Reading Aloud to Young Children

Research

Question: “What do children gain from this exposure to books which would explain the facilitation of the learning-to-read process?”

Answer: “The analysis revealed that children who have been read to prior to formal literacy instruction have abstracted identifiable lexical and syntactic expectations of written narrative.”

Comment: And the same thing is true of writing. Children who have been read to by their teachers, will use the models of narratives read to them in their own writing with their own topics. RayS.

 Title: “Lexical and Syntactic Knowledge of Written Narrative Held by Well-Read-To Kindergartners and second Graders.” V Purcell-Gates. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1988), 128-160.

Inservice Writing Project

Question: What effect did participation in a writing project have on the teachers when they returned to their classrooms?

Answer: “Participation in the Writing Project had a strong influence on teachers’ beliefs and practices, but the context of schooling often impeded implementation.” DE Wilson. 1988. P. 221.

Comment: What was there about “schooling” that impeded the teachers’ using the practices from the Writing Project? RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Teachers' Learning Logs

Annotated Research

Question: What did teachers do when they engaged in learning logs?

Answer: “Log writers spent the majority of their time recording, responding to or questioning material.” W Bishop. 1989. P. 220.

Comment: Did teachers engaged in learning logs, engage their students in learning logs? RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Muultiple Forms of Reading and Writing

Annotated Research

Question: What is the effect of having students engage in multiple forms of reading and writing?

Answer: “More complex combinations of different forms of reading and writing provide a learner with the means to conduct a more critical inquiry of the topic by virtue of the multiple perspectives these activities permit.” W McGinley and RJ Tierney. 1989. P. 218.

Comment: Not sure what this finding means. Multiple forms of reading and writing lead to greater critical inquiry? Worth pursuing. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Amount of Reading and Writing Ability

Annotated Research

Question: What is the correlation  of the amount of reading by elementary students and their writing ability  with their comprehension?

Answer: “Elementary students’ writing abilities and the amount of reading they did were highly correlated with their reading comprehension performances.” LI Heise. 1988. P. 218.

Comment: I wonder if skill in reading comprehension correlates with writing ability and amount of reading? I think that is a significant question. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Reading Compositions Aloud

Annotated Research

Question: What happens when students read their compositions aloud?

Answer: “Having students read essays increased awareness of writing processes in three of the six students studied.” EM Baer. 1989. P. 218.

Comment: I would conclude from this study that the results are inconclusive. However, the practice of having students read their essays aloud is good training for learning to read aloud effectively. Practice. Practice. Practice. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Reading to Young Children

Annotated Research.

Question: What is the effect of reading aloud to young children?

Answer: “Head Start children whose mothers learned to read to them outperformed children whose mothers did not have this training.” GE Marrion. 1988. P. 218.

Comment: Nice to have validation for our recommendations that parents read to young children. Comes under the heading of an accumulation of evidence that supports the recommendation. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

First and Fourth Grade Poor Readers

Question: Does poor reading in first grade result in poor reading in fourth grade?

Answer: “Poor first-grade readers almost invariably were poor readers at completion of grade four and tended to become poor writers as well.” C Juel. 1988. P. 218.

Comment: To reverse this inevitable result is a serious challenge. I wouldn’t wait to replicate the result. I would assume that it’s a probable fact and try to reverse it. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Holistic Writing Evaluation

Question: What features accounted for significant variance in holistic scoring of writing?

Answer: “Found that ‘quality and development of ideas’ was the only analytic feature to account for significant variance in holistic scores.” NN Vall. 1989. P. 215.

Comment: Interesting challenge to teach ‘quality and development of ideas.’ RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Writing Tests

Question: Are essay tests and multiple-choice tests of writing correlated?

Answer: “Found a substantial correlation between an essay test and a multiple-choice test.” JV Lombard. 1988. P. 215.

Comment: I imagine there is considerable research on this topic. I look forward to more results. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Holistic Scoring

Question: What are some factors in writing that affect holistic scores?

