Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner: How can daily freewriting affect the quality and depth

of students writing skills?

Undergraduate Full Practicum Inquiry Project April 2012 BA in Secondary Education Lynch School of Education Boston College

Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner

Abstract The purpose of this intervention was to examine the effects of three weeks of daily, timed freewriting on the overall quality and depth of student writing as well as on student enthusiasm for writing. Before and after the intervention, students responded to survey questions relating to their enthusiasm for writing and their perceived writing abilities. Following daily independent reading and reading responses, students responded for 7 minutes to a freewrite prompt written on the board. At the end of 7 minutes, pupils counted the number of words they had written and recorded this number at the bottom of their entries. Students also had the opportunity to share their writing with their peers, either by reading their entries aloud or by passing their entries to a neighbor. A cross-sample of low-, medium-, and high-achieving students from each period were selected and their freewrite entries were collected for analysis. Survey questions were analyzed for changes in response, word counts were analyzed for significant increases or decreases in value, and cross-sample entries were codified for elements of writing quality and depth of writing. Overall, the intervention was successful, indicating that daily, timed freewriting increases quality and depth of student writing as well as student enthusiasm for writing.

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Problem Statement

The ability to write, to express oneself logically and eloquently in print, opens academic and professional doors for those students who master it. Students who write well perform better in all academic classes and have an easier time applying to colleges and entering many careers. Furthermore, writing gives individuals the chance to better understand themselves and the world around them and to communicate more effectively with others. In the eighth grade ELA classes at my school, I noticed a marked incompetence in students writing abilities. Homework assignments and essays revealed mechanical problems such as spelling and punctuation errors, incomplete sentences, and incorrect verb conjugation. Worse, some students failed to write coherently, errors distorting the very meaning of their thoughts. Having observed students during writing instruction, and having made connections with many students on a personal level, I realized that the writing illiteracy in my classroom stemmed in part from their apathetic and even defeatist attitudes towards the writing process. As many of my students were ELLs, had IEPs, or struggled with difficult home situations that inhibited proper academic growth, traditional writing instruction had thus far failed to meet their individual needs. They did not enjoy writing because they had never been good it nor seen a purpose for it, and thus they put little effort into their assignments. Through a writing intervention involving daily, timed freewriting, I hoped to increase the quality and depth of student writing as well as their enthusiasm for writing. Context and Frame of Reference Frame of Reference I grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a suburb just west of Philadelphia, where I attended a public, middle-class high school with a predominantly white demographic; according to the school website, approximately 83.35% of students are white, 7.37% are black, 5.29% are Asian, and 3.92% are Hispanic. We benefited from plentiful academic resources including libraries, computer rooms, an auditorium and music rooms, and classrooms equipped with the latest technology. With every resource at my finger-tips, and with teachers and a family who firmly believed in my ability to achieve, I developed the academic skills necessary for success.

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Having thus experienced a relatively privileged educational upbringing surrounded by mostly white peers, I have noticed some similarities but more differences in the educational environments of my practicum placements while at Boston College. In the last three years, I have taught in a public, low SES school with a majority of black and Hispanic students, I have taught at a private, all-girls school composed of wealthy white students, and I have taught at a public school with both low and high SES students and a relatively even spread of races. Each of these schools brought its own demographics, teaching goals, and educational problems to the table, opening my eyes to the pros and cons, the benefits and challenges, of various educational settings. From these three, varied teaching experiences as compared to my own educational background, I have developed personal practical theories that I think apply to all pupils regardless of school, race, gender, or SES. Firstly, I believe that every student sincerely wants to learn and therefore deserves the opportunity to learn in a manner appropriate to his/her needs and skills. In other words, teachers should understand that everyone learns differently and should thus incorporate accommodations for all learners into their lessons in order to ensure that every students needs are met. I believe that it is an individuals right to receive an appropriate education and that it is the teachers job to make this happen. As this relates to my writing intervention, I believed that traditional writing instruction had not thoroughly met the learning needs of ELLs or students on IEPs, as demonstrated by the poor writing produced in my fullinclusion ELA classes. Students struggled with basic English skills and thus required teaching accommodations that would spark their enthusiasm for the writing process by making it less intimidating and more engaging, allowing them to express themselves freely and without criticism from an instructor. They also needed repeated practice more practice, perhaps than other students to increase the quality of their writing. I believed that a freewriting intervention would promote this kind of enthusiasm and writing quality by allowing students to write consistently about topics that interested them without the threat of negative feedback for mechanical writing errors. Secondly, I believe that a teachers responsibilities go beyond just academics, that he/she should make personal connections on some level with every student. I really believe that mutual respect is the

