The Article

In this study, professors Carol Sue Englert and Yong Zhao and doctoral student Margaret Manalo examined how a Web-based software program impacted elementary school students’ composition of personal narratives when using a support paragraph activity.

Findings

The subjects in this experiment were first and second grade students in a multi-age classroom in a low socio-economic urban community. The participants were asked to write a story in a Web-based environment (known as TELE-Web) on a supported paragraph activity. The software allows teachers to develop prompts (that appear in pop-up boxes on the screen) that provide brief reminders about topical content, genre-related structure or questions, or key words of the lesson. In addition, the software allow teachers to write directions for activities that can be simplified or expanded as needed by particular individual or groups of students. Teaches also can prepare more detailed cures and supports for their students that remain visible throughout an entire activity in a box labeled “Information.” Finally, the software allows students to access online support, such as a spelling checker and text-to-speech function that reads the writing. The students were then asked to type a story in the Web-based environment on a free-writing activity. Finally, students were asked to compose a story through the traditional paper and pencil means. Students’ personal narratives were scored using rubrics that examined both narrative genre and characteristics and writing conventions. The researchers found that, overall, students wrote more, incorporated more genre specific characteristics, and demonstrated conventional writing skills on the supported writing assignment.

What It Means To You

How much is technology and scaffolding employed in the early grades in your schools? Could a program like TELE-Web, with its various support features for teaching and learning, facilitate improved writing skills?

For More Information

Englert, C.S., Manalo, M. & Zhao, Y. (2004). I can do it better on the computer: The effects of technology-enabled scaffolding on young writers’ composition. Journal of Special Education Technology, 19(1), 5-12.