Paragraph and Essay Writing Instruction for Struggling Secondary Writers

为苦苦挣扎的二级作家提供段落和论文写作指导

• 批准号: 8135213
• 负责人: JEAN B SCHUMAKER
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: EDGE ENTERPRISES, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-15 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8135213
• 关键词: Address; Adolescent; Adult; American Indians; CD-ROM; Child; Clip; Complex; Computer software; Control Groups; Data; Development; Disadvantaged; Drops; Education; Educational Curriculum; Educational Models; Educational process of instructing; Effectiveness; Employment; Enrollment; Feasibility Studies; Feedback; Film; Future; Health; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Language Arts; Latino; Learning; Measures; Mental Health; Methods; Modeling; Multimedia; Outcome; Paper; Peer Review; Performance; Phase; Poverty; Process; Public Health; Publishing; Relative (related person); Risk; Sampling; Schools; Secondary Schools; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Societies; Structure; Students; Testing; Textbooks; Thinking; Time; Translating; Unemployment; Workplace; Writing; age group; base; career; college; computer program; computerized; design; essays; experience; high school; instructor; interactive multimedia; intervention program; junior high school; literacy; model development; peer; physical conditioning; product development; programs; prototype; response; satisfaction; skills; social; success; teacher; twelfth grade; visual information

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this fast-track SBIR project entitled "Paragraph and Essay Writing Instruction for Struggling Secondary Writers" is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a total of four interactive multimedia (IM) software programs to be used to teach complex writing skills to struggling writers in secondary schools. The foci of the four programs will be (1) basic paragraph-writing skills, (2) advanced paragraph-writing skills, (3) basic essay-writing skills, and (4) advanced essay-writing skills. The lessons within each program will include an introduction to the program and the targeted writing skills, a description of how to use a targeted writing strategy, demonstrations, practice activities, and feedback. The Phase I project will focus on the feasibility of this medium for teaching complex writing skills to struggling writers. Measures will focus on (a) student use of the program, (b) student knowledge of writing skills, (c) student writing skills related to writing topic, detail, and concluding sentences within a paragraph, and (d) student satisfaction. During Phase I, an informal and a formal pilot test will be conducted to determine the feasibility of the prototype program. During each of the three years of Phase II, at least one informal pilot test and one field test of one new program will be conducted. A pretest-posttest control-group design with random assignment of students to groups will be utilized in each field test to determine the effects of each instructional program on student knowledge, performance, and generalization of the writing skills to complete writing tasks. The programs resulting from this project, because they will be designed to include instructional methods that have been found to be successful with at-risk students, should enable these students to respond successfully to the writing demands of their courses and minimum competency tests. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project is relevant to public health because the number of individuals with low literacy skills is substantial. Low literacy has been associated with dropping out of school and such poor adult outcomes as under-employment and unemployment, criminal activity, and poverty (van Der Veen & Preece, 2005). Moreover, individuals who drop out of school have more mental and physical health problems than individuals who complete high school (Carter, 1998). Students who are at-risk for dropping out of school often have writing skill deficits. Only about half of their sentences are complete sentences. They do not know how to organize and write basic paragraphs and essays, and they are not able to respond to the writing demands of their required courses. A large number of these students will either drop out of school or continue to struggle with writing tasks throughout their school careers and into adulthood. The empirically validated IM products that will result from this project will address the potentially devastating effects that low literacy can cause in children's lives and in society at large. Indeed, about a third of all students and half of all blacks, Latinos, and American Indians are currently failing to graduate from high school on time (Freudenberg & Ruglis, 2007). Since writing skills are needed for success in secondary and post-secondary educational settings and work settings, this project has the potential to help many individuals to succeed and have a better prospect for mental health. The instruction would be used to help struggling writers learn to create a variety of paragraphs and essays. The instructional programs that will result from this project will be usable as literacy intervention programs based on individual needs. In addition, the proposed programs will serve as a model for the development of future IM programs.

描述（由申请人提供）：这个快速轨道SBIR项目的目的为“针对苦苦挣扎的二级作家的段落和论文写作教学”是为了开发和评估四个互动多媒体（IM）软件程序的有效性，用于教授中学中的复杂写作技巧。这四个程序的焦点将是（1）基本段落写作技巧，（2）高级段落编写技巧，（3）基本的论文写作技巧以及（4）高级论文写作技巧。每个程序中的课程将包括对计划和目标写作技巧的介绍，以及如何使用目标写作策略，演示，实践活动和反馈的描述。第一阶段项目将重点介绍该媒介对苦苦挣扎的作家教授复杂的写作技巧的可行性。措施将集中于（a）学生对计划的使用，（b）学生对写作技巧的知识，（c）与写作主题，细节和结论段落中的学生写作技能，以及（d）学生满意度。在第一阶段，将进行非正式和正式的试点测试，以确定原型程序的可行性。在第二阶段的三年中的每一个中，将至少进行一次非正式试点测试和一个新计划的现场测试。在每个现场测试中，将利用将学生随机分配给小组的预测试控制组设计，以确定每个教学计划对学生知识，表现和概括写作技巧的影响以完成写作任务。该项目产生的计划是因为它们的设计旨在包括已被发现在高危学生中成功的教学方法，这应该使这些学生能够成功应对课程的写作要求和最低能力测试。公共卫生相关性：该项目与公共卫生有关，因为识字能力较低的个人数量很大。识字率低与辍学以及诸如失业和失业，犯罪活动和贫困等成人成果差有关（van der Veen＆Preece，2005年）。此外，辍学的人的心理和身体健康问题要比完成高中的人更多（Carter，1998）。因辍学的学生经常会写下技能缺陷。他们的句子中只有大约一半是完整的句子。他们不知道如何组织和撰写基本段落和论文，也无法应对所需课程的写作要求。这些学生中的许多学生要么辍学，要么继续在整个学校职业生涯中写任务并成年。该项目将产生的经验验证的IM产品将解决低识字率在儿童生活和整个社会中的潜在破坏性影响。确实，大约三分之一的学生和一半的黑人，拉丁裔和美洲印第安人目前未能按时从高中毕业（Freudenberg＆Ruglis，2007年）。由于需要在中学和大专教育环境和工作环境中取得成功的写作技巧，因此该项目有可能帮助许多人成功并为心理健康带来更好的前景。该指示将用于帮助挣扎的作家学习创建各种段落和论文。该项目将导致的教学计划将是基于个人需求的扫盲干预计划。此外，拟议的计划将成为开发未来IM计划的模型。