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key for good classroom management and effective learning and that the only way to establish a genuine teacher-student relationship is for the teacher to actively know the student. Thus, an instructor should memorize all his/her students names, he/she should be familiar with his/her students academic strengths and weaknesses, he/she should have some familiarity with each students personality in the classroom, and he/she should make some effort to talk to every student in a social context (during breaks, between classes, etc.). In this way, the class will feel comfortable with the teacher, will respect the teacher, and will behave better and absorb more from instruction. Furthermore, by knowing a student well, the teacher is better able to plan his/her instruction around that students abilities, needs, and interests. Through writing and discussing topics related to students lives and experiences, I believed my writing intervention would facilitate this kind of personal connection between myself and the individuals in my classes. It would allow me to understand the way my students thought, to learn a bit about their lives while also monitoring their strengths and weaknesses as writers. In establishing these relationships, I would be better prepared to deliver the kind of instruction each individual required. Context For four months, I taught in three 8th grade ELA classes at a public, urban K-8 school. According to the Massachusetts Department of education website, this school has 838 students between prekindergarten and eighth grade, 45.9% of whom are Hispanic, 27.6% of whom are African American, 12.2% of whom are white, and 11.1% of whom are Asian, along with a small minority of other races. Furthermore, 81.7% of students are low SES, with 75.1% qualifying for free lunch and 6.7% qualifying for reduced lunch. In terms of English proficiency, 52.4% of students do not speak English as a first language and 39.4% of students have limited English proficiency. 21% of students require special education. The 71 pupils in my CTs three classes, therefore, consisted mainly of black, Hispanic, and Asian students who spoke a variety of languages. Because the school operated under full inclusion, a large portion of my students had learning or language needs. Furthermore, probably as a result of their low SES, many students lived in difficult home environments in which they suffered physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, experienced broken families, or were directly exposed to the violence so prevalent in

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their communities. Such living conditions fostered students with little to no academic confidence or

ambition. Lacking support from family and friends, my pupils began failing academically at an early age and, believing they could not succeed because they had never succeeded, continued to fail. It is in this environment that my CT must teach academic writing, accommodating students with learning and language needs as well as students who never read and who disliked writing because these skills were never encouraged at home. It is no wonder that traditional methods of writing instruction had not adequately prepared these non-traditional students to write effectively. My school demonstrated some characteristics of a bureaucratic school culture and some characteristics of a collegial school culture. It was bureaucratic in that the teachers must follow various, constantly changing orders from on high such as a pre-determined district curriculum, a school-mandated uniform, or the administrations Bright Light program in which students received Bright Light slips from their teachers for demonstrating good behavior. The school culture was collegial in that teachers had some freedom for experimentation in their instruction and in that there was constant communication between teachers within each grade. For instance, although the district dictated what books my CT must teach and required that she teach them based on the reciprocal teaching approach, a technique which emphasizes general reading comprehension, she could utilize whatever methods and activities she deemed most effective for accomplishing this task. Furthermore, eighth grade teachers and administrators met twice a week to discuss struggling students and to propose new tactics for helping individuals improve. In a learning environment which promoted instructional experimentation and collaboration between teachers, I was able to implement those measures I believed would best meet the varied needs of my students. Specifically, I received full support for the implementation of my freewriting intervention. My educational role at the Edison was to help my CT with various tasks (collecting papers, making copies, answering questions, reading aloud to students, etc.), to grade students daily Do Now activities (either grammar or poetry) and check homework, and to help students during group or independent activities by answering their questions and by engaging them in discussion about the task at

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hand. I also taught many individual lessons and completed two full takeover weeks with 3rd and 4th

blocks (the last and second-to-last periods of the day). I implemented my intervention with these periods because I had made connections with most of these students and I thought they would cooperate in completing surveys, doing interviews, and responding seriously to freewriting prompts. Furthermore, because I knew these classes well, I knew which individuals were high-, middle-, and low-achieving students and could thus choose samples from each group for data collection purposes. Students in my 3rd and 4th block classes were, generally speaking, a lively and talkative bunch. As a group, they had a keen sense of humor and got along well with each other. Although they respected my CT, the classes learning and behavioral problems combined with their overall apathy towards reading and writing often resulted in students who did not pay attention, were frequently off-task, or distracted their neighbors during instruction. Despite their sociable nature or perhaps because of it students benefitted most from whole-group and individual learning, tending to be distracted and unproductive during group activities. Certain students in each class, most notably two male pupils in 3rd block and a male and female pupil in 4th block who had been held back, consistently refused to complete their work or participate in class activities. The rest of the students generally worked to the best of their ability, or at least attempted the majority of their work, on a daily basis. I also chose a cross-section of one low-, middle-, and high-achieving student from each period to use as a sample of the classes. I selected these students based on my CTs recommendations. My CT, in turn, chose these students based on a combination of grades and effort. In other words, she recommended students who earned As and Bs and who consistently tried their best as high-achieving, students who earned low Bs, Cs, and high Ds and who sometimes tried their best as middle-achieving, and students who earned lower than Ds and who rarely or never tried their best as low-achieving. From 3rd block I chose Joe (low-achieving), Danielle (middle-achieving), and Allison (high achieving), and from 4th block I chose Mark (low-achieving), Kelly (middle-achieving), and Evan (high-achieving) to represent a crosssample of each class1. Although none of these students had IEPs, Danielle, Mark, and Evan were ELLs,

Names of students have been changed to protect their identities.

