelling in the spring of year 1 and 2 related to intercepts and slopes for reading fluency and comprehension. The conditional model fit the data well, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .062.
Regarding reading fluency, starting performance was related to spelling ability (β = .41, p <.001), and growth in spelling (β = .24, p = .010). Growth in reading fluency was positively associated with writing length (β =.20, p <.001). Growth in reading comprehension was associated with increases in writing length (β = .24, p = .010). Mostly notably, performance and growth in reading comprehension were related to both performance (β =.08, p =.050) and growth (β =.21, p <.010) in writing quality. Our results demonstrate developmental interconnectedness between reading and writing skills, and that reading fluency and comprehension share different relationships with different aspects of writing proficiency. Implications for literacy development, theory and instruction are discussed.

Authors

• Adrian Pasquarella, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• John Strong, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marcia Shirilla, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Coker, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sharon Walpole, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author