Writing In Math Class? Written Communication in the Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my seventh grade mathematics classroom, I investigated what written communication within the mathematics classroom would look like. I increased vocabulary instruction of specific mathematical terms for my students to use in their writing. I also looked at what I would have to do differently in my teaching in order for my students to be successful in their writing. Although my students said that using writing to explain mathematics helped them to better understand the math, my research revealed that student writing did not necessarily translate to improved scores. After direct instruction and practice on math vocabulary, my students did use the vocabulary words more often in their writing; however, my students used the words more like they would in spelling sentences rather than to show what it meant and how it can be applied within their written explanation in math. In my teaching, I discovered I tried many different strategies to help my students be successful. I was very deliberate in my language and usage of vocabulary words and also in my explanations of various math concepts. As a result of this research, I plan to continue having my students use writing to communicate within the mathematics classroom. I will keep using some of the strategies I found successful. I also will be very deliberate in using vocabulary words and stress the use of vocabulary words with my students in the future.

Writing Motivation of Students with Specific Language Impairments

This study was designed to compare the writing motivation of students with specific language impairments with their non-disabled peers. Due to the cognitive and linguistic demands of the writing process, students with language impairments face unique difficulties during the writing process. It was hypothesized that students with specific language impairments will be more likely to report lower levels of perceived writing competence and be less autonomously motivated to write. Students in grades 3-5 in 11 schools (33 with specific language impairments, 242 non-disabled peers) completed self-report measures, designed from a Self-Determination Theory perspective, which measured the degree that students are intrinsically motivated to write as well as their perceived writing competence. Statistical analyses showed that (1) students with specific language impairments reported lower levels of perceived writing competence and autonomous writing motivation; (2) SLI status was a significant predictor of perceived writing competence after spelling, grade, and gender were controlled; and (3) when spelling, grade, and gender were controlled, perceived writing competence was a significant predictor of autonomous writing motivation, but SLI status was not. The results of this study are expected to inform the current understanding of the relationship between language ability and writing motivation in students with specific language impairments, as well as the design of future writing interventions.

Nurturing Young Students' Writing Knowledge, Self-Regulation, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy: The Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of implementing the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of instruction (Graham & Harris, 2005; Harris & Graham, 1996) on the writing skills and writing self-regulation, attitudes, self-efficacy, and knowledge of 6 first grade students. A multiple-baseline design across participants with multiple probes (Kazdin, 2010) was used to test the effectiveness of the SRSD instructional intervention. Each participant was taught an SRSD story writing strategy as well as self-regulation strategies. All students wrote stories in response to picture prompts during the baseline, instruction, independent performance, and maintenance phases. Stories were assessed for essential story components, length, and overall quality. All participants also completed a writing attitude scale, a writing self-efficacy scale, and participated in brief interviews during the baseline and independent performance phases. Results indicated that SRSD can be beneficial for average first grade writers. Participants wrote stories that contained more essential components, were longer, and of better quality after SRSD instruction. Participants also showed some improvement in writing self-efficacy from pre- to post-instruction. All of the students maintained positive writing attitudes throughout the study.

Student Writing Performance: Identifying the Effects when Combining Planning and Revising Instructional Strategies

The purpose of the current study is to identify the impact of teaching students to revise their stories on writing production (Total Words Written; TWW), writing accuracy (Percent Correct Writing Sequences; %CWS), number of critical story elements included in stories, and quality of writing. Three third-grade and one fourth-grade student who were experiencing difficulties in the area of writing were involved in the study. The students were first taught to plan their stories using the evidence-based program, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), which has frequently been implemented to teach students to plan their stories. Students were then taught to revise their stories using SRSD procedures modified for instruction in revision strategies. Student progress was evaluated through a multiple-probe design across tasks and a multiple-probe design across participants, which allowed for experimental control over time and across story probes. In addition to the previously mentioned variables, student’s acceptability of the intervention and their attitudes toward writing were also assessed. Results indicated that instruction in revising increased student writing accuracy beyond the effects of instruction in planning. Additionally, although instruction in planning was shown to increase writing production, number of critical story elements, and quality of writing, instruction in revising produced additional improvement in these variables as well. Finally, results indicated that students liked the intervention and their attitudes toward writing generally increased. Implications for practice and future research directions will be discussed. Advisor: Merilee McCurdy

Mini-Mental State Examination sentence writing among community-dwelling elderly adults in Brazil: text fluency and grammar complexity

Background: In normal aging, the decrease in the syntactic complexity of written production is usually associated with cognitive deficits. This study was aimed to analyze the quality of older adults' textual production indicated by verbal fluency (number of words) and grammatical complexity (number of ideas) in relation to gender, age, schooling, and cognitive status. Methods: From a probabilistic sample of community-dwelling people aged 65 years and above (n = 900), 577 were selected on basis of their responses to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) sentence writing, which were submitted to content analysis; 323 were excluded as they left the item blank or performed illegible or not meaningful responses. Education adjusted cut-off scores for the MMSE were used to classify the participants as cognitively impaired or unimpaired. Total and subdomain MMSE scores were computed. Results: 40.56% of participants whose answers to the MMSE sentence were excluded from the analyses had cognitive impairment compared to 13.86% among those whose answers were included. The excluded participants were older and less educated. Women and those older than 80 years had the lowest scores in the MMSE. There was no statistically significant relationship between gender, age, schooling, and textual performance. There was a modest but significant correlation between number of words written and the scores in the Language subdomain. Conclusions: Results suggest the strong influence of schooling and age over MMSE sentence performance. Failing to write a sentence may suggest cognitive impairment, yet, instructions for the MMSE sentence, i.e. to produce a simple sentence, may limit its clinical interpretation.

Women writing Ireland, 1798 – 1921: il popular novel tra identità nazionale e immaginario religioso nelle autrici cattoliche e protestanti.

La presente tesi si concentra sul romanzo popolare irlandese scritto da donne, nel periodo compreso tra il 1798 e il 1921. Quattro sono le autrici prese in considerazione: Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Sydney Owenson (meglio conosciuta come Lady Morgan), Edith Somerville e Katharine Tynan, le cui vite e opere coprono un periodo storico fondamentale per l’uscita dell’Irlanda dal dominio coloniale britannico e la formazione della nazione irlandese nel sud del paese. L’interesse principale è quello di analizzare il modo in cui nei loro testi prende forma la nazione, e in particolare attraverso quali immagini e riferimenti religiosi. Il senso è quello, dunque, di rileggere tali testi prestando maggiore attenzione alla religione, uno dei principali collanti tra autrici e pubblico: all’epoca in cui l’Irlanda stava acquisendo i confini che oggi ancora mantiene, esisteva un terreno d’incontro tra discorso politico e letterario, quello della nazione, e tale terreno veniva attraversato anche dal messaggio religioso. Il fine ultimo è quello di dimostrare che la letteratura popolare non è “seconda” ad altre quanto a valori che è in grado di trasmettere e a messaggi che è in grado di veicolare: trascurarla significa non capire i meccanismi attraverso i quali una società si sviluppa e si modifica.