Thursday, June 30, 2011

Annotated Research: Oral Reading, Listening and Silent Reading

Question: Is poor readers’ comprehension in oral reading and listening equal to comprehension in silent reading?

Answer: “For students in grades three to five, poor readers’ comprehension was equal in oral reading and listening, but worse in silent reading.” SD Miller. 1985.p. 208.

Comment: How can you improve silent reading when oral reading and listening comprehension are better? The Directed reading assignment. It could be that background knowledge on the topic, vocabulary and purpose for reading are the stumbling blocks to comprehending silent reading. Build background knowledge on the topic, pre-teach the vocabulary and set purpose for reading. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Annotated Research: Comprehension Strategies

Question: What contributes to good comprehension?

Answer: “Found that college students who comprehended a series of reading passages well reported using more comprehension strategies than students who comprehended the passages poorly.” PH Johnston and PN Winograd. 1985. P. 208.

Comment: What is a reading strategy? Reading the title, first and last paragraphs, topic sentences and raising questions to answer, the old survey and question from SQ3R.

Probably the best strategy I ever encountered, was Francis Bacon’s “Some books are to be tasted , others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

Most of my reading strategies are based on that advice from Bacon’s essay “On Studies” in 1625. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Annotated Research: Recall and Comprehension

Question: How does the ability to recall stories affect comprehension on a test?

Answer: “Found that story comprehension improved significantly when children were asked to retell the stories they had read.”

Comment: I’m assuming a comprehension test on the story followed the recall. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Annotated Research: Cause of Poor Reading

Question: What is a noticeable characteristic of poor reading?

Answer: “…many problems evidenced by poor readers are related to their passive response to the interactive task of reading.” :PH Johnston and PN Winograd. 1985. P. 218.

Comment: What is active reading? It begins with the directed reading assignment and continues with the survey of textbook chapters. The directed reading assignment begins with the teacher’s building up background information on the topic, which is probably not familiar to most students. The teacher then pre-teaches unfamiliar vocabulary in the story or chapter. The students will notice the words if they have been taught before they read. The students then read the first paragraph, the first sentence of succeeding paragraphs and the last paragraph. The students discuss what they have learned about the topic from reading. The teacher sets a purpose for reading. Students read to accomplish the purpose. They then apply in some way what they have learned.

The textbook survey applies the directed reading assignment to the individual’s reading of textbook chapters. The students read the title and sub-titles of the chapter. They then read the first paragraph, the first sentence of each succeeding paragraph and the last paragraph. They summarize what they have learned and formulate questions to which they want the answer. They read to answer the questions. After they answers their questions, they apply what they have learned about the topic by using the Internet to read more deeply on the topic. That is a start to active reading. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Annotated Research: Reading Strategies

Question: What is the effect of training in reading strategies when children have difficulty in reading something?

Answer: “Found that comprehension performance of fourth and fifth graders was improved” [by training in how to use reading strategies]. NM Delaney. 1984. P. 207.

Comment: Where do you find the strategies? Teachers should analyze what they do when they encounter difficulty in reading and share their strategies with the students. Various reading strategies appear often in the journals of the NCTE and IRA. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Annotated Researach: Revising and Reading

Question: What must writers do when revising?

Answer: “Among fifth graders, found that reading was an important component of the revision process.” KF Scott. 1985. P. 205.

Comment: A no-brainer. Except I think the researcher meant “re-reading.” And the question with re-reading is “What do you look for when re-reading?” RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Annotated Research: Strategy for Bottlenecks in Writing

Question: What should writers do when they become stuck in their writing?

Answer: “In case studies of six college writers, found that re-reading seemed to help skilled writers get through a bottleneck and sustain the tempo of discourse production.” AE Schneider. 1985. P. 204.

Comment: A useful strategy. Most writers probably re-read when they’re stuck, but don’t think much of it. Inexperienced writers might appreciate the strategy of re-reading when stuck. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Annotated Research: Notes and Writing

Question: What do professional writers do with their notes used in writing?

Answer: “Found that professional writers save notes and clippings to trigger associations and generate ideas for new writing tasks.” RL Root. 1985. P. 205.

Comment: Theoretically, makes sense. Organizing the material for ease of later use will be important. Or the material will be reduced to disorganized clutter. CF. my office. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Annotated Research: Writing and Audience

Question: When, in the writing process, is the best time for students to focus on audience?

Answer: “Results among college freshmen indicated that attending to audience during revising was an effective strategy.” DH Roen. 1985. Pp. 204-205.

Comment: Drafts should be written quickly. Sharpening style, sentence structure, punctuation and usage, like concern for audience, occurs when revising the draft. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Annotated Research: Audience and Writing

Question: What effect does knowledge of audience have on writing quality?

Answer: “Showed that good writers took greater advantage of audience information than poor writers.” BA Rafoth. 1985. P. 204.

Comment: The research evidence seems overwhelming. Attention to audience makes a difference in writing quality. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Annotated Research: Reading and Writing from Sources

Question: What are the effects of reading from sources for the purpose of writing?

