Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second review: genre in writing; learning-disabled writing students; word processor vs. pen/paper essays.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” RL Larson and AL Saks. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), 200-214.

Summaries: Genre in writing. Narration and description had higher overall rating than exposition in students assessment. G Englehard, et al., 1992, p. 210. ………. Learning-disabled writing students. Emphasizing the process of writing, writing strategies and teacher-student and student-student dialogue out performed students in the control group. S Englert, et al., 1992, p. 211. ………. Computer-written essays vs. pen/paper essays. Same person wrote with computer, then with pen. Computer-written essays were rated significantly higher than with pen. Students working with the word processor revised at all stages of their writing. R Owston, et al., 1992, 212.

Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second review: Teachers’ beliefs; problems with researcher/teacher collaboration; discussing educational problems.

Summaries: teachers’ beliefs: argues that teachers’ beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry. MF Patares, 1992, 207. ………. problems with researcher/teacher collaboration: “Points out the problematic power relations, competing agendas, and constraints on the teacher’s freedom to plan the teaching program she considers appropriate that arise in such a collaboration.” I Snyder, 1992, p. 207. ………. educational problems: finds that talk about problems and their solutions led to analysis of underlying assumptions. MH Thompson, 1991, p. 208.

Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second reviews: reading remediation; lecture recall; titles and comprehension.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” RL Larson and AL Saks. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), 200-214.

Summaries: reading remediation: remedial reading students who published newspapers scored significantly higher in a reading comprehension test. RP Carter, 1991, p. 202. ………. lecture recall: Students who summarized, recalled short-term content. Self-questioning [turning notes into questions] did somewhat better in delayed recall. A King.1992, p. 203. ………. titles and comprehension: suggests that a title supplies the key components in a reader’s ability to interpret text and that a title that is too vague, general or inadequate to the main idea of the texts extends reading time and affects comprehension. T Slama-Cazacu, 1991, p. 203.

Topic: Storybook Reading Style in Kindergarten

Topic: Storybook Reading Style in Kindergarten

10-second review: The storybook reading style of six kindergarten teachers differed markedly. The influences of these different reading styles on children should be studied further.

Title: “Teacher Storybook Reading Style: A Comparison of Six Teachers.” MG Martinez and WH Teale. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), pp. 175-199,

Quote: “Storybook reading, the event in which an adult reads a storybook to an individual child or to a group of children, is widely recommended by educators as an activity of central importance to a young child’s literacy development.”

Quote: “Studies have shown, for example, that storybook reading is positively related to vocabulary development, level of language development, early reading (the ability to read…before going to school), and children’s eagerness to read, and is a significant predictor of young children’s subsequent development as readers….”

Comment: Always good to know that what we always took for granted is indeed true. RayS.

Topic: Writing Assessments

10-second review: A mismatch between assignments in a writing course and a final exam that includes an impromptu essay. The assignments in the course have multiple drafts. The measure of the students’ success, however, is an impromptu essay that is “one and done,” completed in a limited amount of time, with little time allotted for pre-writing or for revision and editing.

Title: “The Effect of Portfolio-based Instruction on Composition Students’ Final Examination Scores, Course Grades and Attitudes Toward Writing.” NW Baker. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), 155-174.

Quote: “Obviously, when students have been taught to write using a method requiring multiple drafts completed over an extended period of time, the use of impromptu essays as an outcomes measure seems questionable at best.”

Comment: A criticism that is applicable to the SAT writing sample and to state tests of writing. The state tests, however, usually allow for an hour, while the SAT writing sample must be completed in 25 minutes. RayS.

Topic: Portfolios.

10-second review: Defines portfolios and tells how a writing class that featured portfolios was organized.

Title: “The Effects of Portfolio-based Instruction on Composition Students’ Final Examination Scores, Course Grades and Attitudes Toward Writing.” NW Baker. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), 155-174.

Quote: “Portfolios are a collection of student writing compiled over a period of time; represents a range of the students’ writing ability in a variety of genres.”

Quote: Structure of the portfolio-based course. “Instructors followed the course syllabus and required 6 – 8 essays and a research project. However, instead of viewing each assignment as a discrete unit to be completed, revised and graded within a stipulated time frame, instructors provided feedback on the students’ drafts throughout the semester but did not attach grades to any papers. During the semester, these teachers encouraged students to take advantage of the feedback they received from their peers in class and from their instructors’ written comments and to use this information to continue revising papers written throughout the sixteen weeks of the course. Students in each portfolio-based section write a variety of papers, an in-class impromptu essay, a research paper, and essays….”

