Choose your Topic! An Investigation on How Choice Affects Elementary Students' Writing Productivity
Location
CSU Ballroom
Start Date
2-4-2019 2:00 PM
End Date
2-4-2019 3:30 PM
Student's Major
Psychology
Student's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mentor's Name
Carlos Panahon
Mentor's Department
Psychology
Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Writing is a skill that people use throughout their lifetime. If this skill is not developed appropriately during elementary school, it is often difficult to be remediated. The skill of writing sets the tone for elementary-aged students' academic and social success. With a high percentage of school-aged children struggling with their writing skills, interventions that help students lay the foundation for future writing and educational success should be examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate if providing participants with a choice at a classwide level will increase their writing productivity. Participants were recruited from two third-grade classrooms. During the initial section of the study, both classes were presented with one story starter. Next, students in one classroom were presented two story starters for 4 weeks while students in the other classroom were still presented with one story starter. Each session, participants were presented with a story starter (e.g. “The best thing that ever happened to me was...”). Participants in the choice condition were asked to select which writing prompt they would like to write about that day. All participants had one minute to think about their story, and then three minutes to write. The dependent variable was the total words written by each student. It was hypothesized that students in the classroom who were provided with two story starters would write more than students presented only one story starter. Results of the study and their implications will be discussed.
Choose your Topic! An Investigation on How Choice Affects Elementary Students' Writing Productivity
CSU Ballroom
Writing is a skill that people use throughout their lifetime. If this skill is not developed appropriately during elementary school, it is often difficult to be remediated. The skill of writing sets the tone for elementary-aged students' academic and social success. With a high percentage of school-aged children struggling with their writing skills, interventions that help students lay the foundation for future writing and educational success should be examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate if providing participants with a choice at a classwide level will increase their writing productivity. Participants were recruited from two third-grade classrooms. During the initial section of the study, both classes were presented with one story starter. Next, students in one classroom were presented two story starters for 4 weeks while students in the other classroom were still presented with one story starter. Each session, participants were presented with a story starter (e.g. “The best thing that ever happened to me was...”). Participants in the choice condition were asked to select which writing prompt they would like to write about that day. All participants had one minute to think about their story, and then three minutes to write. The dependent variable was the total words written by each student. It was hypothesized that students in the classroom who were provided with two story starters would write more than students presented only one story starter. Results of the study and their implications will be discussed.
Recommended Citation
Sukowski, Kaylin and Kayla Gross. "Choose your Topic! An Investigation on How Choice Affects Elementary Students' Writing Productivity." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 2, 2019.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2019/poster-session-B/10