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as indicated by their responses to the survey question, Is English your native language? If not, what other language(s) do you speak? Research Questions How can daily freewriting affect the quality and depth of students writing skills? How do students feel about writing, and how will structured writing prompts alter this attitude? How will recording word counts of freewrite entries affect the quality of student writing and student enthusiasm for writing? Mini Literature Review Introduction In recent years, the increased focus on standardized testing in schools has led to an emphasis on traditional teaching methods and formal writing assignments. According to Ortiz-Marrero and Sumaryono (2010), teachers gravitate towards direct instruction and whole group approaches as a way to complete the curriculum and cover all necessary material in a limited time. However, some specialists worry that traditional approaches do not allow sufficiently for individual student growth and reflection (Greenwood, 1989, p. 184), especially since governmental and administrative powers have nearly eliminated affective development, e.g., activities to get to know students and foster community (Knight, 2008, p. 13). Furthermore, research indicates that traditional chalk and talk methods overlook the special needs of both ELLs and students who speak non-standard dialects of English, as the heavy emphasis on correction in traditional teaching belittles non-traditional languages and discourages non-native English speakers from expressing themselves comfortably. On the other hand, more interactive and critical methods of learning, such as freewriting, have been found to teach necessary skills while promoting emotional growth, creativity, and the celebration of various cultures (Ortiz-Marrero & Sumaryono, 2010). Given the high population of ELLs and students on IEPs in my classroom, and given my CTs highly MCAS-oriented and traditional teaching, my students may not have received proper support for personal engagement in their learning. This lack of creative instruction can hinder the development of their writing abilities. Knight (2008) quotes Linda Rief in defending the necessity of opportunities for personal expression and creativity in American education: Good writing comes from creativity, imagination, and passionate beliefs, feelings, opinions, questions (p. 8). Below, I

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will review the literature on freewriting and journal writing in order to assess its effect on students attitude toward and quality of writing. Freewriting Methods

In the search for more interactive teaching methods to promote creativity and improve the quality of student writing, researchers and teachers have implemented freewriting and journaling procedures in various classroom contexts and then analyzed the results. Most of the studies reviewed here focus on the frequency of journal writing, the implementation of writing prompts, the amount of time spent writing, and the effects of these variables on student writing. Lutz and Moxley (1995) include four studies on freewriting in first, second, third, and fourth grade classrooms, Knight (2008) focuses on 16 students in a sixth grade homeroom, and Greenwood (1989) discusses journaling as implemented in seventh grade. Although I taught students in the 8th grade, a large majority of my class wrote well below grade level as a result of learning disabilities or lack of English fluency; Lutz and Moxleys studies of elementary school students applied to my pupils learning situation in that many of them were essentially beginning writers. On the other hand, Knights and Greenwoods studies of middle school students demonstrate that individuals with the emotional development of pre-teenagers can also benefit from these methods. Some of the above studies implement freewriting two or three times each week (Lutz & Moxley, 1995; Knight, 2008). Others implement daily journaling (Lutz & Moxley, 1995). Greenwoods study focuses on a selfregulated writing schedule with a quota of pages per week (1989). In terms of writing prompts, the majority of these studies provide an optional topic to guide student thinking but allow writers to use these prompts at their own discretion. In Knights study (2008), for instance, students were provided with, but not required to use school-wide prompts, nor were they required to write in particular genres (p. 13), yet students generally choose to answer the prompt because, as they reveal in post-study interviews, the questions interest them and encourage them to think more deeply (Knight, 2008). In Greenwoods (1989) study, students receive no prompt, allowing them the freedom to discuss personal issues, reflect about themselves and the world around them, and share goals and dreams. Since my CT already implemented

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reading response journaling every day, I intended to replace these reading responses with daily freewriting, providing writing prompts taken from an online source for students to respond to.

The research articles reviewed here also explore the effects of strictly timed, loosely timed, and untimed journaling on writing ability. Lutz and Moxley (1995), for example, analyze the effect of both strictly restricted and loosely restricted time limits on the amount and quality of student writing. The second grade study reveals that strictly-restricted time limits do not significantly deteriorate writing mechanics. The third grade study, illustrates the benefits of timed writing in increasing the total amount of freewriting, and reveals that, the timed writing generally had more expressive detail (Lutz & Moxley, p. 7). Furthermore, teachers who implement timed writing note that students enjoy it and specifically request it. Still another variable shown to influence the freewriting process is word counting, or the calculation of words written per journal entry. Lutz and Moxley (1995) discuss the implications of word counting as a means of increasing both the amount and quality of student writing. In all four studies, students count the number of words they write each day and record this number on personal and class charts, and various prizes are awarded for the completion of set goals. The rationale behind this method is that, writing more and at a higher rate already has a demonstrated link to improved quality of writing and that self-recorded word counts of freewriting can facilitate increased writing in early grades (Lutz & Moxley, 1995, p. 2). The four studies support this rationale, as participants increase their words counts over time and as, increases in writing speed were accompanied by increases in expression (Lutz & Moxley, 1995, p. 8). Considering the improvements in amount and quality of writing caused by strictly-timed writing limits and word counting, and because freewriting would take the place of reading-response journaling, which generally took about 5-10 minutes, I chose to implement a 7-minute journaling limit with several minutes after writing reserved for word counting and sharing. Interactive Learning

