Current assessment practices for writing are moving away from the traditional objective test and towards performance-based assessment. The use of picture prompts to elicit writing samples is a common practice but it adds a level of complexity to the writing process. Writing tasks which use pictures to elicit writing samples require the writer to interpret the picture, create meaning from the picture, and then transfer the visual information into a verbal mode of expression. The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of style and color of picture prompts while holding content constant. Four independent variables were investigated: style, (photograph, drawing), color (color, black and white), content (delivery man with a box, cliff rescue), and grade-level (fifth, eighth). Ratings of the students' stories served as the dependent variable. Each story was scored by two raters on three dimensions: narrative, descriptive, and events. These scores were added together to obtain a total score. The overall design was a four factor repeated measures ANOVA with grade level, style, and color as between subject factors and content as a within subject factor. A total of six ANOVAs were conducted, one each for the total score, narrative component, descriptive component, events component, prior events item, and after events item. Results of the ANOVA for total scores indicate that the main effect for content was significant, as was the content by style interaction. The main effects for color and style were not significant, nor did these factors yield significant interactions. Similar results were obtained in the analysis of the narrative and descriptive components. The main effect of content was not significant on the event component due to reversal of mean scores on the two items comprising this component. When ANOVAs were conducted on the two items comprising this component, the main effect for content was significant for both items. Also of interest is that the main effect for grade level was significant for the total scores, descriptive component, events component, and prior events, but was not significant for the narrative component or after events item. / Ph. D.

Often described as passive learners, students with learning disabilities (LD) sometimes approach writing as a negative and burdensome task. Their reaction may imply that writing requires processes that they find difficult. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which high-interest narrative writing prompts for 12- to 13-year-old students in special education increase accuracy and total words written (TWW) in a 3-min timed writing sample compared to low-interest writing prompts. High-interest writing prompts are story starter topics chosen by each participant as preferred ones for writing tasks. Participants will be three individuals from a sixth- and seventh-grade special education language arts class who have been classified with LD. Initially, participants will select high- and low-interest writing topics using a prompt selection procedure. Given 40 potential writing topics, individual participants will select their 10 highest and lowest topics of interest. Participants completed 20, 3-min timed writing samples based on high- and low-interest narrative writing prompts. High- and low-interest topics were counterbalanced. Percent accuracy, TWW, and correct writing sequences (CWS) were recorded by the researcher. Using a multi-element design, the results confirmed that high-interest writing prompts produced more volume in comparison to low-interest writing prompts. However, results did not show higher accuracy in the high-interest condition. Results are discussed in terms of constructing writing lessons for sixth- and seventh-grade students with LD.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how writing in mathematics is treated in one 4th grade National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded mathematics textbook titled Everyday Mathematics and one publisher-generated textbook titled enVision MATH. The developed framework provided categories to support each of the research questions. The results indicate that writing is supported in both traditional and NSF developed 4th grade mathematics textbooks Results also indicated the number of exercises and writing prompts was higher in the enVision MATH textbook. However, Everyday Mathematics had a higher percentage of exercises that were coded as writing prompts. The framework domains of content strand in enVision MATH and Everyday Mathematics are similar in percentages with the exception of prompts coded in the other category. Everyday Mathematics appeared to be the only textbook analyzed to support writing across different content areas. Furthermore, the content strand of number sense had the largest percentage of writing prompts coded between both textbook series. Other findings from this study suggest that the type of vocabulary coded within the writing prompts was similar in all categories between both textbook series analyzed. Additionally, vocabulary specific to the domain of mathematics and symbols appeared to have the largest percentage in this category for both textbook series. The teacher and student editions were explored in enVision MATH and Everyday Mathematics to provide more depth to the research. An exploration of the teacher edition indicated how writing was supported for instructional purposes. The teacher editions in both textbook series had the largest percentage of support in the form of one sample response. Within the student edition category, the layout varied in the enVision MATH and Everyday Mathematics textbook series. As a result, only the language of Everyday MATH could be analyzed for patterns in the sections, sub-sections, and additional sub-sections of where the prompts were located. Although this investigation did not involve analyzing student responses to the writing prompts, the findings provide information regarding the expectations of the writer in order to construct a mathematical response. For example, the domain specific vocabulary (DSV) and symbols category was rated the highest in percentage for both textbooks indicating that students will need to have command of the language and symbols of mathematics in order to engage in meaning making written discourse. Because most of the math prompts were specific to the problem solving category, it was determined after a linguistic analysis that the affordance of the prompt is much more complex than then binary categories of content and process Additionally, in order for students to respond to these content writing prompts, many process words known as meta-language (i.e., explanation, description, why question, how question) need to be comprehended in order for composition to begin. In light of these findings, I recommend that special attention be given to the teacher and student editions regarding the implementation of writing in mathematics. The development of these materials has important implications regarding instruction and learning of mathematical concepts through writing, potentially impacting student performance on national and international assessments.