Browsing by Author "McDonell, Gloria M."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    The effects of four different text structures on the retellings of fourth and sixth grade students
    Van Evera, Carol Thacher (Virginia Tech, 1993)
    The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of different expository text structures on fourth and sixth grade students' written retellings. Although previous research has shown that text structure can assist in understanding and recalling text, little work has been done with the use of different expository text structures by elementary school students, who typically have difficulty with expository text. The basic questions of the study were (1) Is there a difference in students' use of structure or number of idea units? (a) in retellings of passages presented in four different structures? (b) in the retellings of students in grade four compared with those in grade six? (2) Is there an interaction between structural pattern and grade level in the use of structure or the number of idea units? (3) Is there an interaction between structural pattern of text and topic in the use of structure or the number of idea units? Subjects were thirty-nine students in each grade with average and above average reading ability. Using passages in four top-level structures identified by Meyer (1975) -- collection/description, problem/solution, comparison/ contrast, and cause/effect--subjects read and immediately retold passages in writing. The retellings were scored for the use of the author’s original structure and the number of targeted idea units. Hypotheses were tested using a 4 (text structure) x 4 (topic) x 2 (grade level) factorial analysis of variance for each dependent variable. The analysis indicated the following results: (1) For the dependent variable of level of text structure use, there was a Significant difference for grade level and interactions between topic and structure. There were no interactions between grade and structure. (2) For the dependent variable of number of idea units, there were was a Significant difference for grade level, but none for text structure. There were no interactions between grade and structure and none between topic and structure. Subjects were found to use the original structure for problem/ solution more than for the other three patterns. Differences in text structure were found to have little effect on the number of idea units in the students' retellings. Developmental differences were evident both in the use of structure and in the number of idea units produced by fourth and sixth grade students.
  • Thumbnail Image
  • Thumbnail Image
    An exploration of developmental reciprocal communication in the dialogue journals of third graders
    Veltri, Mildred Middlemiss (Virginia Tech, 1991)
    Dialogue journal writing is a form of reciprocal communication in which pupils and teachers inform, and react to the entries of, the partner in a nonevaluative, familiar dialogue. Journals were analyzed in terms of three dependent variables: detail, response complexity, and reference. To study the relationship of journal writing to other characteristics, three independent variables were assessed-- audience awareness, by an adaptation of Braig's (1984) audience awareness categories; social cognition, by Miller, Kessel & Flavell's (1970) assessment of social cognitive development; and writing ability, by an evaluation developed by McCaig (1984). Entries from the dialogue journals of 21 3rd grade students were rated at 3 times--10 consecutive from the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Questions asked were: 1. Do dialogue journals have separate, unique elements, or do they have a single domain? 2. Is there a relationship between the dependent and independent measures? 3. Does skill increase over time for the dependent variables? 4. What is the effect of gender, use of English as a second language, or minority status over time for each of the dependent variables? Spearman rho correlations addressed the first and second questions. Stepwise regression analyses was also completed. Question three was investigated using repeated measures ANOVA. Repeated measures first order interactions and between-subjects differences on dialogue journal scales were used to answer the fourth question. Results of this study indicate that at there are at least three relatively independent components for dialogue journal writing with a large proportion of the variance in detail related to audience awareness and social cognition, and somewhat less to writing ability. There were significant time effects for response complexity and reference. Detail increased, but not significantly. There were no significant first order interactions with time for any of the three demographic variables. However, between-subject differences on dialogue journal scales suggest directions for further study of group and individual differences in dialogue journal writing as reciprocal communication.