Improving Persuasive Writing in Grades 1-3 with Self-Regulated Strategy Development
Bethany J. Batson University of New England April 18, 2014
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 2 Table of Contents Introduction..3 Problem Statement...4 Research Questions..5 Hypothesis5 Literature Review.6 Key Terms6 Writing Motivation..7 Writing Process8 Strategy Instruction..8 Summary..9 Methodology..10 Research Design.11 Data Collection Plan..14 Data Analysis.15 Sample Selection17 Action Plan.17 References..20 Appendix A22 Appendix B23 Appendix C24
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 3 Improving Persuasive Writing in Grades 1-3 with Self-Regulated Strategy Development Persuasive writing can be a difficult task for elementary students. The process of supporting an opinion with strong reasons takes time and practice. Because of the level of difficulty and multiple steps involved, many young writers lack motivation to write and self- regulation skills to keep themselves on task. This study will examine the effect of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) on the participants persuasive writing achievement, confidence as writers, and motivation to write. The study will take place in a kindergarten through third grade multi-grade classroom. There are twelve students in the class, ages six to nine, but only ten students (those in first, second, and third grades) will participate in the study. This is the teacher researchers second year teaching and first year in this private school. The teacher researcher has observed a need for more detailed instruction and practice with writing in general, and with persuasive writing in particular. Based on a pre-intervention survey found in Appendix A, five out of ten students claimed they really enjoy persuasive writing assignments, two out of ten students claimed they sometimes enjoy persuasive writing assignments, and three students claimed they do not enjoy persuasive writing assignments. Seven out of ten students claimed they are very motivated to write well, while three students stated they are slightly motivated to write well. None of the students reported that they are not motivated to write well. In order to understand their self-concepts as writers, the students were asked, Do you think you are a good writer? Five students reported that they do think they are good writers, four reported that they sometimes think they are good writers, and one reported No. The final survey item stated, I can plan, write, revise, and proofread my writing without the teachers help. Two students reported Always, seven claimed Sometimes, and one claimed Never. IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 4 According to the teachers observations, students rush through the planning, drafting, and revising stages of the writing process in order to finish their assignment quickly, even if they have not answered the question completely. The teacher also noted that students might not believe in their ability as writers to communicate ideas clearly even though the survey results were mostly positive. The teacher researcher also conducted curriculum based measurement writing assessments (CBM-W) in January to use as baseline data. The students had one minute to think about the writing prompt and three minutes to write. The teacher researcher analyzed their written responses and scored them based on correct word sequences (CWS). The first grade students scored 0 CWS, 0 CWS, 4 CWS, 5 CWS, and 7 CWS. The second grade students scored 15 CWS and 19 CWS. The third grade students scored 5 CWS, 20 CWS, and 49 CWS. Research showed that giving students the opportunity to write for a real audience and an authentic task maintained or improved students motivation to write (Hansen, 2012; Magnifico, 2010; Zumbrunn & Krause, 2012). Research also highlighted the need for teachers to explicitly teach the writing process because young writers struggle with planning, composing, and revising their written work (Chakraborty & Stone, 2008; Hough, Hixson, Decker, & Bradley-Johnson, 2012; Mason, Harris, & Graham, 2011). Additionally, research showed that strategy instruction is an important component of writing instruction (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2002; Hough et al., 2012; Mason et al., 2011; Winstead, 2004). Problem Statement First, second, and third grade students in a multi-grade class struggle with planning, composing, and revising persuasive writing. These students rely heavily on help from the teacher and available graphic organizers to plan and write persuasive pieces that include reasons to IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 5 support their opinion. The teachers observations noted that a lack of motivation to write and a lack of self-regulation skills appear to be part of the problem. Pre-intervention survey data and CBM-W data show a need for writing improvement among most of the participants. Research Questions The teacher researcher found a writing strategy called Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). Self-regulation development involves explicitly teaching and guiding students to set goals, monitor performance, self-instruct, and self-reinforce (Mason, Harris, & Graham, 2011, p. 22). There are six repeating stages used in SRSD: Develop background