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In order for students to experience, as Fox and Suhor (1986) say, both student interaction and thoughtfully structured classroom activities (p. 35) teachers must incorporate certain elements in the freewriting process to encourage interactive learning. For example, many researchers emphasize the benefits of non-graded journal writing. Chandler (1997), upon experiencing graded journaling in a graduate course, realizes that grading, is an effort to direct or correct my thinking, to criticize what Ive said or felt. I feel inadequate and stupid, put down, and punished (p. 46). She suggests that grades do not motivate critical thinking but rather encourage students to guess and conform to what the instructor wants. Furthermore, studies show that grading inhibits, participation, performance, and creativity, that it, reject[s] diversity, and even, contribute[s] to students misbehavior, cheating, and cutting class (Chandler, 1997, p. 47). Greenwood (1989) insists that teachers should resist the urge to red-ink journal entries, focusing on content instead. Knight (2008) proposes that writing completed during journal writing should be treated as practice because students require opportunities, to express themselves without the pressure to perform for a grade (p. 20). Non-graded freewriting benefits every student, including ELLs and students who speak non-standard dialects of English, because it provides them an opportunity to communicate and express themselves without judgment or corrections (OrtizMarrero & Sumaryono, 2010). Rather than grading freewrite entries, many researchers and teachers promote the implementation of real student-teacher dialogue about student writing. In one study, participants have the option to put their journals in a crate to be read and commented on by the teacher (Knight, 2008). Wanting to avoid criticizing or correcting their entries, the teacher asks students what they expect from her responses; the majority of students seek, honest feedback they wanted the compliments but they also wanted to know where they needed improvement (Knight, 2008, p. 5). This teacher finds that her role changes from the teacher-critic to the coach for a recreational team who encourages and does not criticize. Chandler (1997) finds that her students, like those of another study she quotes below, prefer, thoughtful comments about the subject at hand, preferably comments I made as a fellow human being rather than as a teacher (p. 46). Such an approach eliminates the traditional school culture of teacher

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versus students and prevents learning from being a pointless ritual focused on making a grade. Instead, it promotes a democratic environment that cultivates open communication (Chandler, 1997). Chandler (1997) suggests that, journals not be assessed or evaluated, but be accepted as either credit for completion or no credit for failure to complete (p. 48). In addition to commenting on student journals, Greenwood (1989) proposes that teachers freewrite as a model. In her own studies, she writes every day along with the class and leaves her journal in the room for everyone to read as a way to build trust between herself and her students. In an effort to promote authentic and creative thinking, I planned not to grade my students journal entries for content or mechanics. Instead, I would collect notebooks every Friday and give credit for completion and record word counts. I would also write thought-provoking comments about elements that interested me. For 3-5 minutes after the 7-minute writing time, I planned to allow volunteers to read their entries aloud to the class. Students may comment on these shared thoughts or they may simply listen and ponder them silently. Research has found that sharing freewriting with peers can create real dialogue about important topics and promote democratic and interactive learning in the classroom. Chandler (1997) suggests that students share journals with a partner who will respond to an entry in writing or pass their journals around the classroom for several students to read. These sharing activities reinforce common understanding and point to common misunderstandings, and also, expose students to multiple viewpoints and interpretations (Chandler, 1997, p. 49). In the sixth grade study, students have the opportunity to share their writing at the end of each day of writing but are not required to do so. Four of sixteen students describe sharing as their favorite part of journaling while others remain too shy to share with the class and instead pass their journals only to their friends. According to Knight (2008), they didnt want or need feedback; they simply wanted another human being to acknowledge that they had written something, to share the writing in a safe environment (p. 18). In the studies conducted by Lutz & Moxley (1995), modeling occurred when the students heard or saw what other students had written, while student comments provide formative feedback on this writing (p. 3). In all four of these studies, students are encouraged to share their writing with a neighbor or aloud to the class. I hoped that sharing

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entries and discussing writing prompts as a class even if only for a few minutes would increase my classes enthusiasm for writing and improve their writing skills by exposing them to other points of view and writing styles. Transferable Skills Researchers and teachers have found that freewriting can lead to significant improvements in the overall quality of student writing. In all four studies conducted by Lutz and Moxley (1995), increased writing speed as demonstrated by word counts ultimately produces increased expression with only minor decreases in mechanics. Specifically, higher rates lead to, increases in concrete detail, such as dialogue, and in sentence complexity, as indicated by both word length and syntax (Lutz & Moxley, 1995, p. 8). In concluding interviews, participants in the sixth grade study claim to have improved as writers as a result of journaling. One student notes that her writing has become more interesting because she finds the writing process more engaging; two other students in the same study notice that they have begun incorporating higher-level words and are writing more and longer sentences (Knight, 2008). Furthermore, one student believes that her writing ability transfers over to writing in other academic classes: she also felt that she had make improvements in writing in her other classes, because my writing makes sense [now] (Knight, 2008, p. 18). Studies indicate that, in addition to improving the quality of student writing, journaling results in more personal points of view and reflections on personal experiences (Lutz & Moxley, 1995). Knight (2008) finds that student confidence increases noticeably, as they grew to like writing more and felt proud of themselves for their accomplishments (p. 18). One student reports that this newly developed confidence allows her to participate and share more in other classes and to stand up for herself at home (Knight, 2008). Another student claims that freewriting increases his critical thinking skills because, when I hear some of [these] question that I have never thought makes me think (Knight, 2008, p. 20). One teacher notes that journaling promotes, critical self-appraisal, discussions about youngsters emerging interest in the opposite sex, school pressure, and parental expectations, and the sharing of dreams (Greenwood, 1989, p. 186). Furthermore, researchers have found that teaching outside the

