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Writer's Workshop
Improving writing skills in first grade
DATA ANALYSIS
PRE AND POST-TEST
A pre and post writing assessment was given at the beginning and end of a six-week data collection window. Both writing pieces were graded using the same two rubrics. Two 4-point rubrics were created based on what was being graded. One rubric was specifically for writing conventions: capital letters, finger spacing, punctuation, and spelling. The second rubric was focused on students' idea development and organization. Both rubrics were based on a 4-point scale: 4-advanced, 3-proficient, 2-progressing, and 1-beginning. As illustrated in the data methods tab, these rubrics have specific criteria for each level of proficiency.
PRE-TEST
The pre-test writing was scored using two 4-point rubrics: conventions and idea development & organization. The student's task was to write a fully developed story including a beginning, middle, and end that also included details to enhance the story. Students were asked to write a story relating to winter. During this writing time, students were given little to no conferencing time with an instructor. This gave me a baseline understanding of what skills my students possessed prior to the implementation of writer's workshop. Students scored an average of 11.5 out of 16 on the conventions rubric and 5.4 out of 12 on the idea development & organization rubric.
POST-TEST
The post-test was administered differently than the pre-test. Unlike the pre-test, the post-test was administered during the last two weeks of the data period. The reason this was different from the pre-test was to see the difference between students' writing without structure, compared to students' writing with the writer's workshop structure. Each day during the post-test writing, students were given a new task to complete to build upon their writing. Throughout these two weeks, students were also given tools to support their writing as well as one-to-one conferencing. Students scored an average of 13.4 out of 16 on the 4 point convention rubric and 9.4 out of 12 on the 4 point idea development & organization rubric.
SPECIFICS
In conventions, students showed the most growth within the capital letter category. I feel this is because we spent more than two weeks working with this skill--specifically capital letters at the beginning of sentences as well as for proper nouns. All students were able to successfully include capital letters within their post-test writing. The pre-test data shows scores that vary and with the post-test there is consistent growth.
PRE-TEST ADVERAGE: 2
POST-TEST ADVERAGE: 3.3
When scoring the spelling category on the convention rubric, I was looking for the correct spelling of sight words. Students were given a sight word list within their writing folders as one of their resources. I felt this was the most difficult for students to correct since they had a hard time identifying specific words on the sight word chart. They were unable to compare the word they needed with the correct spelling of these words as they have unusual patterns in them.
PRE-TEST ADVERAGE: 2.75
POST-TEST ADVERAGE: 3.25
Reflecting on the specifics of the data within the convention rubric, students showed growth within the punctuation category. Student J received a score of 1 on the pre-test within the punctuation category, which was their lowest score within the convention rubric. After implementing writer's workshop, they received a score of 3 on punctuation on the post-test. I also saw much growth with student O who received a 1 on their pre-test and a score of 4 on their post-test. Through consistent conferencing and small groups, these students were able to properly include punctuation at a proficient level.
PRE-TEST ADVERAGE: 3.1
POST-TEST ADVERAGE: 3.4
Finger spacing was also a category that was not as frequently reviewed. During conferences and small groups, finger spacing was directly talked about with students who needed to improve upon this skill. Finger spacing on the convention rubric showed growth. The line graph illustrates the steady increase.
PRE-TEST ADVERAGE: 3
POST-TEST ADVERAGE: 3.3
A paired-samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect of writer's workshop instruction would increase students use of writing conventions. There was a significant difference in the scores prior to implementing writer's workshop (M= 11.56, SD= 2.91) and after implementing the writer's workshop (M= 13.43, SD= 2.20); t(4)= 2.2839, p = 0.01868. The observed standardized effect size is medium (0.57). That indicates that the magnitude of the difference between the average and μ0 is medium. These results suggest that the use of writer's workshop had a positive effect on students’ writing conventions. Specifically, the results suggest that the use of writer's workshop increased students use of writing conventions.
WEEKLY WRITING
Each week, students wrote a piece of writing that corresponded with the focus for the week. During the data collection window, writing was commonly focused on the genre that aligned with the district-provided reading materials. Genres that were used through the data collection were friendly letters, expository, fantasy, and realistic fiction. Each genre brought new skills and ideas for the students to enhance their writing and understand a large variety of different types of writing. All of these genres identified specific skills that aligned with the two rubrics, which helped me make decisions for the following week's instruction for mini-lessons and small groups.
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These pie charts show students scores on their week 1 writing sample for conventions and idea development & organization. The total number of students in this study was 16, as shown above the pie charts show the amount of students who received an advanced, proficient, progressing, and beginning score.
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These graphs illustrate data collected in the first week of my study. This was the first week that writer's workshop instructional structure began. From the results of their scores, no students received an advanced score in either conventions or idea development & organization. This data also shows that only 2 students were successful with creating an on-grade-level writing task and therefore receiving a proficient score.
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The pie charts below show the scores from week 5 of the 6 week data collection period on both the conventions rubric and idea development & organization rubric.
Comparing student writing data from week 1 to week 5, this showed overall growth among all students. One student maintained a beginning score on both conventions and idea development. I believe this was primarily due to their multiple absences throughout the 5-week study.