The portfolios were then graded as a whole on a pass/fail basis.

Comment: The “researcher” obviously likes the portfolio approach and knows a great deal about it. She was disappointed that scores on a writing attitude inventory before and at the end of the course did not significantly improve. RayS.

Topic: Ethics in English Education Research

10-second review: Researchers should obtain the informed consent of the parents of young students and the informed consent of older students when using students’ work or experiences.

Title: “From the Editor.” Sandra Stotsky. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1993), 132.

Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second review: basic college writing courses; research papers; word processing

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 423-437.

Summaries: Basic college writing courses. Questions the value of placing students in “Basic Writing” courses. Reports the success rates of some students placed in “Basic Writing” who took it and the greater success rates of students recommended for “Basic Writing” who took higher level writing courses. PD Adams, 1993, p. 435. ………. Research writing. Surveyed 100 college freshmen English students: They don’t discuss topic choices with others, rarely use note cards, outlines or preliminary thesis statements. MC Megna, 1992, p. 435. ………. Word processing improves performance somewhat of weaker students, improves motivation for writing. RL Bangett-Drowns, 1993, p. 437. ………. Word processing: students using computers for writing in-class essays wrote more, put more effort into writing than those who did not use them, but did not produce better writing. EB Posey, 1993, p. 437.

Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second review: Pre-writing; writing process;; learning logs

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 423-437.

Summaries: Pre-writing. Found no significant differences in writing ability among groups taught to use pre-writing strategies and those not so taught. JA Hayn, 1991, 433. ………. Writing Process. Writing classes improved their awareness of writing processes from watching a video tape of writers at work. DM Padjett, 1992, 433. ………. Learning logs. Students who kept written learning logs recalled content better and produced better essay responses to questions. CP Hyser, 1992, p. 434.

Topic: Resaarch Abstracts

10-second review: remedial readers; response journals; writing and audience.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 423-437.

Summaries: Third- and fourth-grade remedial readers. Compared round-robin reading and Readers’ Theatre in which students acted out texts. The latter analyzed text, practiced skills and acted out interpretations. S.A. Wolf, 1992, p. 429. ……….. Response journals. Classes using response journals spoke more and on a wider range of topics, posed more questions, engaged in exploratory discourse, and linked their experience to the novel than did the other classes. M Kooy, 1991, p. 430. ………. Writing and audience. Sense of audience improved students’ motivation for writing. Genuine audience helped more than an imagined one. DF Conley, 1992, 433.

Topic: Teachers' Comments on Writing

10-second review: Boils down to this question—what are the writer’s and reader’s criteria for effective writing?

Title: “Feedback and Revision in Writing Across the Curriculum Classes.” Larry Beason. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 395-422.

Summary: The author promoted four generic criteria that could be useful in English class and in other disciplines:

Focus: clear overall purpose

Development and Support: Sufficient explanation, depth and proof

Organization: Transitions

Mechanics: Conventions and grammar of formal writing

Comment: I always supplied my criteria for my writing students:

45 Points: Organization: introduction, thesis, topic sentences when needed, summarizing final paragraph. Unity: Thesis, topic sentences and final, summary paragraph express the central idea of the composition.

20 points: Development—sufficient supporting details and explanation.

20 Points: Clarity and Smoothness of expression. Question marks mean that I, as a reader, do not understand. Formal language, including eliminating wordiness, needless repetition, misplaced and dangling modifiers and faulty parallel structure.

15 Points: Mechanics.

All of that had been taught before it was expected. RayS.

Topic: Types of Revision in Writing

10-second review: Surface-level revision does not affect meaning. Local-level revision does not affect the text as a whole. Global-meaning revision changes the essential meaning of the text.

Title: “Feedback and Revision in Writing Across the Curriculum Classes.” Larry Beason. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 395-422.

Comment: In other words editing does not change meaning. Revision does. I think that is a half-truth. Certainly, changing the subject of a dangling modifier clearly indicates who did what. So does changing from the passive to active construction. Passive constructions hide the perpetrator behind “It has been decided….” to “Mr. Bellringer has directed that…..”

I think that the distinction that revision changes meaning is what is important. RayS.

