story by Claire Miller
The What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide, a publication of the National Center for Education Evaluation, provides research-based recommendations for teaching writing skills to students.
It suggests that educators devote at least 30 minutes per day in elementary school to teaching writing and providing students with time to practice. But it is unclear whether teachers actually apply these recommendations widely in their classrooms.
Professor Cynthia Puranik worked with faculty members at the University of Cincinnati and Mount St. Joseph University to observe kindergarten teachers’ classrooms for a more in-depth look at their writing instruction.
The researchers recorded videos of 78 teachers across 34 schools three times during the academic year – once in the fall, once in the winter and once in the spring. They recorded the whole school day and concentrated their research on the direct writing instruction kindergarteners received not only during language arts instruction, but also times when writing practices were implemented in other subjects, such as math, science and social studies.
Their results, published in Literacy Research and Instruction, revealed that kindergarten teachers spend about seven minutes a day teaching writing skill and give students 24 minutes of writing practice per day, on average, which meets the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide’s recommendation.
However, they typically spent a little more time teaching basic writing skills – predominately spelling and writing mechanics – and less time teaching handwriting, grammar and sentence construction. This indicates that kindergarteners do not appear to be receiving the optimal amounts of direct skill instruction needed.
“Although our results show that kindergarten teachers devoted the recommended time for writing instruction, their specific instructional focus is not aligned with recommended practices,” the researchers wrote. “By the end of kindergarten, children will need not only to print many uppercase and lowercase letters and but also construct sentences that convey their intended meaning to meet the Common Core State Standards. To be successful, children need direct instruction that includes handwriting, grammar, and sentence construction.”
Puranik and her colleagues also found that writing instruction and practice varied across the academic year, which could be because teachers adapt to their students’ writing progress. And while kindergarten students at the same school typically received the same amount and type of writing instruction, the researchers observed more variation in writing instruction across schools.
“This finding signals the influences of school on teachers’ instructional practices in writing and suggests that effective writing instruction and practice requires a concerted effort on the part of teachers and administrators working together,” they wrote. “Therefore, we encourage principals and other administrators to provide support to help teachers improve their writing practices.”