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confines of traditional instruction produces, remarkably enthusiastic readers and writers (Fox & Suhor, 1986, p. 34). Because my CT generally taught with traditional direct instruction, a method that had so far correlated with overall apathetic writers and thinkers, I hoped a more democratic learning environment as implemented through freewriting and sharing would encourage confidence, selfreflection, critical thinking, and increased enthusiasm as demonstrated in the studies. Conclusion Although my students overall lack of writing fluency and apathy toward the writing process may not have been directly related to my CTs traditional teaching methods, research suggests that more interactive learning techniques such as freewriting can increase the quality of student writing and encourage student enthusiasm, especially in ELLs and students with learning needs. However, Fox and Suhor (1986) point out several shortcomings of journaling as a method of teaching writing. Namely, both time and preparation are required to move from free writing to the more structured composition called for in school settings (p. 35), especially since students accustomed to freewriting may resist the revising and editing process. Furthermore, they emphasize two excesses of the freewriting process when used alone to teach writing: the tendency to reject skills instruction without reservation and the nave expectation that fluid writing will somehow become good writing (Fox & Suhor, 1986, p. 35). However, when used in conjunction with traditional teaching methods that promote technical skills and revision, freewriting can develop creativity, expression, and critical thinking. I believed it would improve my students attitude toward writing as well as the depth and quality of their writing. Intervention As stated above, I implemented my writing intervention during my CTs 3rd and 4th blocks of ELA. In total, for both classes, I studied the effects of freewriting on 47 students, 25 of whom were girls and 23 of whom were boys. The freewriting intervention consisted of three weeks of daily, timed freewriting. I chose to time the freewriting so as to be able to complete the activity on a daily basis within the time constraints of the class period. Furthermore, the literature states that timed writing increases the amount and quality of freewriting and that students prefer timed writing over untimed writing.

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Every day in my CTs classes, students read their independent reading books for 20-25 minutes and then responded to the reading for 5 minutes in their independent reading journals a task designed to improve students reading comprehension and writing abilities. Students were allowed to choose their own books, to read whatever interested them, with the idea that this freedom of choice would increase students involvement in their reading. The journal prompt was also very open; students were asked to make connections with the text but were given little other guidance in their writing. My CT collected these journals randomly to assess them for depth of response according to a general rubric she had given students at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, the majority of students simply summarized the reading rather than analyzed it. Some students did not respond to the reading at all but rather wrote about other things. They seemed uninterested in journaling, despite the fact that these 5 minutes served as an opportunity to be creative and connect to the text on a personal level. Furthermore, poorly-written essays and homework assignments suggested that independent reading journals did little to enhance the quality of student writing. Thus, I wondered if daily, structured writing prompts and class discussions about these prompts would improve the quality of student writing and their enthusiasm for writing. Before implementing my intervention, I distributed a survey which asked students to rate their feelings about different aspects of writing as a way to determine students enthusiasm for writing and their perceived writing abilities. I also picked a low-, medium-, and high-achieving pupil from each class as a cross-sample to track their writing progress throughout the intervention. I interviewed these six students in-depth about writing at the start of the intervention. I analyzed their freewriting journals throughout the intervention to evaluate the quality and depth of their entries and to assess any improvements in quality or depth. Specifically, I looked for concrete detail, sentence complexity, level of vocabulary, and expressive language (metaphors, similes, descriptive words, etc.) as indicators taken from my research to demonstrate writing quality. In terms of writing depth, I looked for the use of personal points of view and personal experiences.

