Abstract
AbstractThe study was a pilot intervention to develop Year 5–8 students’ close reading and writing of literary texts using the T-Shape Literacy Model (Wilson and Jesson in Set Res Inf Teach 1:15–22, 2019). Students analysed text sets to explore how different authors use language to engender mood and atmosphere. The study used a single-subject design logic for repeated researcher-designed and a quasi-experimental, matched control group design for repeated standardised measures of reading and writing. Nine teachers and their classes participated. The schools were part of a large school improvement programme using digital tools and pedagogy to accelerate students’ learning participated that the authors were research-practice partners in. The schools all served low socio-economic status communities and the majority of students were Māori (51%) and Pacific (28%). There was a large effect size on the overall score for the researcher-designed measure (effect size = 1.00) and for the close reading of single texts sub-score (effect size = 0.90). There was a moderate-to-high effect for students’ identification of language features (effect size = 0.75) but no significant effect on their synthesis scores. Students in the intervention significantly outperformed matched control group students in the standardised writing post-test (effect size = 0.65) but differences for the standardized reading comprehension test were not significant (effect size = 0.15). Results overall suggest the approach has promise for improving the metalinguistic knowledge, literary analysis and creative writing of younger and historically underserved groups of students.
Funder
ManaiakalaniEducationTrust
University of Auckland
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC