supporting scholarly exchange about communication across the curriculum
Content Area:
Communication Across the Curriculum
Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum
Writing to Learn vs. Writing in the Disciplines
Discipline:
Welcome to the WAC Clearinghouse Theses and Dissertations Page. The theses are displayed below. If you'd like us to add a new thesis or dissertation to our list, please contact Kevin Eric De Pew.
The focus of this study was to examine the effect of guided Internet writing activities on students' writing. The W/IT plan (Writing using the Internet as a Tool) was a step-by-step guide with purposeful online literacy activities. Specifically, the study was designed to investigate the effect of using writing/Internet activities upon the writing of second grade children.
Two groups of second grade students were the subjects in the study. Twenty-eight students were in the control group and twenty-eight students were in the experimental group. The study coordinator administered a pre-test writing activity to all of the students (experimental and control) to obtain a writing sample. The twenty-eight students in the experimental group were required to have Internet access. The two groups were similar in that they were second grade students with Internet access.
Students in the experimental group followed a step-by-step guide (twice a week for 25 minutes or more) with a parent. The study coordinator provided the parents with the W/IT Guide. No training for parents or students was provided. This guide was used at home with a parent. This guide included Internet based writing activities, The students in the control group did not participate in the use of this guide. The control group did not receive a treatment.
The experimental group used the W/IT program from October 19 through December 13. At the conclusion of eight weeks, the study coordinator administered a post-test writing activity yielding a writing sample from all 56 students. The pre-writing and post-writing samples were analyzed using holistic scoring. This procedure yielded scores which were compared. T-tests comparing the means were conducted and it was decided if there was a significant difference. This study attempted to determine whether or not guided Internet writing activities improved students' writing ability.
Technology in various forms has slowly changed university writing centers; resources such as e-mail tutoring have enabled students to gain extended access to writing center services. At Truman State University, The Writing Center felt that technology could be used to provide greater student access while integrating smoothy with the students' writing processes. Two groups of Truman students were given technology surveys to determine their attitudes toward computers in writing conferences. The majority of Truman students indicated they use a computer in their writing. They were most favorable toward word processing facilities at the Center where they could work with tutors directly on a computer during the revision process. The students were also favorable toward an online writing lab where they could access writing resources and engage in e-mail tutoring with writing consultants.
This dissertation documents new curriculum and instructional strategies for teaching writing in a first and second grade classroom during the eight years of the Writing Box project. It is a first-person account of ongoing change as I, the teacher-researcher experienced and understood it. My descriptions of change and children's writing samples show how teaching practices and learning activities developed and evolved through incorporating writing at the core of student learning. My experiences demonstrate how substantive change can occur in elementary schools through the efforts of a teacher and students working together to create successful academic achievement. One hundred seventy-five first and second graders were given Writing Boxes to use at home and they were in a classroom that featured writing Across the curriculum. Six conclusions are drawn from their experiences. First, choice of writing materials makes a difference in how willing children are to write. Interesting, open-ended materials are prerequisites for children to write all year. Second, teachers must create many writing times throughout the day. My students wrote during regularly scheduled writing times as well as before school began, during snack and 'you-choose' time, and at recess and lunch. Third, how teachers talk with children about writing is crucial to children becoming active writers. I changed my vocabulary and Approach to emphasize that children are writers right now with ideas and pictures in their heads to communicate to others through text. Fourth, process models for teaching writing based on the experiences of adult writers must be modified to create 'a writing process fit for a child.' This child-centered Approach includes diverse ways of opening up writing, generating first drafts, revising and editing, and publishing. Fifth, writing can be integrated into the study of mathematics, science and social studies using 'I Wonder' journals, fiction-nonfiction stories, and math comics. Finally, computers and other technologies promote writing. Having more than one computer in the classroom allowed me to do more small group instruction with writing. The machines provide different ways to write and to publish while supporting children's creativity and self-expression.
The dilemma posed by technology in the classroom is that while it has created a shift in the role of the professional educator, technology itself cannot bring about this new role. Instead the teacher must be recognized as the change agent in the classroom. In an attempt to profile the prototypical teacher who becomes an early adopter of classroom innovations, this study sampled many variables that affect teachers' use of writing Across the curriculum with computers (WACC), including attitudes, concerns, personality styles, and locus of control. The subjects were 43 teachers representing a variety of content areas from two Texas districts (LaVega ISD and Houston ISD) that are partner sites with Baylor University's School of Education. Teachers completed the Computer Attitude Scale, the Daly & Miller Writing Apprehension Scale, the Stages of Concern about the Innovation Questionnaire, the Millon Index of Personality Styles, and the Teacher Locus of Control Scale. They also participated in inservices and maintained journals documenting their classroom use of WACC. At the conclusion of the 8-month study, a discriminant function analysis resulted in 100% correct classification of teachers, revealing 38 variables present in those teachers who became early adopters of WACC. Data from the study also correlate the Millon Inventory of Personality Styles with the other measures, and corroborate research regarding attitudinal change. The study also provides a model of inservice with a highly effective framework in terms of the percentage of teachers (40%) following through with implementation of the innovation in the classroom.
Theses and dissertation abstracts and citation information are provided courtesy of UMI Company, except as noted in abstracts. Copyright © for UMI materials 1998-2009 UMI Company, A Bell & Howell Company. All rights reserved. To order a dissertation or thesis, visit http://wwwlib.umi.com/dxweb/gateway.
Copyright © 1997-2009 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors. Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.