Stacy Carroll Jay Feng Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2010

1. Writer’s Workshop vs. Writing Prompts:The Effects on First Graders’ Writing Ability and Attitude towards Writing Stacy Carroll Jay Feng Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2010 Savannah, Georgia October 23, 2010

2. Research Questions • 1. Do Writer’s Workshop and Prompted-writing have different effect on first graders’ attitude towards writing? • 2. Do Writer’s Workshop and Prompted-writing have different effect on first graders’ writing ability?

3. Writer’s Workshop vs. Prompted Writing • Writer’s Workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing as students learn and practice the process of writing. It fosters independence and confidence as it allows free-choice and personal meaning. • Prompted Writing requires students to write from prompts to produce a facilitative priming effect on writing. It fosters writing fluency.

4. Research Design • 18 students in one first grade classroom in a Title I school, were randomly assigned to two groups: Writer’s Workshop (n=9), Prompted Writing (n=9); taught by same teacher • Both received instruction on how to write a persuasive letter over a period of 5 weeks. • Pre- and post-survey on writing attitude • Post assessment on persuasive writing

5. Results Attitude towards writing: Pre-test Post-test Writer’s Workshop 17.89 17.22* Prompted Writing 16.44 14.78 t=.3299, p>.05

6. Results • Writing ability: • Writer’s Workshop Prompted Writing • Overall 9.78 11.56* • Ideas 3.56 4.89 • Organization 2.11 2.56 • Style 2.00 2.22 • Convention 2.11* 1.89 • (t=1.42, p>.05)