Research from the Leadership Team
2023
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A Meta-Analysis of Writing Treatments for Students in Grades 6 to 12
Steve Graham, Young-Suk Grace Kim, Yucheng Cao, Joongwon Lee, Tamara Tate, Penelope Collins, Minkyung Cho, Youngsun Moon, Huy Quoc Chung, and Carol Booth Olson July 2023 This meta-analysis, led by WRITE Center Co-PI, Steve Graham, synthesizes hundreds of studies to answer the question: What works in secondary writing instruction? |
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Do Spelling and Vocabulary Improve Classification Accuracy of Children's Reading Difficulties Over and Above Word Reading?
Young-Suk Kim and Yaacov Petscher March 2023 In the present study, Kim and Petscher investigated whether information on students’ spelling and vocabulary in kindergarten increases the precision of identifying students with reading difficulties, using longitudinal data from kindergarten to Grade 2. The results indicated the importance and utility of including spelling, in addition to word reading, as an integral part of accurately identifying children with reading difficulties as early as kindergarten. In addition, although vocabulary did not contribute additional predictive power, it is likely to exert its influence at a later phase of reading development |
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Examining the Impact of a Cognitive Strategies Approach on the Argument Writing of Mainstreamed English Learners in Secondary School
Carol Booth Olson, Undraa Maamuujav1, Jacob Steiss, and Huy Chung March 2023 The stagnation of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Writing scores demonstrates the need for research-based instruction that improves writing for all students, especially English learners. In this article, they synthesize the literature on effective instructional practices for this diverse group of learners and describe how these strategies are leveraged in a teacher professional development program that has been previously shown to improve students’ argument writing. |
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Writing Motivation Questionnaire: Factorial and Construct Validity with Middle School Students
By Steve Graham, Allen G. Harbaugh-Schattenkirk, A. Angelique Aitken, Karen R. Harris, Clarence Ng, John M. Wilson & Jeanne Wdowin January 2023 This study examined the factorial and construct validity of a multi-dimensional measure of motives for writing with middle school students. The Writing Motivation Questionnaire included 28 items assessing seven motives for writing. Two motives assessed intrinsic reasons for writing (curiosity, involvement); three motives addressed extrinsic reasons (grades, competition, and social recognition); and two motives apprised self-regulatory reasons (relief from boredom, emotional regulation). All seven writing motives evidenced adequate reliability for research purposes. Students’ writing motive scores predicted writing performance on the District and State tests. Recommendations for future research are provided. |
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Educational Research and AI-Generated Writing: Confronting the Coming Tsunami
Tamara Tate, Shayan Doroudi, Daniel Ritchie1 , Ying Xu, & Mark Warschauer January 2023 The public release and surprising capacity of ChatGPT has brought AI-enabled text generation into the forefront for educators and academics. ChatGPT and similar text generation tools raise numerous questions for educational practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. We begin by first describing what large language models are and how they function, and then situate them in the history of technology’s complex interrelationship with literacy, cognition, and education. Finally, they discuss implications for the field. |
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Yes, They Can: Developing Transcription Skills and Oral Language in Tandem with SRSD Instruction on Close Reading of Science Text to Write Informative Essays At Grades 1 and 2
Karen R. Harris, Young-Suk Kim, Soobin Yimc, April Camping, and Steve Graham January 2023 This randomized controlled trial with first- and second-grade students is the first experimental study addressing long-running disagreements about whether primary grade students should develop transcription and oral language abilities before learning to compose. It is also the first study at these grade levels to teach close reading (using science text aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards) to plan and write a timed informative essay. |
2022
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Teaching Chinese characters to first and second graders during the first covid-19 school closure in China: an observational study
Ziyu Zhou, Steve Graham, & Tien Ping Hsiang December 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education around the world, resulting in the implementation of different forms of remote instruction. The present study provided a description of one interesting and unique approach to providing such instruction by analyzing 144 language arts lessons designed and implemented by 61 distinguished and experienced teachers in Xiangzhou, China. Character instruction in these lessons was coherently and logically designed, but all live interactions between teachers and students were teacher directed. Directions for future research are presented and implications for practice discussed. |
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Access, Digital Writing, and Achievement: The Data in Two Diverse School District
