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Teaching the six traits: The impact of the six-trait writing model on middle- school ELL student achievement and confidence in writing. Holly Bembridge Fall 2007

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Page 1: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Teaching the six traits: The impact of the six-trait writing model on middle-school ELL student achievement and confidence in writing.

Holly BembridgeFall 2007

Page 2: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Introduction Research Question

Will explicit instruction in the six traits of writing affect middle-school ELL students’ achievement and confidence in writing?

Page 3: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Background Information and RationaleSt. Michael’s School is an English-language

school in the Dominican RepublicOver 90% of students speak Spanish as a first

languageConsistent weaknesses in writing have been

displayed over many years:• Generalizations rather than elaboration• Lack of focus • Omission of essential information• Low level of vocabulary• Weak grammar and mechanics skills

Page 4: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Background Information and Rationale (Cont’d)St. Michael’s School writing assessment results, Fall 2005:

– Mean score for 8th grade was 2.79 on a 6-point scale– Mean score for 12th grade was 4.55 on a 6-point scale

– A score of 4 indicated proficiency; a score of 3 indicated a basic level

– Only 18% of 8th graders were proficient or above, while 45% were at the basic level.

– The remaining 37% of 8th graders scored Below Basic.

Our middle-school students seem to need intervention to get more students reaching proficiency in writing at an earlier age.

Page 5: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Background Information and Rationale (Cont’d)

Writing Assessment Results Fall 2005

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

8th 12th

Grade

Scor

e (o

ut o

f 6)

Mean Score

Page 6: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Why is this important?

Writing is an integral part of helping students learn

Langer and Applebee (1987) suggest that writing plays an important role in helping students learn across the content areas

• Asks students to think more deeply about material learned

• Asks students to manipulate knowledge in different ways

• Allows students to internalize knowledge

Page 7: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Importance (Cont’d)Many other studies show the link between writing, thinking, and learning:

– Zacharias (1991) The relationship between journal writing in education and thinking processes: What educators say about it

– Dart, Boulton-Lewis, Brownlee, & McCrindle (1998) Change in knowledge of learning and teaching through journal writing

– Hohenshell & Hand (2006) Writing to learn strategies in secondary school cell biology: A mixed method study

– Pegram (2006) “What if?”: Teaching research and creative-thinking skills through proposal writing

Page 8: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature

The six-trait model is based on assessment for learning as described by:

– Stiggins (1985)– Black & Wiliam (1998)– Spandel (2001)– Wiggins & McTighe (2005).

Page 9: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature (Cont’d)Chappuis & Stiggins (2002) presented guidelines for students to become involved in assessment and thus take responsibility for their own learning:

– Determine the qualities of good performance.– Use rubrics to evaluate real work samples.– Revise anonymous work samples.– Communicate with others about their growth.

THE SIX-TRAIT MODEL IS CONSISTENT WITH THESE GUIDELINES.

Page 10: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature (Cont’d)

Hillocks (1987) analyzed six instructional methods commonly used to teach writing:

- grammar- models- sentence combining- scales and guided revision- inquiry- freewriting

Scales (the basis of the six-trait model) had a significant impact on student growth in writing.

Page 11: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature (Cont’d)Arter, Spandel, Culham, and Pollard (1994) The impact of training students to be self-assessors of writing

– Teachers trained on writing assessment and integrating six traits into instruction

– They spent one year teaching Ideas, Organization, and Voice

– Eight visits to help with implementation—trainers helped teach students

– Results: Significant gains for the trait of Ideas; gains tending toward significance for Organization and Voice.

– Conclusions: Student writing improves in proportion to the time spent teaching a specific trait.

Page 12: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature (Cont’d)

Other small-scale studies suggest the effectiveness of the six-trait model on student achievement in writing.

– Jarmer, Kozol, Nelson, and Salsberry (2000)

– Bellamy (2001)

Page 13: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Review of Literature (Cont’d)Many studies point to the effectiveness of the six-trait model, but

– most focus on students in elementary school

– most have been done in the U.S. with primarily first language English speakers

There is a need for studies with students in middle- and high-school and with ELL students.

Page 14: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Hypothesis

The six-trait writing model will have a positive impact on student achievement and confidence in writing.

