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.