Tamara Tate and Mark Warschauer December 2022 This study focuses on writing done in two school districts by students in Grades 4-11 on Google Docs to understand the relationships among digital device access, digital writing time, and standardized English language arts assessment scores. Our data cover three academic years: 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17. We describe the amount of time spent writing in this mode and how it changed over grade levels and the relationship between Google Docs writing time and access to digital devices. This study increases our foundational knowledge about the time spent by students on writing in this modality during a time in which these districts began to significantly adopt digital technology. |
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Facilitators and barriers to writing instruction in Chile: teachers’ preparation and knowledge about teaching writing
Silza Ahumada, Gerardo Bañales, Steve Graham & María Lidia Torres November 2022 In this study, thirty-eight fourth-through sixth-grade teachers (28 female; 10 male) in urban schools in Chile were interviewed to determine how teachers’ preparation to teach writing and their knowledge of how to do so acted as facilitators and/or barriers to classroom writing instruction. Teachers identified five forms of teaching knowledge that acted as facilitators and barriers to writing instruction. Implications and directions for future research are provided. |
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Are Observed Classroom Practices Related to Student Language/Literacy Achievement?
Yucheng Cao, Young-Suk Grace Kim, and Minkyung Cho November 2022 This study examined the relation of observed classroom practices to language and literacy achievement and the moderation of this relation for students from pre-K to sixth grade. A total of 136 studies (N = 107,882 participants) met the inclusion criteria, of which 108 studies were included for meta-analysis and the other 28 studies were narratively synthesized. The results highlight the complex nature of classroom observation and a need for more classroom research, particularly on higher grade levels. |
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The politics and praxis of academic English: Toward antiracist language pedagogy
Undarmaa Maamuujav and Bahiyyih Hardacre July 26, 2022 The authors of this article reflect on the implications of these propositions in classroom practice and seek ways to support multilingual students in their effort to develop their academic English proficiency without stigmatizing and suppressing their home language and dialect. The authors propose an integrated framework for antiracist language pedagogy that builds on critical inquiry, inclusive teaching, and a multiliteracies approach to academic language and literacy development. |
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Unpacking Adolescent Writers’ Texts: A Systematic Investigation of the Language Features in the Academic Writing of Linguistically Diverse Students
Undarmaa Maamuujava 2022 The dissertation consists of three related studies. Collectively, these three studies: 1) provide a descriptive picture of middle- and high-school students’ academic English use and academic writing proficiency within the genre of text-based analytical writing; and 2) contribute to our understanding of the complex relations among lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical features and writing quality. |
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Equity in online learning
Tamara Tate and Mark Warschauer 2022 This framework reveals equity issues across all three areas from abruptly moving millions into online learning environments without: requisite access to up-to-date computers and broadband internet access, the skills needed to succeed in less structured online classes, or teachers trained to effectively conduct classes online. Finally, we leverage Warschauer’s framework to discuss ways to address these concerns and increase equity in online learning, as well as directions for research. |
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Reconceptualizing the digital divide
Mark Warschauer 2022 This paper examines the concept of a digital divide by introducing problematic examples of community technology projects and analyzing models of technology access. It argues that the concept provides a poor framework for either analysis or policy, and suggests an alternate concept of technology for social inclusion. It then draws on the historical analogy of literacy to further critique the notion of a divide and to examine the resources necessary to promote access and social inclusion. |
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“I Just Didn’t Feel like a Student Anymore:” Student Responses to Emergency Distance Learning
Tamara Tate, Peter McPartlan, Rachel Baker, Joseph Aubele, Mark Warschauer 2022 We examine how students’ expectations compared to their realities at the end of the quarter; what factors impacted their spring 2020 quarter; and students’ academic sense of belonging, self-efficacy, cost of engagement, and effort regulation in spring 2020. We contextualize students’ experiences of emergency distance learning (EDL). We also examine heterogeneity with respect to race/ethnicity, gender, first-generation college students, and students from low-income families. We find that there are reasons to expect increased achievement gaps post-EDL, but we also find examples of resiliency and improved self-regulated learning that will be life-long assets for students. |
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Teaching Writing in the Digital Age
