Writing About Text Utah State Core Academy Level II 2014.

Writing About Text

Utah State Core Academy Level II 2014

“Thank goodness the writing scores

are going to drop!” Tim Shanahan

• New testing design to monitor student performance on the new core is well designed.

• However, the new design is almost certain to lower student writing scores which will be good for kids in the long run.

Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com2

How can this be good?

• Reading and writing are not perfectly aligned.

• There are many students who read and write poorly or who read and write well but, there are also many who read well and write poorly and vice versa.


• Traditional state writing assessments were designed so that students did not have to read to do the writing so…

• Students who wrote well, but read poorly, did well on past writing tests.

So, what’s the problem?


• New assessment design is going to have students read texts, answer reading comprehension questions, and then write about those texts (summarizing, synthesizing, and/or analyzing).

• Students who express themselves well but who struggle with reading, will fail to write well not because of weaknesses in composition, but in comprehension.


How can this be good?• Research shows that literacy is improved when

students write about what they read.

• New test design will push us to combine reading and writing which is a real plus for kids.

• Even though past measures provided a purer assessment of “writing”, it wasn’t the kind of writing that allows individuals to succeed academically and economically.



Non Proficient Readers and Writers:

• don’t graduate from high school.

• are not prepared for college level courses or entry level jobs.

• are handicapped when pursuing a degree, advancing in the workplace, or participating in the community.


Poor Literacy = threat to individuals, and our Country

• Can’t compete in global markets – changes in technology

• All white and blue collar jobs require certain levels of literacy

• No longer an option for our youth

So…

The writing scores are going to drop, but this means that students are more likely to

receive better literacy instruction and higher real proficiency, especially with the skills that

we want them to have

IN ORDER TO BE COLLEGE AND CAREER READY!



A meta-analysis was performed to answer three basic questions about

the impacts of writing on reading1)Does writing about material read enhance

students’ comprehension of the text?2)Does teaching writing strengthen students’

reading skills?3)Does increasing how much students write

improve how well they read?


This meta-analysis:

• Answers the three previous questions.

• Gives us research-based recommendations for instructional practices shown to be effective in improving students’ reading and writing.

• Tells us how these writing instructional practices will increase our students’ reading skills.


Scientific Studiesdefinition reminders:

• ES = Effect Size, which provides a standardized measure of the quantitative differences between 2 treatments

• ES of 0.80 is large – MOON

• ES of 0.50 is moderate – Empire State Bldg.

• ES of 0.25 is small – street

Graham & Hebert, 2011

Question #1Does writing about material

read enhance students’ comprehension

of the text?


Yes, have students write about the texts they read!

When students write about a text they read, they have “greater opportunities to:• think about ideas in a text • organize ideas into a coherent whole• facilitate reflection• encourage personal involvement• transform ideas into their own words


In short, writing about a text…

“Enhances comprehension because it provides students with a tool for visibly and permanently recording, connecting, analyzing, personalizing, and manipulating key ideas in text.”


Research-based strategies for writing about text

A. Summarizing text

B. Writing to text models

C. Writing about text: Asking/Answering Questions and Analytical Writing

D. Text Synthesis


Summarizing Text

One way reading can be a valuable basis for writing is to have students summarize texts.

Summarization is condensing the information into an essentialized but shorter version of the original.


Summarizing Text

Readers must recognize: Which ideas are indispensable to the original

text. Which ones can be dropped altogether or

combined. The need for paraphrasing the text using their

own words.


Summarizing Text

Summarization instruction improves both writing quality and reading comprehension, especially with elementary students.

Summarization has a large and consistent positive impact on student outcomes on both reading and writing. Across 19 studies with students in grades 3-12, the effect size was .52 showing summary writers at the 70th percentile with others at the 50th percentile.


Summarizing Text

Good readers (or listeners) usually find that if they stop occasionally to sum up the information they’ve read, they have better comprehension and recall.

Writing summaries about a text proves to be more powerful than: simply reading the text reading and rereading the text reading and studying the text


To summarize effectively, students need to:

Recognize main ideas and key details Disregard unimportant or repetitive ideas Construct topic sentences Paraphrase and collapse or combine lists or events

into general statements Start with shorter pieces of text, chapters, or easy-

to-understand books that are well organized and straightforward in style then move on to higher levels of complexity


Summarization of Longer Text

Use the GIST approach:1. Students read a brief text

2. Students write a single-sentence summary of the information (20 words or less)

3. When students are proficient, the teacher provides more extensive texts that have been marked with stopping points where students stop and write the GIST summaries they have been practicing

4. When the article is complete, the students combine the brief summaries and craft them into an overall summary


Teacher Guidance is essential! Effective approaches:

• Partial graphic summaries The teacher provides students with a partial summary

of a text. The students’ initial task is to fill in the missing

information. As the students progress, the teacher provides less

and less supportive summaries, allowing students to fill in more of the information on their own until they can write an entire summary.



