abstract: The following study was developed to investigate the development of writing skills in second and third grade students. The recent emphasis on writing, specifically writing in multiple genres, made in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) has increased the need to further understand how students write. The NAEP (2002) reports that approximately 77% of fourth grade students have only a general grasp of writing. Despite this poor performance, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) have increased the expectations for student writing. The goal of this proposed dissertation, using an holistic literacy perspective, is to shed light on differences in how students write in informative and opinion genres, which skills predict writing outcomes, the extent to which reciprocal effects between writing and literacy are present, and what type of student profiles exist within the classroom. It was found that students received lower scores on opinion writing compared to their informative compositions. It was also found that better reading comprehension was associated with better writing performance in both genres. High vocabulary ability predicted higher opinion essay scores and better performance on a behavioral regulation task predicted better informative essay outcomes. Reciprocal effects between writing outcomes and literacy skill were found, with higher opinion writing scores predicted higher vocabulary outcomes. Finally, students appeared to fall into four latent profiles: high achievers, average achievers, struggling students, and a group of students who have average literacy skill but scored extremely poorly on the opinion essay task. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the relationship between second language (L2) writing development and the ways we can help growing populations of L2 writers successfully integrate within academic communities. Much of this interest stems from increasingly diverse local populations and the continued internationalization of higher education. This dissertation explored the implications for curriculum resulting from this growing presence of L2 writers in academic content areas. To achieve this goal, this research reports on an eight-month longitudinal ethnographic case study of five international Japanese undergraduate students at a large Canadian university. Focusing on the central role of writing in university courses as the dominant mode of knowledge construction and dissemination, as well as student assessment, the study documents focal students’ and focal instructors’ perspectives of the various factors affecting their writing in ‘regular’ content courses, with particular attention paid to the impact of feedback practices and their role in both the short-term and long-term development of students’ skills and their investments in different types of writing. Drawing on a language socialization framework, data analysis focused on expectations and practices with respect to feedback, and explored the impact of these practices on conveying both explicit and implicit norms linked to students’ access to, and successful participation in, their chosen content areas. Drawing on both students’ and instructors’ perspectives of this literacy event and discourse analysis of relevant documents, findings offer unique insights into the role of feedback practices not only for students’ writing development but also in indexing complex negotiations of positions, identities, and institutional forces. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the need to play closer attention to the multidimensional functions of feedback practices in order to understand their power to shape the socialization trajectories of L2 writers and universities’ responses to multilingual students who no longer fit traditional profiles. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

AbstractThis study investigates formative feedback comments given by instructors and the potential effects of the comments on students writing development. This research topic is examined from the perspective of the Swedish curriculum for English at upper secondary school and draws from international studies to identify potential implications for the Swedish context. Writing is an essential skill for students to acquire and instructors are responsible for guiding students in their efforts. However, it is unclear what types of comments may lead to students writing development. This paper has methodically included relevant research within the subject, and through synthesis identified several patterns in instructor comments which lead to student engagement and uptake of feedback. Research encourages instructors to be mindful of the tone of their comments as many negative comments may discourage and overwhelm students, resulting in them not engaging with the received feedback. The amount of comments on a students’ draft can also determine the students' engagement with the feedback comments. Also, research calls for instructors to familiarize students with the learning requirements and the metalanguage associated with the feedback process. Lastly, multiple studies included in this synthesis encourage the use feedback aids and alternative modes of feedback to support student development and accommodate students who do not respond to traditional feedback delivery methods.

No description available.

Denna systematiska litteraturstudie syftar till att undersöka vad tidigare forskning kommit fram till vad gäller undervisningsmaterial, undervisningsmetoder och samtalsaktiviteter som främjar flerspråkiga elevers tidiga skrivutveckling. Studiens material innehåller 13 olika publikationer som kvalitativt analyserats med hjälp av ett kategoriseringsschema för att kunna besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Publikationerna söktes fram i olika databaser, ERIC, Libris och Diva, där vi använde oss av utvalda sökord för att få fram relevanta studier för valt forskningsområde. Resultatet visar att flerspråkiga elevers skrivutveckling främjas främst genom att undervisningen är explicit och består av konkret, anpassat och varierat material. Många forskare lyfter vikten av vilka didaktiska val lärare väljer att använda sig av. Litteraturstudien visar att flerspråkiga elever aktivt ska delta i den ordinarie klassrumsundervisningen så mycket som möjligt, och att olika typer av samtalsaktiviteter i klassrummet gynnar flerspråkiga elevers skrivutveckling. Slutligen visar resultatet att det finns brist på forskning om undervisningsmaterial och undervisningsmetoder som lämpar sig i undervisningen.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur digitala verktyg kan användas som stöd för elever med svenska som andraspråk i deras skrivutveckling. För att förstå hur lärare arbetar med verktygen för att stötta elever och vilka faktorer som påverkar detta behövs det få svar på olika frågor. Studien undersöker vilka möjligheter och utmaningar det finns med användandet av det digitala verktyget, lärares beskrivning av användandet med digitala verktyg och hur lärares digitala kompetens påverkar användandet.  Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt grundar sig i ramfaktorteorin och teoretiska begrepp från det sociokulturella perspektivet om den proximala utvecklingszonen och scaffolding. För att uppfylla syftet med studien har en kvalitativ datasamlingsmetod genomförts i form av intervjuer. Fem intervjuer med sex olika lärare genomfördes för att få svar på studiens frågeställningar. Resultatet i studien visar på att respondenterna uttrycker att de digitala verktygen är en positiv faktor för att utveckla elever med svenska som andraspråk i deras skrivutveckling. Det huvudsakliga resultatet i studien var de olika funktionerna med verktygen som ansågs som en givande möjlighet. Digitala verktygets korrigeringsfunktioner, talsyntes och översättning ligger till grund för elevers skrivutveckling. Utmaningar med digitala verktyget berörs också i studiens resultat. Arbetet med verktygen ger krav på lärare och deras digitala kompetens för att använda verktygen på ett effektivt sätt. Studiens metod och resultat diskuteras slutligen i samband med teori och syfte. / This study aims to investigate how digital tools can be used to support pupils with Swedish as a second language in their writing development. To understand how teachers work with digital tools to support pupils and what factors influence this, it is necessary to get answers to various questions. The study investigates what opportunities and challenges there are with the use of the digital tool, teachers’ descriptions of the use of digital tools and how teachers’ digital competence affects their use. The study’s theoretical standpoint is based on the framework factor theory and theoretical concepts from the sociocultural perspective on the proximal development zone and scaffolding. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative data collection method was conducted in form of interviews. Five interviews with six different teachers were implemented to get answers to the study’s questions. The result of the study show that the respondents express that the digital tools are a positive factor for developing student with Swedish as a second language in their writing development. The main result of the study was different functions with the tool which was considered a rewarding opportunity. The digital tool’s correction functions, speech synthesis and translation form the basis for pupils writing development. Working with the tools places demands on teachers and their digital skills to use the tools effectively. The study’s method and results are finally discussed in connection with theory and purpose.