Steve Graham May 29, 2022 How people write is rapidly changing. New digital writing systems and tools provide multiple for options for creating text and teaching writing. The following five issues that are likely to influence writing and the teaching of writing in the digital age are examined: schools are slow to adopt new writing technologies, existing writing tools do not disappear when new writing tools are created, new writing tools provide affordances as well as challenges, students will still need writing instruction and practice, and the definition of writing is in flux. |
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Predicting Efficacy to Teach Writing: The Role of Attitudes, Perceptions of Students’ Progress, and Epistemological Beliefs
Steve Graham, Tien Ping Hsiang, Amber B Ray, Guihua Zheng, and Michael Hebert 2022 We examined if each of these beliefs made unique and statistically significant contributions to predicting efficacy to teach writing after variance due to all other predictors, as well as personal and contextual variables, was controlled. With one exception, these three sets of beliefs each accounted for unique variance in predicting teacher efficacy at each location. There was, however, variability in unique variance in teacher efficacy scores accounted for by specific beliefs across locations and the factor structure of various measures by location. |
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Special and General Education Teachers’ Beliefs About Writing and Writing Instruction
Steve Graham, Alyson A Collins, and Stephen Ciullo 2022 General educators were more likely than special educators to indicate that writing developed through effort and process, and less likely to think that writing knowledge came from experts. Beliefs about adequacy of preparation to teach writing predicted teachers’ beliefs about their level of knowledge to teach writing, efficacy to overcome students’ writing difficulties, and attitudes toward teaching writing. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are presented. |
2021
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A walk through the landscape of writing: Insights from a program of writing research
Steve Graham 2021 This article is an expanded version of my presentation to Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association for the Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education in 2019. It provides an overview of research conducted by colleagues and I that examined the following four topics: (a) the role of writing knowledge, strategies, motivation, and skills in writing and students’ growth as writers; (b) the connections between writing, language, reading, and learning; (c) the identification of effective writing practices; and (d) the current state of writing instruction in schools. |
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Dimensions of text-based analytical writing of secondary students
Jacob Steiss, Jenell Krishnan, Young-Suk Grace Kim, and Carol Booth Olson December 13, 2021 •Text-based analytical writing quality of secondary students is best described as having a three factor structure. •The dimensions of writing quality—Evidence Use, Structure/Ideas, and Language Use—are moderately related. •Both holistic and analytic approaches to evaluating writing are valid and useful. •Differences between English Learners and non-EL students appear in all three dimensions of writing quality. |
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Creating a Classroom Vision for Teaching Writing
Steve Graham October 13, 2021 This article provides an example of how such a vision can be created. It is based on three assumptions. One, developing a vision for teaching writing should be guided by theory. This provides a framework for thinking about how writing instruction should proceed. Two, visions for teaching writing should be informed by the best scientific evidence available. This increases the likelihood that the resulting vision is an effective plan. Three, theory and evidence-based writing practices are necessary but not sufficient for developing classroom visions for teaching writing. |
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The impact of self-assessment, planning and goal setting, and reflection before and after revision on student self-efficacy and writing performance
Huy Q. Chung, Vicky Chen and Carol Booth Olson July 2021 Students in the treatment condition demonstrated improved self-efficacy in the writing sub-domain of revision (p < .05) and had statistically significant greater gains on the post-test writing assessment (r = .57; p < .001). These results suggest that engaging students in a planned revision process that includes student reflection, planning, and goal setting before revision, and reflection and self-assessment after revision, positively impacts self-efficacy and writing outcomes. |
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Syntactic and lexical features of adolescent L2 students’ academic writing
Undarmaa Maamuujava, Carol Booth Olson, and HuyChung May 21, 2021 •Adolescent L2 students’ text-based analytical essays exhibit low use of academic vocabulary and dependence on frequent and basic words. •Complex & unconventional sentence, age of acquisition for word, word concreteness, imageability, meaningfulness correlate with quality score. •Syntactic complexity and lexical sophistication are crucial indicators of writing quality. |
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Does Teacher Self-Efficacy Predict Writing Practices of Teachers of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students?
