Recent technology advances have enabled the collection of keystroke logs during writing, a non-intrusive approach to collecting writing process data that could provide insights into writers' editing and revising behaviors in the writing process. Using keystroke logs from 761 middle school students in the US, this study investigated the association…

This paper presents an evaluation of "Literacy for Life" (LfL) -- a whole-school literacy programme, implemented in five secondary schools in England. The aims of LfL were to improve literacy attainment and to promote positive attitudes to reading and writing. However, when compared to other schools, there is little or no evidence that…

Background: Writing is a particularly demanding activity, which poses unique motivational challenges for students. Despite the wealth of research on the relation between writing motivation and writing performance, little is known about the role of students' writing frequency in writing motivation and writing performance. Aims: We aimed to: (1)…

This article focuses on the 2019 National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) assessment of student ability in writing. It begins with an overview of the study and its results, then turns to students' use of planning strategies to support their writing. Drawing on research on the association between planning and achievement in writing,…

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of secondary school students' writing tendency, writing self-efficacy and writing attitude variables and how these variables predict each other through structural equation modeling. For this purpose, the relational screening model was used and the study was carried out in academic year 2018-2019 on…

Expressive writing is important for school and life success, but remains challenging for many students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Emerging evidence reveals promise for teaching students with learning and behavioral issues to improve written expression with self-regulated strategy development instruction. In that research, students…

Literature that provokes readers to engage in activism is the author's favorite type of writing. For years she has celebrated the tradition of counterculture authors who advocated for a cause, using narratives to educate the world and elicit change. As a culminating project after a year of embracing dialogue and promoting writing for power, she…

Based on eighth-grade writing assessment data from the 1998 (N = 20,586) and 2007 (N = 139,900) National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the relationships among students' writing attitudes, learning-related behaviors, and gender in relation to writing performance. Overall, the effects of attitudes were slightly…

Recounts how an eighth-grade teacher used reflective portfolios with her students to help them overcome their reluctance to write and to get them to see writing as a way to learn about themselves as students and as individuals. States that the teacher wanted students to be enthusiastic about writing as a part of everyday life. (PA)

Theorizes about what the notions of personhood and intertextuality contribute to the conception of literacy teaching and learning. Presents an analytical framework for understanding interrelationships among personhood, literacy practices, and intertextuality. Elaborates on the theoretical ideas presented by drawing on data from a study of a female…

Examines the effect of sustained silent reading and writing on achievement of seventh and eighth grade students reading two or more years below grade level. Finds significant improvement in reading achievement, writing, and attitude toward reading for both seventh and eighth grade students. (RS)

Investigates the writing attitudes and text editing skills of students with considerable experience using word-processing systems toward word processing for different phases of the writing process. Finds the students are poor at text editing and typing. Finds that the students prefer paper and pencil for composing first drafts and prefer word…

Offers a close look at how three eighth-grade students used their writer's notebooks, examining what they thought of their writer's notebooks, what purposes they used them for, and how their responses changed over the course of the school year. Notes that the authors learned that their involvement in the writer's notebook was vital. Includes…

Students in four eighth grade communications arts classes wrote two stories--one using a word processor and one written manually. Participants' attitudes toward writing and editing were assessed. Stories were graded for overall competence, organization, support of ideas, and mechanics; a subsample received detailed analysis. Word processed stories…

Describes how the author used research booklets to be read by sixth graders, poetry books, and taking part in a city-wide writing competition with her eighth-grade students to combat a general apathy in many students' writing efforts. Suggests the projects spoke to individual interests, helped students find a purpose to write, and improved the…