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I originally intended the following intervention to take the place of the independent reading

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journals as described above. However, because my CT resisted this change, I decided to implement the intervention in addition to the reading response journals. Thus, following independent reading and response time, I asked students to open their journals to a fresh page, write the date at the top of the page, and respond to a freewriting prompt I had written on the board for a time duration of 7 minutes. When the 7 minutes ended, I gave them 2-3 minutes to count up the number of words they had written and to write and circle this number at the bottom of the page. The literature claims that word counting increases both the amount and quality of student writing, and I thus intended to track changes in word counts throughout the intervention. After 10 minutes devoted to writing and counting words, students had the opportunity to share their entries. Sharing was to be completely voluntary. For the first week of the intervention, I allotted a few minutes for volunteers to read their entries aloud, as some research claims that sharing aloud facilitates an interactive learning environment. However, when students seemed reluctant to read their writing, and when my CT insisted on cold-calling students to share despite my explicit explanation of the intervention, I changed the sharing activity slightly; for the last two weeks of the intervention, I asked students to pass their journals to a neighbor, read each others entries, and write a comment or two a compliment or a helpful suggestion or a thoughtful response to a point made by the writer in the margins. Research states that sharing in any form is beneficial because it exposes students to new viewpoints, because reading others writing serves as a form of modeling, and because student comments provide helpful feedback to improve student writing. Every Friday, I collected student journals and graded their responses for completion (100% for effort and 0% for no entry). This non-graded journaling policy coincided with studies suggesting that grades discourage creativity and effort, that non-graded freewriting benefits ELLs and students who speak non-standard English by allowing them to express themselves without the fear of judgment. I recorded the word counts of each students entries in an Excel graph. The three individuals with the highest total word counts at the end of each week received a candy prize of their choosing. I informed the

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classes of this word count competition on the first day of the intervention as an incentive for students to write as much as possible for the full 7 minutes of the freewrite. While grading journals for the first week, I made comments and notes in the margins of the entries, following the advice of studies that promote honest feedback and encouragement on the part of the instructor in order to facilitate teacher-student relationships. For the last two weeks, when students read and commented on their neighbors journals, I made no comments, both because time constraints made doing so difficult and because students had already read and commented on the writing. On the last day of the intervention, I distributed another survey, one which asked students to rate their feelings both about different aspects of writing and about the freewriting activity as a way to assess changes in their responses from the beginning to the end of the intervention and as a way to determine the overall success of the intervention. Data Sources In order to assess the effectiveness of my intervention, I collected a variety of qualitative and quantitative data to document student learning and to measure desired outcomes. Before starting the intervention, for instance, I distributed a survey meant to assess students enthusiasm for writing and perceived writing ability (see Figure 11 in Appendix). Students were asked to rate their agreement with 4 statements related to writing on a scale of 1-5, with 1 representing not at all and 5 representing very much. They were also expected to respond to 2 open response questions, one about their favorite type of writing and one about their native language. At the end of the intervention, I distributed a similar survey (see Figure 12 in Appendix). I repeated all 4 questions from the original survey as a way of determining changes in answers, and I asked 3 new questions meant to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. I also required students to answer open response questions about their favorite and least favorite writing prompts and their favorite and least favorite parts of the freewriting activity. Changes in answers from survey one to survey two were expected to demonstrate how freewriting affected student enthusiasm for writing. I entered overlapping survey responses into graphs (see Figures 1-4 in Appendix) and analyzed the results. I also entered students responses to the questions

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related to the freewriting activity on survey two into charts (see Figures 7-9 in Appendix) and used this information to help analyze the changes in overlapping survey questions. At the start of the intervention, I interviewed my cross-sample students more in-depth about their attitudes towards writing, their feelings about writing instruction in their classroom, and their thoughts and suggestions about the freewriting activity. I intended to use these sources to assess the writing enthusiasm of these cross-sample students. However, later analysis revealed that these interviews added little valuable information to my understanding of the study, and so I did not include the interview responses in my final analysis. Every day during the intervention, I made detailed observations about student participation. I noted which students wrote furiously for the entire 7 minutes and which students slacked off or seemed uninterested. I also observed when students seemed particularly interested, uninterested, or confused by specific prompts. During the first week, I kept a tally of those students who chose to share, noting whether or not students were eager to read what they wrote. During the second and third weeks, I observed how eager students were to read their peers entries and to respond to them. Every day after responding to prompts, I asked that students count and record the number of words they had written. I put these word counts into an Excel chart for later analysis. By the end of the intervention, students had responded to and recorded word counts for a total of 12 writing prompts: 4 from the first week, 3 from the second week, and 5 from the third week. Since research suggests that increased word counts relate to increased quality of writing, this data was expected to correlate with improved student writing. Furthermore, I expected that the number of words written would relate to students enthusiasm for writing. I entered word count data into two graphs (see Figures 5 and 6 in Appendix) in order to analyze the results. Most important for my study was the collection of freewrite entries I took from the selected crosssample of students. I read and analyzed these entries for writing quality and depth of writing. Specifically, I considered concrete detail, sentence complexity, strength of vocabulary, and expressive language (metaphors, similes, descriptive words, etc.) as signifying quality of writing. I considered

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personal points of view and experiences, as well as critical self-reflection, as signifying depth of writing. In order to analyze these entries, I color-coded each element of writing quality and each element of depth of writing and high-lighted examples of these elements within the entries using the appropriate color. Results Finding One Analysis of journal entries written by a cross-sample of students addressed the question of whether or not freewriting affects the quality and depth of students writing skills. The following findings suggest that, overall, every students experienced some increase in both the quality and the depth of their writing. However, these results varied from student to student. The journals revealed that one or more elements of writing quality (concrete details, sentence complexity, vocabulary, and expressive language) improved in the course of the freewrite intervention for all six cross-sample students. Between the first and last freewrite entries, high-achieving students Allison and Evan improved the concrete detail and sentence complexity of their writing while their level of vocabulary and expressive language remained relatively the same. Middle-achieving student Danielle increased significantly in the sentence complexity of her writing from the first entry to the last entry, with moderate improvements in the level of her vocabulary and use of expressive language; although she incorporated many concrete details in her entries, the frequency of these concrete details did not significantly increase from the beginning to the end of the intervention. Middle-achieving student Kellys use of concrete details significantly increased between her first and last entries, and her sentence complexity improved somewhat, while her level of vocabulary and expressive language showed no significant change. Low-achieving student Joes sentence complexity, concrete detail, and vocabulary improved only slightly from the first to the last entry, although his use of expressive language increased noticeably throughout the intervention. Low-achieving student Mark markedly improved the sentence complexity of his writing and showed slight increases in the use of concrete detail, but his level of vocabulary and expressive language remained very low throughout.

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The journals also revealed that five out of six cross-sample students improved in one or more of the elements of depth of writing (personal points of view and personal experiences). High-achieving students Allison and Evan improved in both elements of depth of writing throughout the course of the intervention. Middle-achieving student Danielle increased slightly in her use of points of view and personal experiences; middle-achieving student Kellys points of view remained consistent, and she incorporated no personal experiences in her writing throughout the intervention. Low-achieving student Joes points of view and personal experiences increased slightly. Low-achieving student Mark used no personal experiences in his writing, but his incorporation of personal points of view increased significantly from the beginning to the end of the intervention. Finding Two Analysis of responses to survey questions distributed at the beginning and end of the intervention addressed the question of whether or not daily freewriting affects students enthusiasm for writing. The following results suggest that the three-week-long freewriting intervention increased students enjoyment of writing and level of comfort with the writing process. However, results relating to students perceived writing abilities and students perception of writing as a means of expression were inconclusive. Figure 1 shows the frequency of responses to the survey question, How much do you enjoy writing? The average response increased from 2.91 to 3.56, indicating that students enjoyed writing more after the intervention than before the intervention. Figure 2 shows the frequency of responses to the survey question, How comfortable do you feel with the writing process? The average response increased from 2.7 to 3.26, indicating that the intervention had a positive effect on students comfort with the writing process. Figure 3 shows the frequency of responses to the survey question, How well do you write? The average response increased slightly from 3.12 to 3.35. However, since this increase was not statistically significant, my findings about students perceived writing ability were inconclusive. Figure 4 shows the frequency of responses to the survey question, To what extent do you see writing as a way to express yourself? The average response decreased from 3.58 to 3.53. Since this

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decrease was not statistically significant, my findings about students perceptions of writing were inconclusive. Finding Three

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Analysis of word counts for the 12 freewrite entries of the intervention addressed the question of whether or not word counting affects the quality of student writing and student enthusiasm for writing. The following results suggest that word counts had a slight upward trend and that word counts increased more steadily for those students who reported enjoying writing more at the end of the intervention than for students who did not report enjoying writing more at the end of the intervention. Figure 5 shows the average number of words written per journal entry throughout the course of the intervention. The graph indicates a general upward trend in word counts. Figure 6 compares the average number of words written per entry for those students whose enjoyment in writing increased versus words written per entry for those students whose enjoyment in writing did not increase. The graph indicates that word counts for students who reported enjoying writing more after the intervention increased more steadily than did word counts for students who did not report enjoying writing more after the intervention. Analysis/Interpretation Finding one, based on my analysis of freewrite entries written by a cross-sample of students from 3rd and 4th blocks, revealed that overall writing quality and depth of writing increased from the beginning to the end of the freewriting intervention. Because I never corrected journals but only graded them for completion, this finding would suggest that improved writing quality and depth of writing resulted naturally from the freewriting process rather than from students desire to meet specific grading criteria dictated by the teacher. In other words, they did not improve so as to conform to my expectations. The comments I made during week one and the comments made by peers during weeks two and three may have influenced this improvement to some extent, with compliments, suggestions, and reflections encouraging students to include more elements of writing in their subsequent entries. A study on the

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effect of commenting might have revealed the correlation between commenting, writing quality, and depth of writing. Of course, I based my analysis of student journals on a somewhat subjective coding system. I took liberties in deciding which examples of students entries signified or did not signify each element of writing quality and depth of writing. Thus, it was impossible to measure writing improvements precisely or definitely, and so I based my findings on subjective conclusions. This subjectivity should be taken into account when considering the results of finding one. With that in mind, the journal analyses suggest that, although every student in the cross sample increased their writing quality and depth of writing, the writing of higher-achieving students improved more noticeably than did that of lower-achieving students. High-achieving Allison and Evan improved significantly in two elements of writing quality and in both elements of depth of writing. Middleachieving Danielle only improved significantly in one element of writing quality, with slight improvements in other elements of writing quality and depth of writing; Kelly only improved significantly in two elements of writing quality with no improvements in other elements of writing quality or depth of writing. Low-achieving students Joe and Mark also improved in one element of writing quality and one element of depth of writing, with slight or no improvements in other elements of writing quality and depth of writing. Greater improvements in the writing of high-achieving students could be a result of many variables. For instance, the better class grades of high-achieving students may suggest a more dedicated work ethic which positively affected their performance during the freewriting activity. In other words, these students generally try harder than middle- or low-achieving students and thus applied themselves more consistently throughout the course of the intervention. Similarly, the natural intelligence and learning skills which allow high-achieving students to succeed in school may have also allowed them to self-regulate their own writing abilities. Finally, because low-achieving students frequently develop a self-defeatist attitude toward learning as a result of years of failure, this attitude may have hindered them from putting their full effort into the intervention, thereby improving.

