Evidence – Based Writing Practices – Don’t Sweat the Common Core Blues Steve Graham VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

 Meta-analysis (Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way)  Method for synthesizing experimental studies using statistical procedures -- produces a standard index for the findings from each study  Helps determine whether an instructional technique, strategy, or intervention is effective across a body of studies  Effect Size provides a standardized measure of the quantitative differences between two treatments, providing information on both the direction and magnitude of this difference

RULE OF THUMB  Effect sizes OF.80 is LARGE (Moon)  Effect Size of.50 is MODERATE (Empire State Building)  Effect size of.25 is SMALL (Street)

WRITING TO IMPROVE READING Writing about information in a science text should facilitate comprehension and learning, as it provides the reader with a means for recording, connecting, analyzing, personalizing, and manipulating key ideas from the text. This is exactly what we found in Writing to Read (Graham & Hebert, 2010)

Does Writing About Material Read Enhance Comprehension of Text? Research QuestionStandardized Measures (ES) Researcher Measures (ES) Average Effect Size (ES) for all studies (grades 2-12) 0.40 (N = 11) 0.50 (N = 50) I.Generating or responding to questions (grades 6-12) 0.27 (N = 8) II.Note-taking (grades 3-12)0.46 (N = 23) III.Writing Summaries (grades 3-12) 0.52 (N = 19) IV.Analysis or Interpretation (grades 2-12) 0.77 (N = 9)

Other Tidbits  Struggling Students - Flying above the Empire State Building  In 60% of the studies students wrote about Science and Social Studies text

 Defeat  Deduct  Defense  detail

Does writing instruction strengthen reading? Research QuestionStandardized Measures Researcher Measures Does writing instruction improve reading comprehension (e.g. sentence combining; text structure instruction)? (grades 4-12) 0.18 (N= 12) 0.27 (N = 5) Does teaching spelling strengthen word reading skills? (grades 1-5) 0.68 (N = 5) Does writing instruction improve reading fluency? (grades 1-7) 0.79 (N=4)

Why are the days longer in the summer than the winter?  During the cold winter months, the days get cold and contract. In the summer they get hot and expand. Also, light travels faster in hot weather, than it does in cold. In the summer light gets here before 6:00. But days in Nashville are shorter than days in Ogden, because the sun gets to Nashville faster than Ogden because it easier to travel on flight land.

Does increasing writing improve reading ? Research QuestionStandardized Measures Researcher Measures *All studies examined comprehension (e.g. writing about self-selected topics) 0.30 (N = 6) *Studies included only students in grades 1-6

Write Increase how much students write ES = 0.30 (grs 2 to 6; 5 studies)

Teach Process – 1. Process Writing  Extended opportunities for writing  Writing for real audiences  Engaging in cycles of planning, translating, and reviewing  Personal responsibility and ownership  High levels of student interactions  Creation of a supportive writing environment  Self-reflection and evaluation  Personalized individual assistance and instruction ES = 0.40 (grs 1- 6; 16 studies) 0.32 (grs 4-12; 21 studies)

Rules for Writing a Paragraph  Write for as long as you can hold your breath without getting blue in the face  Then put in a comma  When you yawn put in a semicolon, and when you sneeze, that’s time for a paragraph.

Teach Process – 2.. Strategy Instruction  Involves explicitly and systematically teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and/or editing text.  Instruction is designed to teach students to use these strategies independently.  Writing strategies range from processes such as brainstorming (which can be applied across genres) to strategies designed for specific types of writing, such as stories or persuasive essays.  SRSD especially effective  ES = 1.02 (grs 2-6; 20 studies)  ES = 0.82 (grs 4-10; 20 studies)

Teach Skills – 1. Transcription Skills Explicitly teaching handwriting and spelling  ES = 0.55 (grs 1-3; 8 studies)

 When a child in an affluent neighborhood was asked to write a story about a poor family she chose her own.

 Once upon a time there was a poor family. The father was poor. The mother was poor. The children were poor. The nannies were poor. The pool man was poor. The personal trainer was poor.

Teach Skills – 2. Sentence Combining  Involves teaching students to construct more complex and sophisticated sentences through exercises where two or more basic sentences are combined into a single sentence.  ES = 0.50 (grs 4-9; 5 studies)

Enhance Knowledge – 1. Teaching Text Structure Explicitly teaching students the basic structure of different types of text  ES = 0.55 (grs 2-6; 8 studies)

Enhance Knowledge – 2. Study of Models  Involves students examining examples of one or more specific types of text and attempting to emulate the patterns or forms in these examples in their own writing.  ES = 0.25 (grs. 4-12; 6 studies)

Scaffold Writing - 1. Peers Working Together to Compose  Involves students working together to plan, draft, and/or revise their compositions.  0.89 (grs 2-6; 4 studies)  ES = 0.75 (4 – 12; 7 studies)

Scaffold Writing – 2. Product Goals Involves assigning students specific goals for the written product they are to complete.  ES = 0.76 (grs 4 – 6; 7 studies)  ES = 0.70 (grs 4-12; 5 studies)

Scaffolding Writing – 3. Pre-Writing Activities  Involves students engaging in activities (such as using a graphic organizer) designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition.  ES = 0.54 (grs 2-6; 8 studies)  ES = 0.32 (grs 4 -9; 5 studies)

Scaffold Writing -4. Assessment Assessment included adult feedback to students, peer feedback, self-assessment, and progress monitoring Feedback ES = 0.79 (grs 2-9; 16 studies) Self-Assessment ES = 0.46 (grs 3-12; 7 studies)

Scaffold Writing - 5. Be Positive Reinforce positive aspects of students’ writing (small positive impact). Single subject; design studies; Grades 3 to 6

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Mode of Writing Involves having students use word processing and related software to write.  ES = 0.47 (grs 1-6; 10 studies)  ES = 0.55 (grs 4-12; 18 studies)

Disclaimer  I have no doubt that there are other untested effective interventions

References  Graham, S., Harris, K.R., & Hebert, M. (2011). Informing Writing. Alliance for Excellence in Education. Washington, D.C. (Commissioned by the Carnegie Corp. of New York). To be released by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.  Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to Reading: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. Alliance for Excellence in Education. Washington, D.C. (Commissioned by the Carnegie Corp. of New York)  Graham, S., & Perrin, D. (2007). Writing Next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescent middle and high school. Alliance for Excellence in Education. Washington, D.C. (Commissioned by the Carnegie Corp. of New York)  Rogers, L., & Graham, S. (2008). A meta-analysis of single subject design writing intervention  research. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100,  Graham, S., & Perrin, D. (2007). What we know, what we still need to know: Teaching  adolescents to write. Scientific Studies in Reading, 11,  Graham, S., Kiuhara, S., McKeown, D., Harris, K. (2011). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Submitted for Publication. 