1. Writer’s Workshop vs. Writing Prompts: The Effects on First Graders’ Writing Ability and Attitude towards Writing Stacy Carroll Jay Feng Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2010 Savannah, Georgia October 23, 2010

2. Research Questions 1. Do Writer’s Workshop and Prompted-writing have different effect on first graders’ attitude towards writing? 2. Do Writer’s Workshop and Prompted-writing have different effect on first graders’ writing ability?

3. Writer’s Workshop vs. Prompted Writing Writer’s Workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing as students learn and practice the process of writing. It fosters independence and confidence as it allows free-choice and personal meaning. Prompted Writing requires students to write from prompts to produce a facilitative priming effect on writing. It fosters writing fluency.

4. Research Design 18 students in one first grade classroom in a Title I school, were randomly assigned to two groups: Writer’s Workshop (n=9), Prompted Writing (n=9); taught by same teacher Both received instruction on how to write a persuasive letter over a period of 5 weeks. Pre- and post-survey on writing attitude Post assessment on persuasive writing

5. Results Attitude towards writing: Pre-testPost-test Writer’s Workshop17.8917.22* Prompted Writing16.4414.78 t=.3299, p>.05

6. Results Writing ability: Writer’s WorkshopPrompted Writing Overall9.7811.56* Ideas3.564.89 Organization2.112.56 Style2.002.22 Convention2.11* 1.89 (t=1.42, p>.05)