Writing Apprehension and Writing Competency: Comparison between Whole Language Students and Skills Orientated Students
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Author
Friesen, Lisa M.Keyword
Writing ApprehensionWriting Competency
Writing Attitudes
Whole Language
Basal/Skills Language
Reading Scores
Date Published
1990-04-01
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Previous research on writing competency and writing apprehension suggests that the lack of one (competency) increases the level of the other (apprehension). The same also seems to be true for the reverse—the greater the competency, the lower the apprehension. Yet, many questions still remain as to the causes of writing apprehension and how to elicit its reduction. Researchers also contend that the whole language approach is more effective in instructing students how to write in terms of content, originality and creativity, as opposed to the basal/skills language program which concentrates on the mechanics of writing. This study combines the questions on writing competency and writing apprehension and the debate between whole language vs. basal/skills language programs. This study was conducted to determine: 1) if students participating in a whole language program exhibit a significant difference in writing apprehension to students participating in a basal/skills program and 2) if the same whole language students exhibit a significant different level of writing competency than their basal/skills language counterparts. The study utilized four sixth grade classrooms, two participating in a whole language program and two in a basal/skills language program. Second grade reading scores were obtained to determine if the groups were the same in terms of reading achievement, which in this case they were similar. The Writing Apprehension Test (Daly & Miller, 1975a) was administered to all students and scored as directed by the author. A writing sample was collected and scored according to the Basic Writing Scale (Wangberg & Reutten, 1986). The results of this study indicated that the students showed no significant difference in writing apprehension regardless of the program in which they participated. A significant difference was found, however, between the groups in terms of writing competency. The whole language group scored significantly higher than the basal/skills language groups.Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
A Comparison of the Perception which Third-Grade Students and Sixth-Grade Students have of Themselves as WritersShafer, Annette R.; The College at Brockport (1991-04-01)Children learn to write at an early age, however, many children do not enjoy writing as an activity. This masters’ thesis investigates students’ opinions about writing, and compares the opinions of elementary students to those of middle school students. The author surveyed seventy-nine students from two 3rd grade classrooms and two 6th grade classrooms in western New York. The survey consisted of seventeen questions about how students felt about writing in the classroom. These surveys were then collected and sorted into three categories: positive, ambivalent, and negative. The researcher found that about 64% of 3rd grade students had a positive writing attitude, with 0% displaying a negative attitude. Sixth graders, however, had less positive feelings. Only about 40% of the 6th grade students had a positive writing attitude, while 9% had negative attitudes. The author concludes that teachers should not only strive to improve each student’s writing ability, but also their self-concepts as writers.
-
Creativity in Children’s WritingSisson, Harry R.; The College at Brockport (1961-06-01)In this master thesis the author tests three different story writing approaches to determine which best prompts students’ creativity. The three approaches include: tall tales, actual experiences, and suggested topics. Twenty 6th grade students wrote creative stories in one of the three approaches. The researcher made it clear that students’ stories not be graded, and would not impact their grade report in any way. Three different teachers independently scored each story for its creativity. The researcher found that writing about actual experiences seemed to stimulate the most creativity from students. Tall tales yielded the same level of creativity as suggested topics, however both yielded less than actual experiences. The study also suggests that lower-performing students tended to write the most creative stories, while high-performing students tended to write the least creative stories.
-
Boys' Writing Genre ChoicesStevens, Robert E.; The College at Brockport (2007-05-12)Teaching students according to their learning styles has become one of the most accepted approaches for effective instruction. The purpose of this action research was to discover what elementary boys do when given the opportunity to choose the genre of their own writing within writing workshop. More and more boys have resisted writing instruction and have slowly opted not to view themselves as writers. Boys' and girls' brains are structured differently and need different methods of instruction. Choice has been a motivating factor when encouraging boys to engage in any task. This is certainly true of writing. Students should view themselves as writers, so this study sought to find which genres were most enjoyable for males to write and how the opportunity to choose the genre changed participation in writing tasks. Six third grade boys were given opportunities to choose their genres and were observed during pull-out writing instruction. The participants also completed questionnaires to express thoughts about boys' writing and aspects of writing related to genres. Each participant was also interviewed by the researcher in order to elaborate on actual writing choices. The researcher gathered qualitative information about each student's decision-making process as each participant chose a genre and crafted his writing.