Encouraging the Writing Process in Second Grade Students By: Chelsea Paglia

Explicit instruction is highly favored in research as an effective way to encourage motivation in students on academic tasks. A self-regulation strategy that breaks down the task into smaller parts and explicitly states what the student needs to do will allow for students to develop their writing skills while enhancing their self- esteem and intrinsic motivation. Introduction

Theoretical Framework “Writing remains an important means of communicating ideas and demonstrating understanding that is used across academic contexts. Explicit instruction in writing strategies and self-regulatory behaviors is especially pertinent for individuals who often possess negative attitudes about their capabilities and struggle with maintaining motivation throughout the writing process,” (Ennis, Jolivette, Terry, Fredrick, & Alberto, 2014). “Research indicates that behavioral, social, and academic difficulties become less amendable to intervention efforts over time, particularly after age 8,” (Lane, Harris, Graham, Driscoll, Sandmel, Morphy, & Schnatschneider, 2011). “With SRSD, students are explicitly taught genre specific writing strategies and the genre knowledge needed to use these strategies. They are also taught self-regulation strategies for monitoring use of writing strategies, the writing process, and composing behavior,” (Lane et. al, 2011). Theoretical Framework

Importance/Relevance of Topic There appears to be a general lack of motivation to write and difficulties comprehending the writing process. It is of the researcher’s best interest to find an effective way to help the participants stay on task and develop their writing skills. It is important for the participants to participate in writing assignments in order to develop writing skills, academic skills in general, and to meet common core standards. Second grade is a critical time to develop effective academic strategies. Importance/Relevance of Topic

Does a self-regulating strategy support second grade students’ writing quality and attitude? Research Question

Methods (Participants) Setting: A second grade classroom of 17 students at Hawken Lower School in Lyndhurst, Ohio located in a suburban community Participants: 17 students in the second grade consisting of 7 girls and 10 boys, 2 African Americans, 3 Asian Americans, and 12 Caucasians. Participants range in age from 7 to 9. Methods (Participants)

Methods (Procedure & Instrumentation) Data Sources for Writing Quality: Alternate between baseline and strategy implementation and compare. A self-regulated checklist system was provided to the students every other trial in which participants were given a checklist with clear expectations to use while completing their writing assignment Students checked their own boxes off as they did each edit/revision to their writing Data Sources for Writing Attitude: A Likert scale survey that was given for every trial Consisted of two questions that asked for students to rank how happy they were with their writing piece and what they would grade their writing on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 being they were very unhappy with their writing and 4 being they were extremely happy with their writing) Methods (Procedure & Instrumentation)

Writing Quality Materials

Writing Attitude Materials

We computed the difference between the two types of trials (with and without intervention) with a t test using the average score of the trials with the self- regulated strategy and the average score of the trials without the self-regulated strategy. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between using a self-regulating strategy and not using a self-regulating strategy (p<.05) when looking at their impact on both writing quality and attitude. Results

Writing Quality Data WITH Checklist Strategy Mean Trial 1 3.05 Trial 3 4.18 Trial 5 3.59 Total 3.61 WITHOUT Checklist Strategy Mean Trial 2 2.73 Trial 4 2.65 Trial 6 3.65 Total 3.01 Writing Quality Data

Writing Attitude Data WITH Checklist Strategy Mean Trial 1 7.12 6.59 Trial 5 6.79 Total 6.83 WITHOUT Checklist Strategy Mean Trial 2 6.65 Trial 4 5.97 Trial 6 6.06 Total 6.23 Writing Attitude Data

Researchers observed that students were more likely to go back and fix their errors during the trials with the checklist Students had better writing quality and a more positive attitude on assignments in which they used a checklist than those in which they did not, so having expectations explicitly stated and visible for the students is beneficial for enhancing their writing quality and attitude toward their writing. Implications

Limitations Needed more time to conduct more trials Writing pieces should have been more similar as well as the time allotted for each writing assignment to limit variables The researchers could have been bias when grading the assignments and also could have graded differently at the beginning of the process than at the end Other instruction over time and general aging could have impacted their writing skills and confidence Limitations

Further instruction should include knowing when to stop a sentence to prevent run-ons, how to write complete sentences, and capitalization of proper nouns, besides just the beginning of a sentence. Further research should also be given over a longer period of time using writing assignments that are similar in structure and allow the same amount of time for each. This would be beneficial to conduct again with a larger sample of students, randomized, with just one trial in which half the students had the strategy and the other half did not Further Research

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