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center for writing | minnesota writing project

Jill Thomas

© 2001

Action Research

Research Project: Prose Modeling

Introduction
Because students who read more are better writers, I am convinced that exposure to good writing improves writing ability. I plan to investigate what role modeling of print texts in the classroom can play in improving student writing. The following three studies guided me in designing my own research study.

Annotated Bibliography
Bereiter, Carl, and Marlene Scardamalia. "Learning about Writing from Reading." Written Communication 1 (1984): 163-88.
This study investigated the knowledge gained by students, ranging from grade three to graduate level, from exposure to three different types of literature. The three types were suspense fiction, a restaurant review, and an invented fictional genre. Brief instruction in how to generate suspense; using a model composition, explicit principles for generating suspense, or a combination of the two; resulted in an overall gain in use of the correct elements of suspense fiction, but not in “impressionistically rated suspensefulness of the stories” (170). In contrast to the suspense component of the study, the restaurant review component yielded positive evidence of immediate effects on writing. For instance, the grade five group learned that restaurant reviews contain literary or story-like elements, and the grade six group acquired knowledge of the types of content to include in a restaurant review. The invented fiction component of the study showed that the use of invented literary types has promise for investigation of students' ability to overcome established patterns in writing.

DeCristofaro, Dina Sechio. "How Text Influences Young Writers." The Quarterly 23 (2001): 8-12. This study investigated the link between the reading that fifth-graders were exposed to and how they write. DeCristofaro traced the influence of student exposure to writing in two situations: class read-alouds and individual silent reading. Results showed that, in both situations, student writing took on characteristics associated with particular authors to which the students were exposed. Immersion in certain kinds of reading helped all writers assimilate the tone, flavor, structure, norms, and rhetorical strategies of particular genres of writing. DeCristofaro urgers educators to surround children with quality literature.

Stolarek, Elizabeth A. "Prose Modeling and Metacognition: The Effect of Modeling on Developing a Metacognitive Stance Toward Writing." Research in the Teaching of English 28 (1994): 154-174.
This study investigated whether prose modeling can promote an introspective, evaluative, metacognitive stance toward writing both in expert and novice writers. Participants included college freshmen and college composition instructors. The participants were given different directions for producing an unfamiliar prose form. Study directions included combinations of a description of the prose model, the actual prose model, and an explication which served to relate characteristics of the form with the prose model. Results showed that students and faculty who were shown the description, the prose model, and the explication produced superior essays, an indication of the effectiveness of modeling supported by description and explication. Students shown only the description had as much trouble as those shown only the model in producing a certain form. Results also showed that students who engaged in prose modeling were most likely to engage in metacognitive thought during their writing, and that prose modeling did not stifle creativity.

My Research Plan
I plan to implement Stolarek's strategy in a Creative Writing course. Participants will be tenth- through twelfth-graders, divided into the following five groups.

Group I: Description Only
Group II: Model Only
Group III: Description/Model
Group IV: Model/Explication
Group V: All Items (Description, Model, Explication)

I will ask all students to write a short story. Group I will receive only the following description of the short story assignment: Write a short story using short sentences (sentences with an average word length of ten words) and as few adjectives as possible. Minimize tag use (i.e., "he said," "she replied"). Develop the characters through their dialogue, their action, and other characters' dialogue. The story should contain rising action, a climax, and a resolution, and be approximately four pages in length. Group II will receive only a model of the story described in the paragraph above, Ernest Hemingway's "Indian Camp." Group III will receive the story description and the "Indian Camp" model. Group IV will receive the "Indian Camp" model, and an explication of the story that relates characteristics of Hemingway's style to "Indian Camp." Group V will receive the description, model, and the explication.

Students will begin composing their story the day that they receive the assignment and will be allowed three class periods to write. I will ask the students not to write outside of class so that each student spends approximately the same amount of time on his/her piece.

At the end of the third class period, I will collect each story and assign each a score from 1 to 5. The scoring rubric is as follows:

1: Story contains only one stylistic element characteristic of Hemingway, and the element minimally, if not at all, contributes to the overall effectiveness of the rising action, climax, and/or resolution of the story.
2: Story contains only two stylistic elements characteristic of Hemingway, and the elements minimally, if not at all, contribute to the overall effectiveness of the rising action, climax, and/or resolution of the story.
3: Story contains all three of the stylistic elements characteristic of Hemingway, and the elements minimally, if not at all, contribute to the overall effectiveness of the rising action, climax, and/or resolution of the story.
4: Story contains all three of the stylistic elements characteristic of Hemingway, and the elements moderately contribute to the overall effectiveness of the rising action, climax, and/or resolution of the story.
5: Story contains all three of the stylistic elements characteristic of Hemingway, and the elements significantly contribute to the effectiveness of the rising action, climax, and/or resolution of the story.

I will then average scores per group. Just as Stolarek found that students who were shown a description, a prose model, and an explication produced superior writing (the "All Items Group"), I predict that my "All Items Group" will do the same. Stylistic elements characteristic of Hemingway, for the purpose of this study, include short sentences, few adjectives, and minimal tag use.

 

Creative Writing

Bliss

Six year-old sunshine

play time is ev'ry time

Barefoot and sleeveless

so smart yet clueless

Chasing all the butterflies

cotton in the summer skies

Keep your ol’ baby trike

got my own Schwinn bike

Baby buggies
Tree forts
Banana slide
Short skorts
Barbie Dolls
Flip-flops
Practice time for
Tootsie Pops
Bein' six and flyin' high

gotta make that sandbox pie

Pea shuckin'

got the knack

Bryn won't give my bucket back
Frozen jello Tupperware
Nylons give me braided hair.
Suzie needs a babysitter

call me and we'll play togither

Bein' six and flyin' high

"Time for bed?" I'm gonna cry

but morning brings another day to dance and sing and pave my way to
Bein' seven. . .