Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education And Human Services
Advisor
David Weintraub
Committee Member
John Kellmayer
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
analytical writing, argumentation, attitudes, common planning, content area writing, data analysis, dissertation, document review, essay scores, field of social studies, freshman students, honors students, interventions, locally-constructed rubric, planning block, regular students, rubrics, scoring guides, social studies, student performance, student writing, teacher collaboration, writing improvement, writing laboratories, writing skills, written analysis
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to improve the analytical writing performance of freshman students in their social studies classes. The field of social studies requires students to review documents and respond argumentatively to questions posed by their teachers. The freshman social studies teachers in this applied dissertation profess that freshman students had poor writing skills, and therefore were unable to effectively analyze and argue in written form.
In order to remedy the problem of poor analytical writing skills, freshman social studies teachers implemented interventions such as (a) the development and usage of a locally-constructed common rubric, (b) writing laboratories in social studies classes, and (c) common planning block of time for teachers. Data concerning essay scores and students’ attitudes toward their own writing were collected in order to determine if the interventions were successful.
An analysis of the data revealed that the prescribed interventions did improve the essay scores of the students. Students’ attitudes towards their own writing however did not improve. Overall results were greater among honors students than regular students.