Steve Graham, Kimberly Wolbers, Hannah Dostal, and Leala Holcomb May 2021 These teachers from fifteen different states in the United States slightly agreed that they were efficacious writing teachers and they were slightly positive about their writing. They slightly agreed that learning to write involves effort and process, moderately disagreed that writing development is innate or fixed, slightly disagreed that knowledge about writing is certain, and were equally split about whether writing knowledge comes from authorities and experts. On average, teachers applied the twenty-two instructional writing practices surveyed at least once a month. |
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A multi-dimensional examination of adolescent writing: considering the writer, genre and task demands
Penelope Collins, Tamara P. Tate, Joong won Lee, Jenell A. Krishnan & Mark Warschauer March 2021 •Language minority students who were fluent English proficient wrote higher quality nonsource-based essays •Students with limited English proficiency showed weaker performance on both source-based and nonsource-based writing tasks. •Differences in English proficiency held across genres. •Students who wrote argumentative essays obtained higher ratings than those who wrote narrative or explanatory essays. |
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Does perspective taking matter for writing? Perspective taking in source-based analytical writing of secondary students
Minkyung Cho, Young-Suk Grace Kim and Carol B. Olson February 19, 2021 •Findings revealed that students wrote more from their own perspective than that of others. •The results of multi-level analyses suggested that female students exhibited more varied perspectives but there was no meaningful difference by English learner status. •Greater extent of perspective taking, particularly that of higher level of perspectives (i.e., dual perspective), was associated with better writing quality, after accounting for students’ demographic backgrounds (e.g., sex, poverty status, English learner status) and essay length. |
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Research and teaching writing
Steve Graham and Rui A Alves 2021 Knowledge about how to teach writing can be obtained from many different sources, including one’s experience teaching or being taught to write, observing others teach writing, and advise offered by writing experts. It is difficult to determine if much of the lore teachers acquire through these methods are effective, generalizable, or reliable unless they are scientifically tested. This special issue of Reading & Writing includes 11 writing intervention studies conducted primarily with students in the elementary grades. It provides important new information on evidence-based writing practices. |
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Executive control and the Writer (s)-within-Community model.
Steve Graham 2021 The chapter presents four tenets underlying the operation of the WWC model. These tenets provide an even broader lens for considering how executive control operates in writing communities, as it is assumed that context and writers' capabilities interact to influence executive control, and executive control is further influenced by the capacity, variability, and development within both the writing community and its members. |
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Do children with reading difficulties experience writing difficulties? A meta-analysis.
Graham, S., Aitken, A. A., Hebert, M., Camping, A., Santangelo, T., Harris, K. R., Eustice, K., Sweet, J. D., & Ng, C. 2021 This meta-analysis of 95 studies found that children with reading difficulties also experience difficulties with writing when compared with their same-aged peers and younger-peers matched on reading capabilities. These findings demonstrate that reading and writing performance are connected, and students with reading difficulties are likely to have writing difficulties. As a result, literacy instruction needs to focus on both of these critical skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) |
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The power of context: Exploring teachers’ formative assessment for online collaborative writing
Jenell Krishnan, Rebecca W Black, and Carol Booth Olson 2021 Findings suggest that district-level and classroom-level factors shape teachers’ perceptions of formative assessment and how they adjust their approach to writing instruction over time. This work illustrates the unique contextual factors that shape teachers’ beliefs about and engagement with formative assessment, specifically for online collaborative writing. |
2020
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Is retell a valid measure of reading comprehension?
Yucheng Cao and Young-Suk Grace Kim December 2020 Overall, the moderate magnitude of the relation between retell and other measures of reading comprehension indicates caution for using retell as the sole measure of reading comprehension. The results also indicate a need for a better understanding about more systematic approaches to retell assessment (e.g., number and kind of prompts in the case of oral retell) as a measure of reading comprehension. |
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The pathway to academic success: Scaling up a text-based analytical writing intervention for Latinos and English learners in secondary school.
