Abstract:
This mixed methods research study examined the effect of explicit prewriting instruction on students’ writing skills in the age of Common Core and investigated teachers’ concerns about implementation of this strategy as a means of improving students’ written communication skills. Explicit prewriting instruction is a derivation of explicit instruction– an instructional approach whereby teachers guide students through a series of incremental steps towards mastery of a specific learning objective. The pre- and post- writing assessment mean scores of fifty-three students in Grades 4-7 who received 6 weeks of explicit prewriting instruction during the summer of 2018 were compared using paired samples t-Test data analyses. For both the pre- and post- tests, students were tasked with writing a 5-paragraph narrative essay. Results of the t-Tests indicated a statistically significant difference in students’ pre- and post- mean scores, with the implication that students’ written communication skills improved by the end of the intervention. Data related to teachers’ concerns about explicit prewriting implementation were collected from teachers’ responses to semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, as well as from teachers’ weekly journal entries. The resulting data suggested that some teachers felt ill prepared to teach writing, and that the professional development they received in explicit prewriting needed to have been slower paced. Teachers also expressed that they needed frequent and consistent modeling of the strategy in real-time classroom settings. Although 6 weeks of explicit prewriting instruction was shown to have had a positive effect on students’ writing skills, it is clear that teachers require consistent, ongoing professional development, classroom modeling, and support.
