Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Seventh Grade Writing Curriculum on Three Subjects' Writing

Abstract

Writing samples from three seventh graders who were taught with a particular teacher developed writing program were analyzed. The instrument used for evaluation was the Six Plus One-Trait Writing rubric from Great Source (2001), which was made up of six main characteristics of writing. These six characteristics were voice, word choice, idea development, organization, sentence fluency, and conventions. Ten writing samples by each student were evaluated throughout the eight week study while they participated in three units: Talent Portfolio, Improvisation, and Character Analysis and Development. Writing samples were collected and analyzed from three students and each was analyzed individually, as well as specifically by each of the six traits. There were fluctuations in scores along the way, but total points increased for each student from beginning to end as well as for each trait. In conclusion, these results indicate that the students' writing samples were positively affected in the areas of voice, word choice, idea development, organization, sentence fluency, and conventions. Further, the students' writing did show improvement throughout this teacher developed writing program.