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"Why do we always have to write so m...

Kropp, Sara.

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"Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class.

Record Type:	Language materials, printed : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	"Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class./
Author:	Kropp, Sara.
Description:	110 p.
Notes:	Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-01, page: 0100.
Contained By:	Masters Abstracts International48-01.
Subject:	Education, Middle School. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=1471203
ISBN:	9781109360387

"Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class.
Kropp, Sara.

"Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class. - 110 p.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-01, page: 0100.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Davis, 2009.

Research Question(s). To what extent will direct instruction, modeling, and peer editing affect my students' ability to write a well-structured paragraph focusing specifically on strong topic sentences? How does the intervention impact my student's self-perceptions towards writing topic sentences and paragraph structure?

ISBN: 9781109360387Subjects--Topical Terms:

1030813
Education, Middle School.

"Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class.
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020 $a 9781109360387
035 $a (UMI)AAI1471203
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100 1 $a Kropp, Sara. $3 1681370
245 1 0 $a "Why do we always have to write so much?": Improving writing skills by focusing on topic sentences in an 8th grade U.S. history class.
300 $a 110 p.
500 $a Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-01, page: 0100.
500 $a Adviser: Karen Teel.
502 $a Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Davis, 2009.
520 $a Research Question(s). To what extent will direct instruction, modeling, and peer editing affect my students' ability to write a well-structured paragraph focusing specifically on strong topic sentences? How does the intervention impact my student's self-perceptions towards writing topic sentences and paragraph structure?
520 $a Research Activities. Context. This intervention study was done in an 8th grade U.S. History class of ethnically diverse 30 students. These students attended a 7/8 junior high school in a large urban area of Northern California. Seven focus students were chosen to be a cross section of the class as a whole. Four of the focus students are English learners with CELDT classifications from Early-Intermediate to Re-designated, while the other three students are native English speakers. These focus students also run the gamut regarding grades and academic skills. Methods and Data. This study uses three different approaches to teaching middle school students about how to write a paragraph. The first two days of the intervention were direct instruction. I gave my students a lecture and a note taking guide to help them learn the parts of a paragraph and the characteristics of a well written topic sentence. After these lectures, I had the students write a paragraph and complete a survey regarding writing. Next I modeled for the students, example paragraphs. I gave the students handouts of paragraphs that were well written and had strong topic sentences as well as paragraphs with weak topic sentences. I made observations as the class read each paragraph and discussed the merits of the first sentence. If the sentence was deemed to be inappropriate, the students wrote their own improved sentence. Once these lessons were through, I collected another paragraph and survey from my students. Finally, I had my students peer edit a classmate's paragraph. Each student had a checklist to help them stay focused as they edited and I observed them during this process. The students then took their draft home and improved it with the comments made in class. I collected these paragraphs and a third survey about how the students feel about their writing skills. My post-intervention data was a paragraph written as part of an end of the unit test and an attitudinal survey asking them to reflect on the intervention as a whole. At the end of the study, I compared all of the data collected during and after the intervention to baseline data collected during the first semester of the school year. These pre-intervention data are in the form of a paragraph written on a test, two different surveys asking the students about their own perceptions of writing, and observations made while the students were working on a project that required writing. Findings and Conclusions. The students in this class felt as though their writing has improved, when in fact, the rubric shows otherwise. This is only when considering the pre and the post-intervention data. During the intervention; however, the students' paragraph writing skills did improve, as demonstrated by an inclusion of topic sentences and the grading rubric. One explanation for this trend are that the students are more aware of how a good writer organizes a paragraph and are taking more risks trying to master these skills. The anxiety of a testing situation may have led some students to "forget" what they had learned over the course of the intervention which is why many students did not adequately incorporate topic sentences in the post-intervention data. To continue this research, I plan on working next on teaching my students how to tie the evidence in a paragraph back to the topic sentence to make sure that the whole paragraph stays on one topic.
520 $a Grade Level. 8
520 $a Data Collection Methods. Observation-Teacher Research Journal, Student Work, Survey-Attitude, Writing Samples
520 $a Curriculum Areas. Social Studies: United States History, Writing-Writing in the content areas
520 $a Instructional Approaches. Class discussion, Direct Instruction, Note-taking, Teacher Modeling, Writing-Organization, Writing-Peer response/feedback, Writing-Prompts, Writing-Rubrics
590 $a School code: 0029.
650 4 $a Education, Middle School. $3 1030813
650 4 $a Education, Social Sciences. $3 1019148
650 4 $a Language, Rhetoric and Composition. $3 1019205
690 $a 0450
690 $a 0534
690 $a 0681
710 2 $a University of California, Davis. $3 1018682
773 0 $t Masters Abstracts International $g 48-01.
790 1 0 $a Teel, Karen, $e advisor
790 $a 0029
791 $a M.A.
792 $a 2009
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=1471203