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I attribute the growth seen above to the targeted mini-lessons based on the students' previous week's writing data. The greatest growth in conventions was capitalization due in part to many mini-lessons addressing this skill. Another reason for the growth was intentional feedback given based on individual student needs demonstrated during student conferencing.
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More students received an advanced or proficient within the idea development & organization rubric for week 5's writing sample compared to the convention rubric. Although there is little difference, I feel this is because students were becoming more comfortable with adding details and trying their best to be creative within their writing.
STUDENT WORK
The images below illustrate student O's writing samples from week 1 to week 5. This student showed growth within both rubrics from week 1 to week 5. On week 1's writing sample this student received a beginning score and to week 5 they received a proficient score. I can contribute this students growth to the specific practices implemented from the action plan.
Week 1 Sample
Week 5 Sample
ANCEDOTAL NOTES
DAILY TRACKER
Anecdotal notes were used to keep track of students' progress each day. I used a daily tracker to identify if students had completed the focus for the week in their writing. This was either determined during conferencing or at the end of the writing period when I collected their work.
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The check symbolized whether or not the student was successful with the skill. An 'x' symbolized that they were not successful with the skill. A '-' meant they had not completed a piece of writing to examine the skill. Usually if they had a '-' they were still in the process of completing their graphic organizers.
CONFERENCE NOTES
Anecdotal notes were also taken during conferences. These notes were based off the specific focus skill of the week discussed during conferences. If the skill of the week was mastered, a new skill or concept was introduced and discussed.
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Using conference notes helped me to identify which specific skills I worked on with each student, as well as how often I was able to meet with them. Keeping these records helped me to identify whether or not students needed review on a specific skill for our next conference or if it was necessary to pull a small group of students who needed to work on the same skill.
DATA SUMMARY
Using these two pieces of observable data helped to inform my decisions for the class's daily instruction. Observing their needs for improvement on each piece of their writing helped me to identify which students needed more support.
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Over the course of 6 weeks, the themes that emerged from my daily tracker and conference notes were capitalization, punctuation, and finger spacing. These were measured based on observation and written notes rather than numerical values from a rubric. After analyzing these pieces of data, different themes could be seen within my daily tracker and conferencing notes. The first theme was capitalization. I found this to be a theme because of how often and frequently I talked to students about capital letters within their stories. Many students needed extra practice or feedback for corrections of capital letters. While implementing my action plan, I had to discuss capitalization with students each week during individual conferencing. Correlation between frequent conferencing about capitalization and specified mini-lesson shows an increase in this area on the post-test and their weekly writing scores. Punctuation was another theme that emerged from my daily tracker and conferencing notes. During daily conferencing I was often correcting students' punctuation or giving them reminders to include it. For my writers who needed more support, punctuation was a piece of their writing that was often overlooked and I feel this is due to the focus on the words and story creation rather than the specific conventions. Another detail worth noting is students who often forgot punctuation were unsure where to include it with their story. Many times students would have it after the last word of their entire story. I feel that if more mini-lessons about punctuation were included, students might have had a better understanding of where to include punctuation. The last theme that emerged was s finger spacing. Finger spacing is the spacing in-between each word written. All first graders in this study needed reminders to work on their finger spacing. Reflecting on why this theme emerged from individual conferencing is understandable as first graders are still learning how to write and create stories. Many times their thoughts would continue as did their writing, which could have become unclear where each word began and ended.
TRIANGULATION
Each piece of data collected had an important part to represent the purpose of the research. The pre/post test, weekly writing, and anecdotal notes all added purposeful meaning to one another. The pre-test was used to identify students' specific needs within their writing instruction with their convention use and idea development within a story. Using this data helped to identify the specific needs for students' writing skills, which connected directly to their weekly writing as well as my anecdotal notes during conferencing. This data led me to create mini-lessons for whole group instruction as well as identify students that needed extra support within certain categories of conventions and/or idea development. Through these weekly mini-lessons, students created one to two pieces of writing each week. For data purposes, students' weekly writing was scored using the 4-point pre/post-test rubric to keep all grades cohesive. Based on students' improvement or lack of improvement with the weekly skill from the mini-lessons, this determined the next week's mini lesson or formation of small groups for extra practice with the skill. Each point proved growth between one another. I was able to see growth in students' post-test scores based on the use of weekly writing and anecdotal notes.
REMAINING QUESTIONS
A few questions still remain with the completion of this data collection. Based on pure observation, I noticed an improvement in students' attitude and confidence within their writing towards the end of the six week period. Unfortunately, I did not collect data on the students' attitudes towards writing throughout the six week period, so I cannot state whether or not students' attitudes towards writing increased. The question remains: did students' attitudes towards writing increase with the implementation of writer's workshop?
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At the beginning of the school year, writing was not structured and felt rushed. My instruction for writing was coming directly from the district-provided materials. Once I made the decision to change our writing to writer's workshop model, I saw my students' writing skills increase as well as their motivation. I wonder if I started writer's workshop back in August would I have seen more growth from my students?
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Due to our current pandemic, students within first grade did not get the chance to complete their kindergarten year. At the beginning of the school year, it was noticeable in the academic delay with our students' reading and writing skills. Data was not collected to compare the loss of time in kindergarten to when they began first grade. I wonder what was the impact from not finishing kindergarten due to COVID-19? What effect did this have on student readiness for writing in first grade?