Answer: “Indicates that holistic scoring is apparently sensitive to sometimes irrelevant factors such as essay length, sentence length, and spelling errors.” V Froese. 1989. P. 214.

Comment: Negatively or positively? RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

G.E.D. (General Educational Development) Writing Test

Question: How is the G.E.D. writing test evaluated?

 Answer: “The nature of writing skill measured by the G.E.D. writing test was a single construct reflecting generalized proofreading/editing skills.” J Baldwin 199. P. 214.

Comment: The G.E.D. measures basic competency. Why not? RayS.

 Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Voice in Writing

Question: Where in formal writing is personal voice inserted?

Answer: “Appositive and parenthetical structures are often used as ways of inserting personal voice into formal academic writing.” AL Palacas. 1989. P. 213.

Comment: Interesting. I still think “voice” in writing is poorly defined—especially, when it is “personal.” Should not be a part of evaluation. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Definitions

Question: What are some classifications of definitions?

Answer: Defining Is An Unnatural act” A Study of Written Definitions. “Definitions were classified as synonym/antonym, explanation, descriptive or functional explanation, instance, use in a sentence, and repetition or association.” CLZ Blachowicz and PJL Fisher. 1988. P. 213.

Comment: Gave me something to think about. I’ll never look at definitions again without trying to define their method of defining. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Audience

Annotated Research

Question: When do college freshmen consider audience?

Answer: “Good and below-average college freshmen both deferred audience considerations until the revision stage of composing.” BA Raforth. 1989. P. 212.

Comment: As a result of teacher recommendation? This is not the first time that research on audience has suggested consideration of audience be deferred to the revision stage of the writing process. I think that consideration of audience in the revision stage makes sense—after, perhaps, initial assessment of audience during pre-writing. I will recommend it to my students. In other words, write the draft without considering audience, then revise by adapting to audience. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Word Processing

Annotated Research

Question: Does word processing affect the quality of student writing?

Answer: “Found that word processing affected the writing process of students, but not the quality of their written products.” JL Walther. 1989. P. 211.

Comment:  I’m not sure what this finding means. I still think that the major effect of word processing is on revision, but the quality of that revision lies in the pencil/paper or computerized brainstorming, thesis, and draft. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Topics for Writing

Question: Which did teachers prefer to read—compositions on assigned topics or student self-chosen topics?

Answer; “Found that the teacher responded to topics introduced by students rather than introducing topics herself.” JK Peyton and M Seyoun. 1989. P. 210.

Comment: I can see both sides to this issue. Students will obviously be more interested in writing about topics familiar to them. But they also have to learn how to deal with assigned topics. In either case, brainstorming as a prewriting technique will be helpful. The trouble is most writing tests don’t allow time for it. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Good Writers

Question: Do good community college writers prefer to read or write?

Answer: “Found that these students preferred to write rather than read.” J Martin-Wambu. 1989. P. 209.

Comment: I frankly don’t know what this finding means. If they are good at writing, I can understand their liking to write. But that doesn’t mean they don’t like to read. And don’t forget the technique of reading as a writer. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Prewriting

Annotated Research

Question: What is the effect of a prewriting semantic mapping technique on fourth-grade students’ writing?

Answer: “The prewriting group outperformed a control group on holistic scores, content, organization and vocabulary.” MRF Dryk. 1988. P. 208.

Comment: I wonder what effect other prewriting techniques, like brainstorming, would have on the writing product. Rays.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.

Writing in Science and Technology

Annotated Research

 Question: What kinds of writing assignments are completed by students in science and technology?

Answer: “Most assignments emphasized reporting on specific participatory experiences with 25% specifying an audience other than the teacher.” G Braine. 1989. P. 207.

Comment: Not sure what “participatory experiences” means, but again an audience other than the teacher is part of the assignments. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” JD Marshall and RK Durst, Eds. Research in the Teaching of English (May 1990), 205-221.