knowledge about a strategy, discuss the strategies students can use with a particular genre of writing, model the strategies, memorize the strategies, support the use of writing and self- regulation strategies, and independent performance. Will the use of SRSD help students in grades 1-3 answer questions completely in persuasive writing? Additionally, will students gain confidence in their ability as writers and increase their motivation to write as a result of the implementation of SRSD? Finally, will students be able to transfer their knowledge from SRSD instruction to other genres of writing? Hypothesis Given instruction with Self-Regulated Strategy Development; first, second, and third grade students in a multi-grade classroom will improve persuasive writing to include three or more reasons to support their opinion. By the end of the study, these students will be able to plan, compose, and revise a persuasive piece without assistance from the teacher or planning materials. Additionally, these students will gain confidence and motivation as writers as indicated by survey responses. Their writing in other genres will also improve as a result of SRSD POW Plus TREE writing instruction. IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 6 Literature Review A search for relevant literature of the related topics of persuasive writing strategies, writing motivation, the writing process, self-regulation, and Self-Regulated Strategy Development resulted in many studies, opinions from experts in the field of writing instruction, and meta-analyses of writing studies. Leading researchers in the development of SRSD, Graham and Harris, have conducted many studies and meta-analyses and have co-authored much of the literature that is most influential in this study. Researchers not connected with SRSD have also contributed valuable information. Key Terms: Strategy Instruction, Persuasive Writing Instruction, Writing Motivation, Self- Regulation, Self-Regulated Strategy Development Mason, Harris, and Graham (2011) defined Self-Regulated Strategy Development as six repeating stages of instruction that are used to develop general writing strategies as well as writing strategies for different genres. The six stages are to develop background knowledge, discuss the strategy, model it, memorize it, support it, and provide independent practice. The steps can be repeated as necessary, for students should be comfortable with one step before moving on to the next. Additionally, Lessons are intended to be differentiated to meet the needs of both the teacher and the students (p. 23). Research for this model began in the 1980s with the belief that students who struggle to write, including students with disabilities, would benefit from an integrated approach to intervention that directly addressed their affective, behavioral, and cognitive characteristics, strengths, and needs (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2002). In order to better understand SRSD, it is necessary to define the term self-regulation. According to Pintrich (2000b), it is an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 7 behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment (p. 453, as cited in Schunk, 2005, p. 85). Writing Motivation According to Chakraborty and Stone (2008), Motivation for writing begins when you mix students interests with opportunities for creativity. Stir in your own excitement and commitment to engaging students in the writing process, and you have a recipe for writing success (p. 158-J). Schunk and Zimmerman (2007) explored how modeling can strengthen childrens self-efficacy and self-regulation as writers. How does this relate to writing motivation? According to Schunk and Zimmerman (2007), when learners observe a successful model, perform the same actions, and see their own learning progress their self-efficacy is strengthened. Thereby, students motivation to learn is preserved. Magnifico (2010) addressed the topic of writing motivation in her discussion of how audience can tie cognitive and sociocultural views of writing together. The researcher cited studies that showed that writing tasks that serve a real purpose and have an authentic audience motivate children to write more than typical classroom writing tasks. Hansen (2012) echoed this claim in his account of teaching his third grade students persuasive writing. His students were motivated to write persuasive essays on topics that they chose because they wanted to make a difference. Before approaching their writing tasks, Hansen helped his students discover people and situations that have influenced them. He then encouraged his students to tackle a big issue they wanted to change. Before writing persuasive essays on their chosen topics of interest, the students created pre-write posters to organize and express their thinking. Because the students were engaged in an authentic task, they were motivated to write and even revise persuasive pieces. IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 8 Based on interviews with experts in the field of writing instruction, Zumbrunn and Krause (2012) noted that one of the main principles of effective writing instruction is that it encourages student motivation and engagement. The experts focused their comments on the need for students to write for authentic