Action Research: Improve Writing Skills Through Daily Oral Language

1. Action Research:Improve Writing Skills Through Daily Oral Language Amy Wright 2nd Grade

2. Abstract: The purpose of this study was to enhance the oral and written skills of students, specifically in writing complete sentences. Research shows Daily Oral Language benefits students’ writing with daily exercise. Twenty-three students at the second grade level, participated over a two-week period, five days a week. The routine included students correctly identifying grammar and language errors in two sentences. Students created study guides throughout the week while following along in a written and oral classroom discussion focused on parts of grammar and mechanical errors. Study guides were used as homework practice in preparation for the tests. Research shows Daily Oral language benefits students writing with daily exercise. The results of this study showed the majority of the students improved their writing by using complete sentence structure.

3. Research Question: What effect will Daily Oral Language have on second graders’ writing?

4. Purpose of Action Research: • Students struggle with writing complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation. I want to increase their writing skills through the daily oral practice of revising sentences.

5. Hypothesis: • If my students participate in daily oral language, my students writing skills will improve.

6. Population: • The participants for the study where in a school district in the Midwest with approximately 6,273 students enrolled. The ethnicity of this district was 84% White, 3% African-American, 6% Hispanic, and 7% other. The gender breakdown for the district was 49.7% females and 50.2% males. The percent of the students that were economically disadvantaged was 11.62% (KSDE, 2007). The particular school had a total of 692 2nd–5th graders enrolled. The ethnicity of the school was 79.9% White, 4.9% Hispanic, 1.7% African-American, and 13.44% other. The building had 46.8% females and 53.1% males. The percent of students in the building that were economically disadvantaged was 13.3% (KSDE, 2007). Information regarding students in Special Education was not available. The demographics of the classroom had 25 2nd grade students: 14 female and 11 male. Of the students, 22 White and three Hispanic. Special attention given to students were as follows: two in Special Education, three in Reading Lab, one in Math Lab, three in Speech Therapy, and one in Physical Therapy.

7. Week 6 DOLDay 1: • Colon (time) • Proper Noun (person & book title) • Underline (book title) • Apostrophe (possessive) • Declarative Statements • Sentence Song

8. Week 6 DOLDay 2: • Apostrophe (contractions) • Verb • Declarative Statements

9. Week 6 DOLDay 3: • Daily Oral Language: Day 3 • Review Apostrophe (contractions) • Single vs. Double subjects • Declarative Statements

10. Week 6 DOL Day 4: • Review Verbs • Review Colons • Pronouns • Capitalization • Subject-Verb Agreement • Declarative Statements

11. Week 6 DOLDay 5: • DOL Quiz # 1 • Self Check Tests • Review Common Errors

12. Week 7 DOLDay 1: • Review Proper Noun (title and person) • Period (abbreviation) • Enunciation • Review Verbs • Declarative Statements • Noun Jingle

13. Week 7 DOLDay 2: • Review Verbs • Comma (before and in compound sentence) • Review Proper Noun (person) • Avoid: AIN’T • Review Apostrophe (contraction) • Declarative Statement • Exclamatory Statement

14. Week 7 DOLDay 3: • Review Apostrophe (contraction) • Exclamatory Statement • Review Verb • Proper Noun (holiday) • Interrogative Statement

15. Week 7 DOLDay 4: • Review Capitalization • Review Verb • Review Period (abbreviation) • Proper Noun (person) • Declarative Statements • Review Avoid: AIN’T • Review Apostrophe (contraction) • Review Proper (holiday) • Review Comma (before and in compound sentence)

16. Week 7 DOLDay 5: • DOL QUIZ # 2 • Self Check Tests • Review Common Errors

17. Literature Review • Daily Oral Language: “B-O-R-I-N-G!” Creative Ways to Spice Up Grammar Instruction written by Amenson, N. R., Nanke, T., & Wilson, J. (2006) • engage students into grammar through the emersion of hands-on, contextualized, and authentic activities.

18. Literature Review Continued… • A Celebration of Literature and Response: Children, Books, and Teachers in K-8 Classrooms (2nd ed.) Chapter 11: Literature as a Model for Writing: Apprenticing the Author’s Craft (pp. 259 – 282) by Hancock (2004) • explored the connection between reading and writing. • students learn to write through written examples.

19. Literature Review Continued… • Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement [Chapter 2] by Marzano, R., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001) • scaffold by teacher directed statements and questions • graphic organizers increase student learning

20. Literature Review Continued… • Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement [Chapter 5] by Marzano (2001) • focused on the importance of constructive homework policies • homework should be a review; no new material should be assigned

21. Literature Review Continued… • Exemplary Practices that Support Early Literacy by Maurano (2003) • oral language comes within the third stage of literacy • important to teach children the correct structure of speech within verbal and written communication • encouraged and engaged in environmental literacy activities daily

22. Literature Review Continued… • Teacher Research by Parsons (n.d.) • study of gender issues affecting education • action research process is an excellent approach to understanding and action on issues in schools

23. Results:

24. Continued Results:

25. Continued Results:

26. Conclusions: • Overall, individual students improved in written language. Possible outlying factors due to student’s attitude or study skills can skew data results. The research might show more accurate results if analyzed over a longer period of time.