Answer: “Identified college students’ purposeful behavior when writing from sources, and showed that better readers engaged in more planning than less able readers.” ML Kennedy. 1985. P. 204.

Comment: How did the researcher determine the better from the less able reader? I would assume that better readers read more carefully than less able readers and would therefore need to spend more time in preparing for writing. The writing would be more complex and carefully worded. I would assume. Hmmmm! RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Annotated Research: Specific Audiences

Question: Does any particular audience affect writers more than others?

Answer: “Found that community college students made more total revisions and more surface changes in particular, when writing to a teacher audience than to a counselor, high school student, or business audience.” NL Hoagland. 1984. Pp. 203-204.

Comment: Interesting finding. The teacher audience’s effect will be short-lived, though important, because teachers assign grades. The counselor and business audiences, on the other hand, can have long-term effects in evaluating the student’s writing—meaning college applications and job prospects. When the audience counts, the writing counts. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Annotated Research: Audience

Question: How specific does audience analysis have to be for effective writing?

Answer: “Found that a conscious construction of audience characteristics was not necessary for competent writing.” KA Bieke. 1985. P. 203.

Comment: Most students would not spend a great deal of time analyzing audience characteristics in detail, anyway. Still, there might come a time when a detailed listing of audience characteristics could be helpful. Might be useful to have students try it once in a while. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Annotated Research: Writing Inhibitions

Question: What problems in writing do students of both sexes fear?

Answer: “Both sexes identified forming a thesis and writing a conclusion as inhibiting.” KL Bell. 1984. P. 203.

Comment: I’d expect students to be inhibited by constructing a thesis. I would not expect a problem with writing conclusions—especially if the teacher emphasizes: “Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. And tell them what you told them.” RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Annotated Research: Success in Writing

Question: What helps students to write successfully?

Answer: “Found that students wrote better when they were less anxious and when they specified writing goals.” PT Bates. 1984. P. 203.

Comment: What exactly are writing goals? RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Annotated Research: Effects of Writing Process on Writing Product

Question: How does instruction in the writing process affect the writing product?

Answer: “Suggests that progress in writing for high school students is linked to the ability to develop and elaborate ideas during the process of writing, generate academically acceptable English automatically, and re-write, edit, and revise.” S Banks. 1985. Pp. 202-203.

Comment: Students might not develop and elaborate ideas unless the teacher focuses on that process, which I had never thought of as a part of the writing process or generating academically acceptable English automatically, either. Interesting. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Annotated Research: Effective Writing Teachers

Question: What are the characteristics of effective writing teachers?

Answer: “In a survey, found that language arts experts defined an effective writing teacher as one who shows enthusiasm for teaching, uses standard speech, and is emotionally stable. L. Rivers. 1985. P. 2010.

Comment: The characteristic that jumps out at me is “uses standard speech.”
One of the interesting things about reporting research results is the questions that have been asked. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Annotated Research: Writing Invention Techniques

Question: What are the effects of teaching writing invention techniques?

Answer: “Found that instruction in invention techniques led to more efficient production of ideas, more deliberate searching and planning….” BM Penniman. 1985. P. 201.

Comment; I think it is a good idea to teach several different invention techniques. Some students might be more productive in using certain techniques in certain circumstances and more productive with other techniques in other situations. I always used brainstorming, but free writing, for example, could be more productive for some students. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Annotated Research: Cooperative Writing

Question: Who wrote better—cooperative writers or individual writers?

Answer: “College students who wrote cooperatively significantly outperformed control groups counterparts who wrote individually….” O’Connell, et al. 1985. P. 201.

Comment: How do writers go about writing cooperatively? I’m still waiting for that study. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Annotated Research: Teachers' Comments on Writing

Question: Are teachers’ purposes for comments and the actual comments consistent?

Answer: “Study of think-aloud protocols and interviews of composition teachers found that commenting processes do not often support stated composition intention.” NM McCracken. 1985. P. 201.

Comment: In other words, what teachers say in their comments does not support their intended purposes for the comments. I’m not sure what that means. Right about now, I would appreciate a study categorizing teachers’ comments on writing. I’m sure it’s out there. I’m guessing the comments are “end comments” in which the teacher summarizes the student’s needs in order to improve. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Annotated Research: Writing about Literature

Question: What are the purposes for writing about literature in school?

Answer: “Identified and examined three main school purposes for writing about literature: to describe and interpret literature; to master expository writing techniques; to relate literature to personal experience.” BR Alpert. 1985. P. 200.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Annotated Research: Collaborative Writing

Question: How frequent is collaborative writing in the disciplines?

Answer: “In a survey, found that collaborative writing is well-established phenomenon among major professions.” : Ede and A :Lundsford. 1985. P. 199.

Comment: But how does collaborative writing work? I’m from the old school of writing, requiring a controlling point of view. Those of you who collaborate in your writing, tell me how you do it. Thanks. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1986), 198-215.