audiences and purposes. They also found, To cultivate student writing motivation and engagement, the leaders encouraged teachers to set the stage by recognizing student interests and experiences and creating a context in which students are excited to write in meaningful ways (Zumbrunn & Krause, 2012, p. 349). Writing Process Several researchers emphasized the importance of explicitly teaching the writing process because young writers often struggle with planning, composing, and revising their written pieces (Chakraborty & Stone, 2008; Hough, Hixson, Decker, & Bradley-Johnson, 2012; Mason, et al., 2011). Chakraborty and Stone (2008) asserted the necessity of modeling and scaffolding the writing process for each genre of writing. They also claimed that peer and teacher conferences should be included in the revising and editing steps of the writing process. Johnson (2012) focused his research on the topic of how teachers feedback affects students. He claimed that feedback that turns students attention to the writing process is more effective than feedback that is focused on students effort. Strategy Instruction In her discussion of the cognitive approach to teaching and learning, Winstead (2004) claimed, Teachers must use strategies that help students become engaged in the learning process. Examples of these strategies include cooperative learning, jigsaws, problem-solving, and mnemonics (p. 31). With SRSD, a strategy instruction model, teachers and students rely heavily on mnemonics as an engagement and memory tool. In stage 2, Discuss It, the strategy is IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 9 described and discussed. The teacher may also introduce mnemonics associated with the strategy. Mnemonic devices can include rhymes, acronyms, and other memory aids (Helsel & Greenburg, 2007, p. 754). For example, in order for students to remember the steps for planning, composing, and revising a persuasive piece, the mnemonic POW Plus TREE is used (Harris, et al., 2002; Mason et al., 2011). POW is a strategy that can be used with many genres, which stands for pick my idea, organize my notes, and write and say more (Mason et al., 2011). When combined with the mnemonic TREE (Topic Sentence, Reasons, Explain Reasons, Ending), students can learn how to write effective persuasive pieces (Harris et al., 2002; Mason et al., 2011). Another example of writing strategy instruction was discussed in a study with six second- grade students. The researchers showed that individualized explicit instruction with the Quickwrite strategy yielded positive results in story writing (Hough et al., 2012). Unlike other strategy instruction writing programs, Quickwrite requires that students complete each stage of the writing process within a time limit (p. 172). The positive effects of this study were maintained four weeks later on a post-intervention test. Summary Students self-efficacy as writers and instances of success affect their writing motivation. Explicitly teaching the writing process to young writers along with genre-specific and general writing strategies can help young students improve as writers and increase their motivation to write. Opportunities to write for an authentic audience are often more motivating for students than typical classroom writing assignments. Additionally, teaching students to self-regulate their learning through goal setting, self-monitoring, self-instructions, and self-reinforcement can IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 10 translate to improved writing, even for struggling writers and students with learning disabilities (Harris et al., 2002). Numerous studies showed the positive effects of SRSD as an intervention for struggling writers and students with learning disabilities (Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, & Harris, 2012; Harris et al., 2002; Helsel & Greenburg, 2007; Macarthur & Philippakos, 2010; Mason et al., 2011). However, more research is needed to explore SRSD as a primary method of writing instruction for a whole class. More research is also needed for effective writing instruction in multi-grade primary classes. Given instruction with SRSD, including the POW Plus TREE mnemonic for persuasive writing; first, second, and third grade students in a multi-grade classroom will improve persuasive writing to include three or more reasons to support their opinion. By the end of the study, these students will be able to plan, compose, and revise a persuasive piece without assistance from the teacher or planning materials. Additionally, these students will gain confidence and motivation as writers and will be able to apply their new writing skills to other genres. Methodology Students in first, second, and third grade have difficulty with persuasive writing tasks. They often require a lot of aid from the teacher and planning resources in order to organize, write, and revise a persuasive piece. Will the use of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) help these students answer questions completely in persuasive writing? Additionally, will students gain confidence in their ability as writers and increase their motivation to write as a result of the implementation of SRSD? Finally, will SRSD instruction with the persuasive writing strategy of pick my idea, organize my notes, write and say