Page 15: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodSample

– English-language school in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

– Over 90% of students are Dominican, first language Spanish speakers

– Randomly selected class from middle school• Treatment group was one 7th grade class

of 18 students• Control group was the other 7th grade

class of 17 students

Page 16: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodProcedureExperimental group had eight weeks of instruction for two periods per week.

– Week 1: Introduction to the traits– Week 2: Ideas– Week 3: Organization– Week 4: Review and Evaluating writing samples– Week 5: Voice– Week 6: Word Choice– Week 7: Sentence Fluency and Guided revision– Week 8: Conventions and Editing

– Weeks 7 & 8 were also spent evaluating writing samples

Page 17: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodProcedure (Cont’d)Instruction included:1. Mini-lessons on writing skills related to the

trait (e.g., “showing, not telling,” writing inviting leads, using power verbs)

2. Presentation of scoring criteria for the trait3. Quality examples of the trait in a writing

sample4. Application activities

Students were also taught how to use the rubrics to evaluate writing samples and had to justify their scores using the language of the traits.

Page 18: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodData CollectionLikert scale to measure confidence in

writing– Administered to both groups before and

after the intervention

Pre- and posttest writing sample to measure achievement in writing

– Completed by both groups before and after the intervention

– Scored using a six-point rubric based on the six traits

Page 19: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodThreats to ValiditySelection

– Sampling not completing randomMaturation

– Would students just naturally become better writers over time?

Prior knowledge– All students had been taught someone about six traits

in past years. Would that knowledge affect control group?

Attitude of subjects– Would experimental group’s attitudes improve partly

because they felt special for having an outside teacher working with them?

Page 20: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

MethodThreats to Validity (Cont’d)Implementation

– Abilities of implementer• Is it possible that my ability to communicate and

connect with students is different from the regular classroom teacher’s and that this difference would affect the outcome?

– Researcher bias• Attempt to control scoring bias by having students

place numbers instead of names on posttest writing sample

• Possible leniency in scoring experimental group samples

• To reduce bias in a subsequent study, all writing samples should be anonymous and should be scored by more than one rater

Page 21: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

ResultsStudent Confidence in WritingThe t-test did not demonstrate the

required level of statistical significance, with a p-value of 0.078 (t = 1.45 df 33, p < .05).

Still, the gain for the experimental group was larger than the gain for the control group and shows a trend toward significance.

Page 22: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

ResultsStudent Confidence in Writing (Cont’d)

Values Xa Xb

n 18 17

sum 1 -32

mean 0.0556 -1.8824

sumsq 363 216

SS 362.9444 155.7647

variance 21.3497 9.7353

st. dev. 4.6206 3.1201

MeanA – MeanB  t   df 

1.9379 +1.45 33

  P   one-tailed 0.0782485

two-tailed 0.156497

Pretest/posttest comparison of confidence in writing

Page 23: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

ResultsStudent Achievement in WritingThe results of the pretest/posttest

writing samples showed a significant difference in scores between students in the experimental group and those in the control group (t = 2.97 df 33, p < .05).

The experimental group had a mean gain score of 2.97, while the control group showed a mean loss of 0.26.

Page 24: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

ResultsStudent Achievement in Writing (Cont’d)

Values Xa Xb

n 18 17

sum 53.5 -4.5

mean 2.9722 -0.2647

sumsq 301.75 201.75

SS 142.7361 200.5588

variance 8.3962 12.5349

st. dev. 2.8976 3.5405

MeanA – MeanB  t   df  3.2369 +2.97 33

  P   one-tailed 0.002758

two-tailed 0.005516

Pretest/posttest comparison of achievement in writing

Page 25: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

DiscussionNo statistically significant increase

in confidence in writing

BUTQualitative evidence of increase in

confidence

Page 26: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Discussion (Cont’d)Post-intervention interviews—Increase in confidence

– “It’s easier for me to write because I can come up with ideas faster. I know the details I need to put.”

– “I thought at first that I was writing just like everyone else in the class, but at the end, I saw I was a bit better than them. I liked it because I thought the six traits helped me improve.”

– I can now “choose better words,” “organize my ideas better,” “include more details than before,” and “narrow my ideas much more.”

Page 27: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

DiscussionIndicators of growth in achievement and confidence

Students in experimental group spent more time writing posttest than control group and than they did during pretest.

Writing samples from the experimental group were generally longer and more elaborated than those from the control group.

Students in experimental group asked fewer prescriptive questions (e.g., “How many paragraphs?” “Does spelling count?”) than control group and than they did during pretest.

