Developing Informational Text Writing Skills of Gifted Students by Leveraging Writing Strategies

Abstract

Designed as action research, this qualitative study aims to develop the informational text writing skills of gifted students through the strategies of “all about” books and frames for writing biographies. The study group of the research consists of 21 gifted 4th grade students studying in the field of general mental ability in a Science and Art Center in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. An eight-week action plan was prepared to support the development of these students' ability to write informational texts. The first 4 weeks are planned with our “all about” books, the last 4 weeks with the strategies of biography writing frameworks. The data were collected with student and teacher diaries, observer reports, student products and Informational Text Writing Rubric. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the collected data. The analysis of the data revealed that while the informational text writing skills of the students were at a moderate level at the beginning, they reached a high level at the end of the process. Based on the findings, some suggestions were presented to teachers and researchers to improve students' ability to write informational texts.