more (POW) plus topic sentence, reasons, explain reasons, ending (TREE) result in general writing improvement in IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 11 other genres? It is anticipated that first, second, and third grade students in a multi-grade classroom will improve persuasive writing to include three or more reasons to support their opinion following instruction with SRSD and the POW Plus TREE model. By the end of the study, these students will be able to plan, compose, and revise a persuasive piece without assistance from the teacher or planning materials. Additionally, these students will gain confidence and motivation as writers, which will also be evident in other forms of writing. Research Design This study will include mixed-method research in order to gather the most comprehensive and conclusive data. The teacher researcher will gather and analyze qualitative data in the form of pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys along with anecdotal notes from student- teacher writing conferences and observations throughout the study. The quantitative data will come from the curriculum-based measurement writing assessments (CBM-W) administered before and after the study and rubric scores for persuasive writing samples. Each student will respond to a persuasive writing prompt before and after instruction with SRSD and POW Plus TREE. Both sets of writing will be scored on the rubric for comparison. The study will consist of ten lessons focused on POW Plus TREE and the six stages of SRSD. These lessons were written and published online for use in grades 1-3. The lessons include adaptations for use with a whole class (TREE classwide lessons, 2009). The first lesson is an introduction to the POW and TREE mnemonics. In this initial lesson, the teacher introduces the class to POW, encourages the students to develop background knowledge about writing to persuade, and then introduces the students to TREE. Together, the class identifies the parts of TREE in a persuasive essay sample. At the conclusion of the lesson, students are asked to work on memorizing the mnemonics for the next session. IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 12 The second lesson is focused on further discussing the POW and TREE mnemonics. To begin the lesson, the students take either an ungraded oral or written quiz so the teacher can assess their progress with memorizing the mnemonics. Next, the whole class practices finding TREE in an essay, and the teacher models making notes on a graphic organizer. Finally, in order for the students to understand how this strategy transfers to other writing tasks, the whole class brainstorms a list of writing tasks where the students can use POW Plus TREE. The third lesson is very similar to the second. However, when the whole class analyzes a persuasive essay sample in this lesson, they think of other reasons that make more sense than the reasons given in the sample essay. Like lesson two, the teacher models making these notes on a graphic organizer. The fourth lesson recaps the main ideas learned in the previous lessons. When viewing a sample essay, the class will think of better reasons and note them on a graphic organizer as in lesson three, and they will also look for transition words used in the essay. In this lesson, the teacher also introduces self-statements, which are a strategy for students to self-regulate their learning. The teacher will model using self-statements for P in POW. Next, the whole class will discuss the O, organize my notes, and will practice writing their ideas on a blank TREE graphic organizer. Then, the teacher will model W, write and say more, by writing a persuasive essay using POW and TREE. After the teacher models the process of writing a persuasive essay, the class will add self-statements for TREE to their self-statements lists. Each student should add one or two statements to get started, one or two statements to use while they are working, and one or two statements they can use when theyre finished writing. To conclude the lesson, the teacher will introduce the graphing sheet that students will use when they finish a persuasive essay to ensure they included all of the important parts in their essays. IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 13 The focus of the next lesson is collaborative writing. The teacher will allow the students to lead the writing process as much as possible to write a group essay. They will respond to the prompt: Should students have to go to school in the summer? The teacher will help guide the groups writing by referring to their self-statements for each step of planning and writing. The focus of the sixth lesson is for students to examine their prior writing performance and compare it to their current writing behavior. To accomplish this, the teacher will give the students their pretests. The teacher should remind them that they wrote those essays before they knew the POW and TREE tricks for good persuasive writing. The students will identify which parts they included in their essays and which parts are missing. Finally, they will set writing goals for writing better persuasive essays. In the seventh lesson, the class will return to collaborative writing. This time, the students will take an even greater lead in the process. They will respond to the prompt: Should students your age have to do chores at home? During the eighth lesson, the class will review POW and TREE. Also, each student will respond individually to a writing prompt. They will have the support of the teacher and a graphic organizer. When they finish writing, they will graph their essays to make sure they included every part. In the ninth lesson, the whole class will review POW and TREE. The teacher will help them wean off the graphic organizer by showing them how to make their own on a blank piece of paper by writing POW across the top and TREE down the left side leaving space to add notes. The students will respond to this prompt individually: Do you think children your age should get allowance? The teacher will guide students as necessary with the goal of each child planning and writing independently and self-regulating. This lesson should be repeated as many times as necessary with each student that needs additional support to reach the goal of independent planning and writing. The final lesson in the series is independent performance. In IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 14 this lesson, students take a practice test. They are given a persuasive writing prompt and two blank pieces of paper. One piece is for planning and the other is for writing. They must plan and write independently. Data Collection Plan Table 1 shows a Triangulation Matrix that was created to ensure the confirmability of the data sources for each research question. Using multiple data sources for each research question adds to the dependability of the data. Table 1
Triangulation Matrix
Data Source
Research Question 1
2 3 1. Will SRSD help students answer questions completely in persuasive writing?
Pre-intervention Survey Post-intervention Survey Anecdotal Notes 4. General writing improvement?
CBM-W Pretest CBM-W Posttest Anecdotal Notes
Surveys and CBM-W assessments were administered to the sample population in January. The anonymous surveys were comprised of questions that asked students about their attitude toward persuasive writing tasks and their self-concept as writers. The same survey will be administered post-intervention in order to compare the students pre-intervention and post- IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 15 intervention responses (see Appendix A for the survey). The CBM-W assessments were scored on the number of correct word sequences (CWS). All mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation interrupt a CWS. With a CBM-W assessment, students have one minute to think about the writing prompt and three minutes to write. This is a story prompt rather than a persuasive writing prompt. Following SRSD instruction, students will take another CBM-W assessment to see if their persuasive writing skills transfer to a different genre of writing. The teacher researcher will take anecdotal notes throughout the intervention to track the learning of each student and to help answer the research questions (see Appendix B for the anecdotal note form). During student-teacher writing conferences, the teacher researcher will use the anecdotal form to track each students progress. The teacher will note if the student uses all of the parts of POW Plus TREE including a topic sentence, three or more reasons to support the writers opinion, appropriate transition words with each reason, and an ending to conclude the essay. The teacher researcher will also note if the student is using self-statements in order to stay on-task and motivated. In order to protect the validity of the data, the teacher researcher will record anecdotal notes accurately, fully, and candidly. The final data collection tool is a rubric to score the persuasive writing pretest and posttest. Before teaching the first lesson in the study, the teacher researcher will administer a persuasive writing pretest, during which participants will answer a persuasive writing prompt. The teacher researcher will score the pretest essays using the Persuasive Writing Rubric for Grades 1-3 (see Appendix C). Following the final lesson of SRSD POW Plus TREE instruction, each student will answer a persuasive writing prompt on a posttest. These essays will be scored using the same rubric. Data Analysis IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 16 After collecting the qualitative data, the teacher researcher will analyze the data by identifying themes in the anecdotal notes and survey responses. In order to put the data in context, the teacher researcher will describe the setting, participants, and activity during the data collection. Finally, the researcher will categorize the qualitative data into the identified themes. The researcher will protect the confidentiality of the participants by reporting the general themes rather than relaying the exact statements and actions of each student. After collecting the quantitative data from CBM-W pretests and posttests and rubric scores for pretest and posttest persuasive essays, the teacher researcher will organize, display, and analyze the data. In order to protect the confidentiality of the participants, the researcher will randomly assign each student a number. The researcher will display the mean pretest and posttest CBM-W data for each grade with a bar graph. The graph will show the mean pretest