Date of Award

5-5-2019

Degree Type

Certificate of Advanced Study

Program

Connecticut Literacy Specialist

Advisor

Dr. Karen C. Waters

Abstract

Researchers have found a connection between reading and writing instruction and the benefits the instruction has on students’ reading comprehension and writing expression. The purpose of this action research study was to explore the effectiveness of the use of mentor texts on the writing of 22 students in grade 3. Curricular methodology consisted of selected trade books used as mentor texts to represent the various genres and natural language structures inherent within children’s books so that students had consistent models of good writing as they attempted to emulate various authors’ styles of writing. Data collection consisted of a teacher-made questionnaire and teacher-created pre and post writing assessments for sentence construction and paragraph writing. Additionally, rubrics evaluated the quality of student writing. The study indicated that the use of mentor texts for writing instruction, taken together with a writers’ workshop approach, was an effective means for supporting student writing in genres inclusive of opinion, informational, and narrative writing. As students acquired the tools for becoming proficient writers, they wrote with excitement, confidence, and independence. The findings confirmed the theory that the use of mentor texts increased the quality of student writing; subsequently, students made the transition from genre writing to apply the skills across the curriculum.

Comments

Prepared for EDR 692 Applied Reading and Language Arts Research. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the coursework required for the post-masters' Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Literacy.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.


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