Olson, C. B., Woodworth, K., Arshan, N., Black, R., Chung, H. Q., D'Aoust, C., Dewar, T., Friedrich, L., Godfrey, L., Land, R., Matuchniak, T., Scarcella, R., and Stowell, L 2020 This study reports findings from a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial designed to validate and scale up an existing successful professional development program that uses a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing. |
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Understanding Proficiency: Analyzing the Characteristics of Secondary Students’ On-Demand Analytical Essay Writing
Vicky Chen, Carol B Olson, and Huy Quoc Chung 2020 The use of relevant summary was an important difference between not-pass and adequate-pass essays where significantly more adequate-pass essays used summary in a purposeful rather than general way. Major characteristics that set apart strong-pass essays from adequate-pass essays involved providing analysis and including a clear conclusion or end. |
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The utility of infographics in L2 writing classes: A practical strategy to scaffold writing development
Undarmaa Maamuujav, Jenell Krishnan, and Penelope Collins 2020 The curricular integration of infographics in second language writing courses is grounded in the process-based writing approach that involves careful and iterative planning, writing, and revision. Arguing that infographics is an effective digital tool that holds tremendous potential to support both L2 students and instructors in writing intensive classes, the authors explore how infographics can be integrated in process-based writing curriculum to support the writing development of multilingual students. |
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Supporting a Language-Focused Approach to Close Reading
Jenell Krishnan, Mary Schleppegrell, Penelope Collins, Mark Warschauer 2020 •Successful close reading and response to TDQs requires a focus on authors' language use •Curriculum materials can be enhanced by developing linguistically-informed close reading tips •Close reading tips model strategies for effective close reading and response to TDQs Introduction |
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The sciences of reading and writing must become more fully integrated
Steve Graham 2020 Science has greatly enhanced what we know about reading and writing. Drawing on this knowledge, researchers have proffered recommendations for how to teach these two literacy skills. Although such recommendations are aimed at closing the gap between research and practice, they often fail to take into account the reciprocal relation that exists between reading and writing. Writing and writing instruction improve students’ reading and vice versa. Theory and evidence that support this reciprocal relation are presented, and implications for the scientific study of reading and writing, policy, and practice are offered, including the proposal that the sciences of reading and writing need to be better integrated. |
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Do children classified with specific language impairment have a learning disability in writing? A meta-analysis
Steve Graham, Michael Hebert, Evan Fishman, Amber B Ray, Amy Gillespie Rouse 2020 A moderator analysis revealed that differences in the writing scores of children classified with SLI and typically developing peers matched on age were not as large, but were still statistically significant, when assessment involved a contrived response format (vs. measured based on students’ writing), researcher-created measures (vs. norm-referenced tests), or SLI included just children with a speech disorder (vs. children with a language disorder). Children classified with SLI further scored lower on writing than typically developing peers with similar language capabilities (g = −0.47). We concluded that children with SLI experience difficulties with writing. |
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Writing strategies interventions
Steve Graham, Gerardo Bañales, Silza Ahumada, Pamela Muñoz, Prisila Alvarez, and Karen R Harris 2020 This chapter makes the case that strategic processing is an integral part of the writing process. Since writing is complex and multifaceted, these strategies are necessary to guide the writer within the context of writing communities. The role of strategies is overviewed in light of other important factors (e.g., declarative knowledge), and interventions are evaluated in terms of their effectiveness to scaffold these writing strategies. The chapter concludes with suggestions for both future research as well as practice that teachers can implement in their classrooms. |
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Examining lexical features and academic vocabulary use in adolescent L2 students’ text-based analytical essays
Undarmaa Maamuujav 2020 •Adolescent L2 students’ text-based writing exhibit low lexical density and diversity. •Adolescent L2 writers rely on basic and frequently-used words in their academic writing. •Lexical density and diversity do not predict writing quality in text-based analytical essays. •Lexical sophistication is significantly correlated with holistic writing score •44 % of the AWL words in students' texts are from the source and the prompt. |