score for each grade next to its respective posttest score. The graph should clearly show if the students score higher on the posttest than they did on the pretest. The researcher will use the same method to display the mean rubric scores for the persuasive essay pretest and posttest. In order to see individual students improvement, the researcher will also create a bar graph to report each students pretest and posttest CBM-W and rubric scores. The researcher will identify each students scores using the students assigned confidential number. The individual bar graphs will show the impact of the intervention on each student. The teacher researcher will then analyze the qualitative and quantitative data to see if the data answers all of the research questions and supports the hypothesis. The researcher will be able to see if the students scores improve from the pretests to the posttests. The qualitative data will help the researcher note trends in students attitudes and feelings about their writing. The IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 17 data may also show if SRSD POW Plus TREE instruction is more effective with the older students than with the younger students. Sample Selection The teacher researcher teaches a K-3 class in a private school in Washington. The teacher selected the first, second, and third grade students to participate in the study. The kindergarten students were not included in the sample as they are not academically ready for the instruction in this study. The teacher was skeptical of including the first grade students, also. They have a wide range of writing skills. The teacher researcher decided to include the first grade students for a larger population size and to see how effective SRSD POW Plus TREE is with first grade students. The sample population consists of five boys and five girls. Three boys are in first grade, one is in second grade, and one is in third grade. Two girls are in first grade, one is in second grade, and two are in third grade. The second and third grade students have more experience with this genre of writing than the first graders, but none of the students in the sample has had extended instruction with persuasive writing. Additionally, none of the students has participated in SRSD instruction prior to this study. Action Plan The researcher received verbal approval from the school administrator to conduct the action research project in the multi-grade classroom in place of the regular English curriculum. The private school where the action research project will take place does not have a formal approval process for action research. Table 2 shows a timeline for approval, implementation, and completion of the study. Table 2
Action Plan Timeline
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 18 Recommended Action Who is responsible?
Timeline Resources Seek approval to conduct action research Teacher researcher and administrator Approval Granted None
Implement study- conduct POW Plus TREE lessons
Teacher researcher
April 28- May 14
Lesson materials printed and copied for each student Post-intervention survey and assessments
Teacher researcher May 15- May 16 Post-intervention surveys, posttest persuasive essay prompt, CBM-W Posttest Share findings with administrator and teachers
Teacher researcher May 28, 2014 Completed action research report
The teacher researcher believes the data will support the three hypotheses. First, students will include three or more reasons to support their opinions on the persuasive writing posttest. Second, students will plan, compose, and revise their persuasive essays on the posttest without aid from the teacher or planning materials. Third, students will gain confidence in their ability as writers and increase their motivation to write as a result of the implementation of SRSD. The participants will also show improvement with other genres of writing as a result of SRSD instruction. However, the researcher does feel that some of the first grade participants may struggle to attain the independent writing suggested by the second hypothesis. It is possible that some students may not yet feel confident to plan, write, and compose a persuasive essay without help from the teacher or planning materials after only thirteen days of the intervention. If the hypotheses are supported by the data, the teacher researcher will continue the use of SRSD lessons for the remainder of the school year. Furthermore, the researcher will recommend the continuation of the intervention for the following school year. Additionally, the teacher will IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 19 research SRSD strategies to use with other genres of writing. If this action research yields positive results, SRSD writing instruction could potentially replace the schools current elementary writing curriculum. If the data does not support the hypotheses, the researcher will first examine why the intervention was unsuccessful. Then the researcher will conduct further research on persuasive writing strategies. In addition, the researcher may conduct a new action research study that focuses on explicitly teaching self-regulation strategies before combining them with writing strategies. This approach would give young students more time and practice developing their self-regulation skills.