• Summarization templates Choose a simple graphic organizer or template which

shows one main idea and three supporting ideas. Gradually withdraw the support with practice. Finally, provide students with the beginnings of a

summary statement: “The author’s main idea was ___________, and he or she supported his or her idea with three key pieces of evidence…”



Teacher scaffolds the summarization process by taking students through each step with increasingly more student input Teacher guides students to identify the main ideas. Examine the text sentence by sentence to delete unnecessary,

repetitive, or trivial information. Replace extensive events, processes, or lists with summary

statements. Show students how to translate the marked-up text into a

summary statement of an appropriate length.


Writing to Text Models

• Students carefully and analystically read texts to identify the key features and imitate them in their writing.

• Students read with an eye aimed specifically at identifying features of craft and structure.

• This technique will not only help students with their writing but will also push them to read at a deeper level.


Writing to Text Models

Studies of imitative writing are few in numbers but show small gains in improving writing quality.

The average effect size for modeling was 0.25 meaning that the experimental students received a quarter of a standard deviation advantage over those who were not taught using text models.


What does text modeling look like?

• When teaching students about a genre, engage them in the reading and writing of that genre.

• Select strong texts that are prototypical of the genre being studied.

• Have students read or listen to the texts chosen then follow with some kind of guided analysis—break the texts down into their critical elements.



• Once students are familiar with the elements, have them produce their own imitative writing.

• Initially, a template with key features may need to be provided for the students but over time, the scaffolding should be removed.

• Use this model when imitating a genre or just a specific key feature.


Text Modeling

Let’s look at some

text models!


What Makes GoodMyth Writing?

Contain good and evil characters

Often contain heroes or heroines

on journeys

Usually end in some form of tragedy

Usually have a message or meaning but not

a moral

Contain Gods and Goddesses

Set in far off, distant and

isolated lands

Usually told in Ancient times: approx. 1500 -

3000 years ago

Have some element of truth but mostly fictional

Usually contains a classic opening, ‘a long time ago…’

Were used to help the people understand the

world around them

Supernatural or fantastical creatures

Passed down by word of mouth


Anyone who studies a text or some aspect of a text so carefully that he or she can use it as the basis of their own written inventions truly understands the original work and is better situated to take on similar texts in the future, influencing both reading and writing.

Modeling requires readers to read like writers, with an eye on not only what the text says but on how it works.


Writing to Ask & Answer Questions and Analytical Writing

Engage students in responding to questions about text, especially questions that require more extensive and extended analyses and critical evaluations of the texts.

There are greater benefits from answering questions in writing than there are by answering verbally.

Writing acts as a second form of rehearsal.


Writing About Text-Asking and Answering Questions

Writing questions or answers to questions about text has a small but consistently positive effect on reading comprehension for grades 2-12.

Eight studies were reviewed and the average effect size found was 0.40 meaning that students who were expected to write questions and answers about text scored at the 66th percentile while the control group ended up at only the 50th percentile.


Writing About Text-Extensive Responses and Analysis

When questions required more extensive responses involving personal reactions, interpretation of a text’s meaning, analyses of a text’s craft or content, or critical evaluation of a text, the effect size grew in magnitude.

The effect size for this type of writing across nine studies grew to 0.77 ending up at the 78th percentile showing a positive impact for reading, writing, and learning content.


Writing About Text-Extensive Responses and Analysis

• Extensive analytical and evaluative writing is valuable because it promotes a critical understanding of a text and often requires readers to revise their understanding of a text as they read and write.

• Such writing requires readers to use their own knowledge and bring it to bear on the information in the text.


Text Synthesis

• Text synthesis means combining ideas from multiple sources into one written presentation.

• It is the most demanding and elaborate approach to writing about text.

• Writers become researchers, not casual readers.

• Sources may echo or contradict each other or simply present nonoverlapping information.


Text Synthesis

• Readers should recognize conflicts among sources and then transform the information for themselves or point out the discrepancies in their own writing.

