Dr. Leslie David Burns, Associate Professor of LiteracyProgram Chair of English EducationUniversity of KentuckyL.burns@uky.edu

Target-based Writing Instruction: Making the Most of LDC and Research-Based Methods for Improving Student Writing

Writing Next

Review of:--Writing Next (Graham & Perrin, 2007)

The ultimate goal is to teach students to use these strategies independently.

Data-Based Targeting for Student Writing Instruction

Reviewing and using standardized testing data

Reviewing and using common assessment results

Noting patterns of strength and need via classroom observation

Noting patterns of strength and need via informal assessment of student writing

Data-based Planning

We do not teach content and strategies because “This is the time we always teach X.”

We do not teach content and strategies because “This is how I’ve always done it.”

We teach content and strategies because we have professionally assessed that our students: A) Have need for particular instruction B) Are ready for particular instruction▪ Note that this implies that instruction cannot and should not be

“paced” or “leveled” or standardized across grade levels, classrooms, or even individual classes.

▪ Note that doing any of the above entails a direct violation of CHETL, which functions as state law regarding the required use of research-based instructional practices AT ALL TIMES.

Process Writing Approach (Effect Size = 0.32)

Creating extended opportunities for writing;

Emphasizing writing for real audiences

Encouraging cycles of planning, translating, and reviewing

Stressing personal responsibility and ownership of writing projects

Facilitating high levels of student interactions

Developing supportive writing environments

Encouraging self-reflection and evaluation

Offering personalized individual assistance, brief instructional lessons to meet students’ individual needs, and, in some instances, more extended and systematic instruction.

Process Writing Approach (Effect Size = 0.32)

Facilitating high levels of student interactions

Developing supportive writing environments

Encouraging self-reflection and evaluation

Offering personalized individual assistance, brief instructional lessons to meet students’ individual needs, and, in some instances, more extended and systematic instruction.

A Note about Process findings Note that while “process writing” is

represented here as having a lower effect size than some other strategies, nearly all of those other more powerful strategies are integrated into the process writing workshop model for writing instruction.

That integration is why workshop and process writing are so widespread in U.S. classrooms.

Be explicit about how to write!

Explicitly strategies for Planning Drafting Revising Editing

Extremely powerful in improving quality of writing for ALL students.

Teach, Tell, Show, and Practice vs. Assign and Assume

Inquiry and Pre-Writing

Strategy instruction (Effect Size = 0.82)

Generic processes: Brainstorming ▪ (e.g.,Troia &Graham, 2002)

Collaboration for peer revising ▪ (MacArthur, Schwartz, & Graham, 1991).

Strategy instruction (Effect Size = 0.82)

Strategies for accomplishing specific types of writing tasks: Writing a story ▪ (Fitzgerald &Markham, 1987)

Writing a persuasive essay ▪ (Yeh, 1998)

Specific Product Goals (Effect Size = 0.70)

Setting product goals

Specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete.

▪ Identifying the purpose of the assignment (e.g., to persuade)

▪ Identify the essential components and characteristics of a successful final product.

Specific Product Goals (Effect Size = 0.70)

Adding more ideas to a paper when revising,

Establishing a goal to write a specific kind of paper

Assigning goals for specific structural elements in a composition. Specific punctuation Types of sentence structures Use of vocabulary or terminology from content Focus on paragraph structure Spelling

Pre-writing (Effect Size = 0.32)

Planning before writing

Organizing pre-writing ideas, prompting students to plan after providing a brief demonstration of how to do so

Assigning reading material pertinent to a topic and then encouraging students to plan their work in advance.

Inquiry Activities (Effect Size = 0.32)

Inquiry means engaging students in activities that help them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task by analyzing immediate, concrete data (comparing and contrasting cases or collecting and evaluating evidence). E.g., Hillocks example of “blindfolded

description”; “The Potato Activity”

Prewriting/Inquiry Strategies(from the Survival Guide, 2002, p. 92-98)

Brainstorming Listing Listing in response

to questions Clustering/

webbing Freewriting (pure) Freewriting (topic

focused)

Rehearsing (pair planning)

Drawing (all ages!) Making maps

(idea/detail generation)

Visualization Idea prompts

Drafting

Word Processing (Effect Size = 0.55)

Compared with composing by hand, the effect of word-processing instruction in most of the studies reviewed was positive, suggesting that word processing has a consistently positive impact on writing quality. Note: May depend on the goals for

writing. ▪ Writing to think may initially be more

successful via handwriting.

Summarization (Effect Size = 0.82)

Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts.

See Handout re: “How to Write a Systematic Summary”

Distinguish between “summary” and “paraphrase”

Collaborative Writing (Effect Size = 0.75)

Collaborative arrangements in which students help each other with one or more aspects of their writing have a strong positive impact on quality.

Collaborative Writing (Effect Size = 0.75)

Collaborative Structures: Writing Partners Peer Editing Writing Groups “Publisher’s Chair” Peer Conferencing

Study of Models (Effect Size = 0.25)

The study of models provides adolescents with good models for each type of writing that is the focus of instruction.

Revision, Editing, and Proofreading

Sentence Combining (Effect Size = 0.50)

Combining smaller related sentences into a compound sentence using the connectors and, but, and because;

Embedding an adjective or adverb from one sentence into another

Creating complex sentences by embedding an adverbial and adjectival clause from one sentence into another

Making multiple embeddings involving adjectives, adverbs, adverbial clauses, and adjectival clauses.

Grammar Instruction?

The meta-analysis found an effect for this type of instruction for students across the full range of ability, but surprisingly, this effect was negative.

This negative effect was small, but it was statistically significant, indicating that traditional grammar instruction is unlikely to help improve the quality of students’ writing.

A Complete Example

Template Tasks

LDC template tasks are “shells” of assignments that ask students to read, write, and think about important academic content in science, social studies, English, or another subject.

Teachers fill in those shells, deciding the texts students will read, the writing students will produce, and the content students will engage.

Template Task 2

[Insert essential question] After reading ___________ (literature or informational texts), write an ________ (essay or substitute) that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text(s). L2 Be sure to acknowledge competing views. L3 Give examples from past or current events or issues to illustrate and clarify your position.

LDC design team,Template Task Bank

Teaching Tasks

Teachers fill in the prompt, including: The content of the task

Texts to read

Text students will write

Whether to use the L2 and L3 options to make the task more demanding

Teaching Tasks

Teachers also decide on:What background information about the

teaching task should be shared with students

Which state or local standards the teaching task will address

Whether and how to use an extension activity (Writing Process formative tasks) with the teaching task

Template Tasks

Template tasks come with rubrics for scoring students’ work and specifications of the Common Core State Standards the resulting tasks will address.

Some template tasks provide optional additions to the basic assignment, allowing teachers an additional way to vary the level of work students will create.

Target-Based Writing Instruction

All rich instruction allows us to teach all ELA elements.

That’s impossible for you and your students. Choose 1-2 specific targets per task/assignment▪ ONLY GRADE THE TARGETED ELEMENTS▪ Saves you time▪ Enables clearer, focuses data analysis▪ Lightens students’ cognitive loads▪ Does NOT mean that “anything goes” or that “correctness”

does not matter.

Model

Implementing the Writing Process via LDC

Via the poem “Courage” by Anne Sexton

Integrating research-based instructional strategies as explicit parts of the instructional and learning process.

▪ See Handouts re: “Courage” and “Strategy Use with Sexton”