Page 28: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

DiscussionIncreases in mean scores by trait

  Ideas Organization Voice Word ChoiceSentence

Fluency Conventions

Experimental 0.41 0.65 0.79 0.65 0.59 0.21

Control 0.03 -0.18 -0.03 -0.06 -0.06 0.03

Experimental group also showed growth in the mean score on each of the traits.

Page 29: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

DiscussionIncreases in mean scores by trait (Cont’d)

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Trait

Mea

n G

ain

Scor

e

Experimental

Control

Page 30: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

DiscussionResults suggest that the six-trait

model is effective for helping students improve achievement in writing.

Though not statistically conclusive, qualitative evidence also seems to point to the model’s effectiveness on improving student confidence in writing.

Page 31: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Action PlanGiven the improvements seen in

this study, I would recommend that the six-trait model be implemented throughout our school, not just as an assessment method, but also as an instructional technique.

Page 32: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Action Plan

1. Share results with teachers.2. Design and conduct a series of

workshops for teachers on the traits and on assessing writing with the traits.

3. Provide teachers with resources for teaching the traits.

4. Offer coaching or mentoring to teachers during the implementation period.

Page 33: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

Final Thoughts

Over the past semester, I have seen these seventh grade students become more enthusiastic writers who produce better pieces of writing.

If we can replicate these results throughout the school, our students will likely be more successful with their writing and with their learning in school and beyond.

Page 34: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

ReferencesArter, J. A., Spandel, V., Culham, R., & Pollard, J. (1994, April). The impact

of training students to be self-assessors of writing. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED370975) Retrieved November 29, 2007, from ERIC database.

Bellamy, P. C. (2001). Research on writing with the 6+1 traits. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Web site: http://www.nwrel.org/ assessment/research.php?odelay=0&d=1

Chappuis, S., & Stiggins, R. J. (2002, September). Classroom assessment for learning. Educational Leadership, 60(1), 40-43. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from EBSCOhost database. (7386630)

Dart, B. C., Boulton-Lewis, G. M., Brownlee, J. M., & McCrindle, A. R. (1998, October). Change in knowledge of learning and teaching through journal writing. Research Papers in Education, 13(3), 291-318. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from EBSCOhost database. (6682874)

Hillocks, G., Jr. (1987, May). Synthesis of research on teaching writing. Educational Leadership, 44(8), 71-82. Retrieved November 24, 2007, from EBSCOhost database. (8721824)

Page 35: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

References (Cont’d)Hohenshell, L. M., & Hand, B. (2006, February 15). Writing to learn

strategies in secondary school cell biology: A mixed method study. International Journal of Science Education, 28(2/ 3). Abstract retrieved November 29, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.

Jarmer, D., Kozol, M., Nelson, S., & Salsberry, T. (2000, Fall/Winter). Six-trait writing model improves scores at Jennie Wilson Elementary. Journal of School Improvement, 1(2). Retrieved November 24, 2007, from North Central Association Committee on Accreditation and School Improvement Web site: http://www.ncacasi.org/jsi/2000v1i2/six_trait_model

Kozlow, M., & Bellamy, P. (2004, December). Experimental study on the

impact of the 6+1 trait writing model on student achievement in writing. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Web site: http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/ research.php?odelay=0&d=1

Langer, J. A., & Applebee, A. N. (1987). How writing shapes thinking: A study of teaching and learning. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved November 28, 2007, from ERIC database. (ED286205

Page 36: Teaching the Six Traits Holly Bembridge

References (Cont’d)Pegram, D. M. (2006, March). “What if?”: Teaching research and creative-

thinking skills through proposal writing. English Journal, 95(4), 18-22. Abstract retrieved November 29, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.

Spandel, V. (2001). Creating writers through 6-trait writing assessment and instruction (3rd ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

Stiggins, R. J. (1985, October). Improving assessment where it means the most: In the classroom. Educational Leadership, 43(2), 69-74. Retrieved November 28, 2007, from EBSCOhost database. (8518331)

Stiggins, R. J., & Bridgeford, N. J. (1984). The use of performance assessment in the classroom (Monograph). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED242718) Retrieved November 29, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Zacharias, M. E. (1991, Winter). The relationship between journal writing in education and thinking processes: What educators say about it. Education, 112(2), 265-270. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.