Exploring Reading and Writing Connections

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Exploring Reading and Writing Connections

• Natalie G. Olinghouse
• Michigan State University
• August 16, 2007

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Importance of understanding R/W connections

• Reading and writing likely have shared
  processes/knowledge and unique processes/knowledge
  
• Classroom instruction
• Instruction in one is unlikely to replace
  instruction in the other (Shanahan, 2006)
• Complexity of combining reading and writing in a
  productive manner
• Can we combine reading and writing to provide
  deeper learning? (e.g, McGinley Tierney, 1989)
• Is progress in writing determined by reading
  development?
• Assessment
• High-stakes tests which use constructive response
  items to assess either reading or writing (e.g.,
  NAEP, state assessments)

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Correlational Research

• Research supporting relationship between reading
  and writing quality
• Decoding (e.g., Abbott Berninger, 1993 Hogan
  Mishler, 1980)
• Word reading (e.g., Abbott Berninger, 1993
  Kroll, 1983)
• Comprehension (e.g., Juel, 1988 Swanson
  Berninger, 1996)
• From -1 to 1 indicating strength of relationship
  between 2 skills
• Positive correlation indicates high performance
  in one skill is related to high performance in
  other skill
• Negative correlation indicates high performance
  in one skill is related to low performance in
  other skill

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Olinghouse Studies

• Grades 2, 3, and 4
• Approximately 100 students in each grade
• Diverse student population
• Reading
• Word reading,
• Reading comprehension (grades 2 4)
• Listening comprehension (grade 3)
• Writing
• Quality
• Vocabulary
• Spelling
• Mechanics (grades 2 4)

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Correlations between Reading and Writing Quality
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Correlations between Reading and Writing
Vocabulary Diversity
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Correlations between Reading and Writing Mechanics
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Correlations between Reading and Compositional
Spelling
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Limitations of Correlational Data

• Cannot indicate causality
• Cannot identify possible instructional approaches

B
A
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Causal possibilities
Reading
Writing
Writing
Reading
Reading
Writing
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Shared Knowledge in Reading and
Writing(Fitzgerald Shanahan, 2000)

• Metaknowledge (pragmatics)
• Functions and purposes of reading/writing
• Monitoring meaning making and knowledge
• Knowing that readers and writers interact
• Example
• I am writing a letter to my aunt, which she will
  read. I need to make sure that I consider what my
  aunt already knows and doesnt know when I write
  my letter.

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Shared Knowledge in Reading and
Writing(Fitzgerald Shanahan, 2000)

• Procedural knowledge
• How to access, use, and generate knowledge in
  above areas
• Smooth integration of various processes
• Example
• When I am reading and writing, I can use the
  strategies I learned about words and sentences to
  help me understand what I read and improve what I
  write.

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Shared Knowledge in Reading and
Writing(Fitzgerald Shanahan, 2000)

• Universal text attributes
• Word phonological/grapheme awareness, morphology
• Syntax sentences, punctuation
• Text story grammars, text structure and
  organization
• Example
• I know the s makes the /s/ sound. I can use
  this knowledge when I read and write sun.
• When I read a story, I look for the characters
  and the setting to help me understand the story.
  When I write a story, I make sure I include the
  characters and the setting.

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Shared Knowledge in Reading and
Writing(Fitzgerald Shanahan, 2000)

• Domain knowledge (prior knowledge, content
  knowledge)
• Vocabulary
• Meaning created through context of connected text
• Example
• I just read a book about trains and the
  different kinds of engines. I can write a report
  about engines, using the new vocabulary and
  knowledge that I just learned.

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IES Study(PI Donald Compton, Vanderbilt
University)

• Research questions
• General reading comprehension
• Knowledge
• Information
• Vocabulary
• Strategy use
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Target population
• Students with reading difficulties
• Grades 2-6

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• 24 sessions
• 90 minutes/session
• Word reading strategies and fluency 40 minutes
• Text reading and comprehension
• 50 minutes
• Small groups of 2-4 students
• Taught by RA

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Text used in intervention

• Informational text
• Approximately late 2nd grade reading level
• 3 books
• Pioneers
• Rain forests
• Tornados
• Mix of text, pictures, captions, and additional
  information

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Young Pioneers text
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Comprehension Group Teachers Guide
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(No Transcript)
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Vocabulary Group Teachers Guide
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Timeline of Writing Assessments
4 intro sessions
9 sessions
6 sessions
5 sessions
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Hypotheses Report Writing

• Fluency
• Number of words written in text
• Vocabulary
• Taught
• Diversity
• Main ideas and details

Reading
Writing
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Todays sample (number of students 36)

• Demographics
• Age 9.8 (SD 1.2)
• Female 15, Male 21
• African American 20, Caucasian 12,
• Other 4
• Intervention group
• Traditional 10 students
• Comprehension 14 students
• Vocabulary 12 students

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Standardized Achievement Tests
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Preliminary Results

• Fluency
• All students will write more words in their
  report after reading the text

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Average Number of Words Written by Intervention
Group
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Preliminary Results

• Vocabulary
• Students receiving the Vocabulary intervention
  will include more taught vocabulary in their
  report

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Average number of taught words included in
reports by intervention group
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Preliminary Results

• Vocabulary
• What taught vocabulary did students include in
  their reports?

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Percentage of students who included specific
taught vocabulary words
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Example of Vocabulary Word Usage Post test

• Pioneer were the people first to do something.
  Also the Pioneer traveled to the East from the
  West. While they were walking the children had to
  walk holding a rooster. When the pioneer finally
  got where they were going, they pushed the Native
  Americans off the land. When the pioneer got
  settled they build a house with sod and mud.
• During school years the pioneer hired a teacher,
  it was hard to hire a teacher. The students were
  sometime older than the teacher. The teacher was
  usually 15 or 14 years old. Thats how the
  pioneer lived their lives.

African American Female, age 10, Vocabulary
intervention
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Preliminary Results

• Vocabulary
• All students will include greater vocabulary
  diversity in their report after reading the text

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Vocabulary diversity in reports by intervention
group
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Preliminary Results

• Main ideas and details
• All students will include more main ideas and
  details in their report after reading the texts

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Pretest
Post test
African American female, age 9.5, Comprehension
instruction
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Average number of main ideas by chapter
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Average number of details by chapter
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Future scoring of reports
Pictures/ Captions
Inference
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Conclusions

• Reading and writing are related, although the
  specific relationships are not known

word reading comprehension
quality vocabulary mechanics spelling
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Conclusions

• Poor readers can use knowledge gained from
  reading for report writing. After reading text,
  student reports showed improvements in
• length
• number of main ideas and details
• taught vocabulary
• vocabulary diversity
• Caveats
• Transfer from reading to writing was small. For
  larger gains, it is likely that writing must be
  taught in concert with reading, especially for
  poor readers.
• It is not known if similar results would be found
  for average or good readers

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Pretest
Post test

• 1. Long ago pioneers lived.
• 2. They took wagons around the country.
• 3. They had picnics in the comunity.

• boats
• people
• crops
• foods
• growing
• They grea crops
• crops were thier food

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Classroom Applications

• Include reading and writing connections where
  they make sense
• Make explicit connections
• Word reading-word spelling
• Text structure and organization
• Vocabulary and ideas
• Teach students about using main ideas, details,
  vocabulary, inferences, and additional features
  from text to use in their writing
• Poor readers
• May transfer more information from reading to
  writing when explicitly taught how to do so
• Teach summary writing. Students tended to include
  more details (as compared to main ideas) from
  text in their report writing.

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Thank you!

• Comments or questions?