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 20 References Chakraborty, B., & Stone, S. (2008). Classroom idea-sparkers: A recipe for writing motivation. Childhood Education, 84(3), 158-G-158-P. doi: 10.1080/00094056.2008.10522997 Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 879-896. doi: 10.1037/a0029185 Hansen, M. (2012). Writing for justice: Persuasion from the inside out. Rethinking Schools, 26(3), 19-24. Harris, K. R., Graham, S., & Mason, L. (2002). Pow plus tree equals powerful opinion essays. Teaching Exceptional Children, 34(4), 70-73. Helsel, L., & Greenberg, D. (2007). Helping struggling writers succeed: A self-regulated strategy instruction program. Reading Teacher, 60(8), 752-760. Hough, T. M., Hixson, M. D., Decker, D., & Bradley-Johnson, S. (2012). The effectiveness of an explicit instruction writing program for second graders. Journal of Behavioral Education, 21(2), 163-174. doi: 10.1007/s10864-012-9146-0 Johnston, P. (2012). Guiding the budding writer. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 64-67. Macarthur, C. A., & Philippakos, Z. (2010). Instruction in a strategy for compare--contrast writing. Exceptional Children, 76(4), 438-456. Magnifico, A. (2010). Writing for whom? Cognition, motivation, and a writer's audience. Educational Psychologist, 45(3), 167-184. doi:10.1080/00461520.2010.493470 Mason, L. H., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2011). Self-regulated strategy development for students with writing difficulties. Theory Into Practice, 50, 20-27. doi: 10.1080/00405841.2011.534922 IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 21 Schunk, D. H. (2005). Self-regulated learning: The educational legacy of Paul R. Pintrich. Educational Psychologist, 40(2), 85-94. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep4002_3 Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2007). Influencing childrens self-efficacy and self- regulation of reading and writing through modeling. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 23, 7-25. TREE classwide lessons. (2009). In Project Write. Retrieved from http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/projectwrite/tree-classwide.html Winstead, L. (2004). Increasing academic motivation and cognition in reading, writing, and mathematics: Meaning-making strategies. Educational Research Quarterly, 28(2), 30-49. Zumbrunn, S., & Krause, K. (2012). Conversations with leaders: Principles of effective writing instruction. The Reading Teacher, 65(5), 346-353. doi: 10.1002/TRTR.01053
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 22 Appendix A Grades 1-3 Writing Survey
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 23 Appendix B Anecdotal Record Form
Check all LhaL apply: o 1oplc senLence LhaL Lells oplnlon o 3 or more reasons Lo supporL Lhe oplnlon o uses approprlaLe LranslLlon words o Pas an endlng senLence o uslng self-sLaLemenLs Lo geL sLarLed, keep golng, and when flnlshed
IMPROVING PERSUASIVE WRITING 24 Appendix C TREE Rubric for Persuasive Writing in Grades 1-3
4 3 2 1
Topic Sentence The topic sentence clearly tells the reader the opinion of the writer. The topic sentence tells the opinion of the writer. The topic sentence is vague or does not express the opinion of the writer. There is no topic sentence.
Reasons The writer gives at least 3 relevant reasons to support the topic sentence. The writer gives 2 reasons to support the topic sentence. The writer gives 1 reason to support the topic sentence. The writer does not give any reasons to support the topic sentence.
Transition Words The writer uses at least 3 transition words to explain the reasons in order. The writer uses at least 2 transition words to explain the reasons in order. The writer uses 1 transition word, or transition words are not used in the correct order. The writer does not use transition words.
Ending There is an ending sentence to conclude the essay.
-
- The essay does not have an ending sentence.
Conventions All sentences are complete with very few (0-3) mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Most sentences are complete with some (4-7) mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Some sentences are complete with repeated mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Many sentences are incomplete with many mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar making it difficult to read.