Topic: Writing Mathematics Word Problems

10-second review: 8 fifth-grade students. Students’ strategies for writing math word problems emerged as they wrote them. Purpose? “Problem posing is the first step in the problem-solving process.”

Title: Selected Writing Behaviors of Fifth Graders As They composed Original Mathematics Story Problems.” Ken Winograd. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 369-394.

Summary: The steps the students took in writing original math word problems: 1) identified the general problem topic. 2)Generated the culminating question. 3) They developed techniques to make their problems more difficult.

The author says the he did not try to learn whether composing word problems led to better solving word problems.

Comment: Inherent in the students’ writing original word problems is perhaps the solution to improving solving word problems: identifying the general problem topic, identifying the culminating question and identifying what gets in the way of identifying the culminating question. RayS.

Topic: Types of Students' Responses When Reading Literature

10-second review: Understanding, character introspection, predicting events, questioning, character identification, character assessment, story involvement, literary evaluation, reader/writer digressions.

Title: “Exploring the Meaning-Making Process Through the Content of Literature Response Journals: A Case Study Investigation.” MR Hancock. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 335-368.

Categories of Response:

Understanding of both character and plot.

Character Introspection into the feelings, thoughts and motives for behavior of the characters.

Predicting Events. Speculation about what will emerge as the text proceeds.

Questioning. Reflects puzzlement.

Character Identification. Personal identification with a character.

Story Assessment. Judgment of the actions and values of the character.

Story Involvement. Personal involvement in the story.

Literary Evaluation of all parts of the book.

Reader/Writer Digressions. Wanderings of the reader’s mind.

Comment: My readers can compare their students’—and their own—responses while they or you are reading. Focused on fiction, but could be adaptable to nonfiction. RayS.

Topic: Literature Response Journals

Ten-second review: Teacher’s instructions to students on using literature response journals.

Title: “Exploring the Meaning-Making Process Through the Content of Literature Response Journals: A Cast Study Investigation.” MR Hancock. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 335-368.

Quote: “…I formally explained the literature response journal to the 10 participants as a device ‘to freely express your thoughts, insights, feelings, reactions, questions, experiences, and opinions.’ I encouraged the participants ‘to record everything that is rambling through your mind as you read the book.’ As a means of later verification, I asked students ‘to indicate the page in the book you are reading when you make a response.’ Emphasizing the need for risk-taking during writing, I informed the students, ‘the journals will not be graded,’ and ‘spelling and punctuation will not be corrected in the journals.’ My instructions focused on ‘the free expression of ideas as the most important consideration in the study.’ I reassured the participants that ‘journal entries will be kept confidential,’ and I would write ‘encouraging but nonjudgmental comments’ in response to the entries each day.” p. 340.

Comment: Helpful. RayS.

Topic: Reading Response and Writing

10-second review: Students kept journals while reading four books. The number of responses over the four-books declined suggesting that writing interrupts the concentration of reading.

Title: “Exploring the Meaning-making Process Through the Content of Literature Response Journals: A Case Study Investigation.” MR Hancock. Research in the Teaching of English (December 1993), 335-368.

Summary: 10 sixth-grade students with above-average reading and writing ability. Response journals to record their ongoing thoughts and reflections during the reading process.

Quote: “The general decline in the number of responses over the course of reading a single book and over the total of all four books suggests the need for moderation when asking students for written responses in a literature journal. Additionally, interview statements reveal that students tire of the demands of interrupting reading with writing. The attempt to capture the written response may actually interfere with the reading of a book, particularly near its concluding and over succeeding books. Researchers and practitioners must be cautioned that reading enthusiasm may be subdued with excessive demands for simultaneous journal writing.” p. 366.

Comment: Caution noted. RayS.

Topic: Research Abstracts

10-second reviews: Revising, e-mail and teachers’ comments on student papers.

Abstracts:

Demonstrates that having readers interpret a writer’s text by reading it aloud can assist the writer in revising the text. B. Sitko, 1993, 432. ………. E-mail correspondences more resembled face-to-face conversations than written communication. Y Wang, 1993, 433. ………. Constructs a framework for classifying teachers’ comments on students’ writing, then illustrates the proposed system by examining one teacher’s comments on papers from several students on a variety of assignments. M Sperling, 1944, 434.

Source: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Research in the Teaching of English (December 1994), 418-436.