No description available.

Syntactic complexity has been an area of significant interest in L2 writing development studies over the past 45 years. Despite the regularity in which syntactic complexity measures have been employed, the construct is still relatively under-developed, and, as a result, the cumulative results of syntactic complexity studies can appear opaque. At least three reasons exist for the current state of affairs, namely the lack of consistency and clarity by which indices of syntactic complexity have been described, the overly broad nature of the indices that have been regularly employed, and the omission of indices that focus on usage-based perspectives. This study seeks to address these three gaps through the development and validation of the Tool for the Automatic Assessment of Syntactic Sophistication and Complexity (TAASSC). TAASSC measures large and fined grained clausal and phrasal indices of syntactic complexity and usage-based frequency/contingency indices of syntactic sophistication. Using TAASSC, this study will address L2 writing development in two main ways: through the examination of syntactic development longitudinally and through the examination of human judgments of writing proficiency (e.g., expert ratings of TOEFL essays). This study will have important implications for second language acquisition, second language writing, and language assessment.

Abstract This study investigates three primary school teachers’ experiences of working with formative assessment intended to develop pupils’ writing development. The study applies a sociocultural perspective to examine how teachers in grades 1–2 reason about their use of formative assessment to develop pupils’ writing. The study seeks to ascertain how the teachers reason about pupils’ texts in relation to the text triangle. The results of the study show that the teachers, in their work with formative assessment and writing development, proceed from set goals for the term which apply to all the pupils in that year. The teachers make the pupils aware of these goals by returning to them several times during the term. The intention is to remind the pupils of the goals. The three teachers also work with individual goals for the pupils via the pupils’ individual development plans. The informants all reason in much the same way about formative assessment in writing instruction in relation to the text triangle. The teachers consider that they work with the different qualities shown in the different levels of the text triangle, based on the pupils’ prior knowledge and experience of writing.

Thesis advisor: Maria E. Brisk / The Writing Development of Procedural and Persuasive Genres: A Multiple Case Study of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students Margarita Zisselsberger María Estela Brisk, Dissertation Director Abstract In this dissertation study, I examine the writing development of five culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in an elementary classroom, where English is the language of instruction. Interest in written literacy for monolingual and bilingual learners has increased as a result of high-stakes testing, No Child Left Behind, and state adoption of the Common Core Standards. Additionally, National Assessment of Educational Progress (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007) shows that CLD students score significantly lower on writing performance tasks than their mainstream English-speaking Caucasian peers. This study seeks to better understand the process by which CLD students develop the specific characteristics of procedural and persuasive writing given the instruction in these genres. This year-long qualitative research study used a multiple case-study design (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006; Merriam, 1998) and included classroom observations, videotaped examples of the nexus between classroom instruction and student writing, the collection of students' writing samples, student interviews, and formal and informal teacher interviews. For this study, I followed one fifth-grade teacher and five of her students as they worked on the two genres. Guided by systemic functional linguistic theory--a linguistic theory that reveals features that encase cultural and social expectations, making the language demands of schooling explicit--the analysis examined students' writing development in the two genres, the context and process of their development in the genres, and an in-depth examination of the impact of the context and process on their procedural and persuasive writing pieces. The results suggest that CLD students' writing development is multifaceted and complex. CLD students' writing development of procedural and persuasive writing was mediated by interrelated factors: the individual student, the peers, the teacher, and the texts themselves. I discuss the role of each of the mediating factors and argue for adopting a model of writing that incorporates a combination of genre- and process- writing theories with a particular understanding of the unique nuances pertinent to CLD students. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.