• How well students are able to synthesize information in their writing is highly correlated to their reading proficiency.


Text Synthesis

• When students are first learning, limit the difficulty and length of the sources used.

• Provide a great deal of modeling and scaffolding and reading support whenever needed.


Writing About Text and the State Core Standards

Asking higher level questions pushes readers to think deeply about the texts. When students write answers to such questions, and provide evidence from the texts in support of their answers, student learning increases.

Model and scaffold instruction so that students know how to formulate extensive responses.

Provide sufficient space and time for student answers.


Writing About Text and the State Core Standards

• Teachers can frame questions about texts that will require sufficiently thorough and high level responses by using the Reading State Core Standards as a basis for questions.

• Even though these are reading standards, they provide useful guidance for appropriate questions to frame writing responses to text.



Question #2Does teaching writing strengthen

students’ reading skills?


When spelling, sentence construction, paragraph construction, text organization, and the writing process are directly taught, reading also improves.


Spelling

• Accurate and automatic spelling supports fluent writing.

• Spelling requires more specific word knowledge than reading. We have to know:– All letters– Word structure (sounds, syllables, meaningful word parts)


Spelling

• When students are writing, they need available cognitive “desk space” in order to focus on the high demands of composition.

• If mental energy is spent on spelling, students, will not be able to focus on composition tasks.


Sentence Construction

• A sentence is a group of words that express a complete thought.

• The sentence structure and the words carry meaning but the meanings often depend on the role the word plays. Students need to be taught:– The roles of words in sentences (parts of speech)– Types of phrases

– Sentence structure


Text Organization

• A well-written text has an organizational structure that supports comprehension of the reader.

• A text is organized into paragraphs, chapters, or a larger structure that follows conventions of genre or type of text:– Narrative Structure– Explanatory/Informative Structure– Paragraph Structure


Text Organization

• Students in all grade levels can benefit from practice with different types of text structure.

• Students should be taught how to:– Identify a topic sentence– Write or select a topic sentence for a paragraph– Rearrange sentences to make paragraphs– Eliminate unneeded sentences– Identify the structure with the help of a graphic organizer


The Writing Process

• The writing process consists of steps the writer should take when producing written language that conveys meaning.

1. Planning-Generating and organizing ideas with a purpose, structure, and audience in mind.

2. Translating-Ideas converted into specific words using appropriate syntax and the conventional standards of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage.

3. Reviewing & Revising-Editing, rewriting, and evaluating how the piece will be interpreted by the audience.


The Writing Process

What has to be automatized for

the writing process to

work effectively?



Question #3Does increasing how much students write

improve how well they read?


Write Frequently

• Students need to write frequently to improve.

• The most common characteristic of poor writing is its brevity and sparseness caused by:• Problems with vocabulary• Grammar• Spelling• Punctuation & capitalization• Handwriting


Write Frequently

• Teach handwriting and keyboarding explicitly and systematically.

• Divide instructional time between lower level and higher level writing skills:– Form letters correctly then work on fluency and speed

– Write high-frequency words or spelling words

– Quick writes in cursive

– Other?


State Core Standards

“Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all

aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly

demanding content and sources.”--The CCSS ELA document


State Core StandardsPositive Shifts!

• Promote teacher-directed writing for a purpose• Emphasize informational (expository) text• Emphasize logic, evidence, analysis• Require understanding of text structure• Promote writing in response to reading (In the past, policies promote “workshop” practices that are not

supported by evidence of effectiveness!)

--Louisa Moats


Remember!

• Language and Reading Foundations standards should not be underestimated or divorced from composition.

• Language and conventions should not be treated as if they were easy to acquire or as if they would be acquired merely through writing practice.

• Many students will not rise to the idealistic levels of the core if instruction in these areas isn’t explicit.

--Louisa Moats



References• Graham, S and Herbert, M. (2010). Writing to read: evidence for how writing

can improve reading. Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

• Graham, S. (2012). Address given at UIRA Conference, Ogden, Utah

• Graham, S., MacArthur, C., & Fitzgerald, J. (2013). Best Practices in Writing Instruction, 2nd Edition (pp. 334-348). New York & London: The Guilford Press.

• Moats, L. C. (2012). LETRS Module 9: Teaching Beginning Spelling and Writing (K-3). Longmont, CO: Cambium Learning Sopris.

• Shanahan, T. Thank Goodness the Writing Scores are Going to Drop. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com

Writing About Text Utah State Core Academy Level II 2014.

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