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Finding two, deduced from survey responses given at the beginning and end of the intervention, revealed that students enthusiasm for writing and their comfort level with the writing process increased significantly over the course of three weeks. When creating the graphs shown by Figures 1 and 2, I made sure to eliminate the answers of any student who did not respond to both surveys. Therefore, if a student was absent or refused to participate on the day of either the first or second survey, I eliminated their data from the chart so as to avoid any bias. The great increase in students enthusiasm for writing, from an average of 2.91 to 3.56, pleasantly surprised me, as I did not anticipate such a drastic change to occur within three weeks. However, responses to a survey question as seen in Figure 7, How much did you enjoy the freewriting activity? partially explain this unexpected result. With an average response of 3.84, students indicated that they enjoyed my intervention. This enthusiasm for the intervention, however, might suggest that students interest in freewriting as a genre increased more than their interest in writing as a more general concept. On the other hand, this answer may simply demonstrate that enjoyment of one style of writing carries over into the enjoyment of all types of writing. The increase in students comfort with the writing process also came as an unexpected result of my intervention. As a possible explanation, students who formerly struggled with writers block, who found writing to be intimidating because they doubted their own skills, may have felt freed by the ability to write without the threat of losing points for poor grammar or organization. More in-depth survey questions or a study about the effects of freewriting on the writing process might have revealed the connection between these two activities. Survey responses furthermore revealed a slight increase in students perceived writing ability and a slight decrease in students perceptions of writing as a means of self-expression. Although too insignificant to be considered conclusive, the increase in students perceived writing abilities can be supported by responses to a survey question as seen in Figure 9, To what extent do you think the freewriting activity improved your writing ability? Students responded to this question with an average of 3.49. In other words, answers to this survey question suggest that, because students considered the

Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner

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intervention as having improved their writing abilities, they also perceived themselves to be better overall writers by the end of the intervention. Similarly, while too insignificant to be considered conclusive, the decrease in students perception of writing as a means of self-expression perplexing because the freewriting prompts focused on students personal thoughts and experiences can be contradicted by responses to a survey question as seen in Figure 8, How applicable were the writing prompts to your life, experiences, and interests? Students responded to this question with an average of 3.49. Thus, although students reported that they considered writing less as a means of self-expression following the intervention, their answers to the above survey question suggest that they considered the intervention prompts to promote self-expression by connecting to their lives, experiences, and interests. On the other hand, these results may mean that students only view freewriting, and not other types of writing, as a means of self-expression. Finding three was pulled from charts demonstrating an upward trend in word counts throughout the course of my intervention. Although word counts generally increased from the beginning to the end of the three weeks, slight spikes and dips in the data can be partially explained by students interest or disinterest in particular prompts. The table shown in Figure 10 demonstrates which prompts students especially enjoyed or disliked based on survey questions about their favorite and least favorite prompts, and this information relates generally to the graph of word counts. For instance, one especially low point in the graph correlates to prompt 8, which 15 students indicated as being their least favorite prompt and which 0 students indicated as being their favorite prompts. Similarly, one especially high point in the graph correlates to prompt 4, which 3 students listed as being their favorite and which 0 students listed as being their least favorite. Another high point correlates to prompt 9, which received 9 votes for favorite prompt and 1 vote for least favorite prompt, while still another high point correlates to prompt 11, which received 9 indications of favorite prompt and 3 indications of least favorite prompt. In other words, students generally wrote more about prompts they enjoyed and less about prompts they disliked. Field notes further support the correlation between student interest and word counts. For example, students wrote very little for prompt 8: What do we mean when we say, The grass is always greener on

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the other side of the fence? Upon revealing this prompt to the class and asking them to respond, I noted that the majority of students looked around the room, made confused faces, or exclaimed, Huh? Ive never heard that expression! Baffled by the meaning of this prompt, students were at a loss of what to write, thus explaining their low word counts for that day. On the other hand, students wrote the most words of the entire intervention for prompt 9: Three goals I have set for my life are I observed that students were especially focused and quiet while writing on this day. They seemed intrigued by the prompt because it asked them to consider their futures. Furthermore, students seemed hesitant to share these particular entries, probably because (as I discovered when I collected the journals at the end of the week) they had written very personal confessions about their dreams and desires. In other words, the reluctance to share indicated that these entries had special meaning to the students, thus explaining their high word counts for that day. The three findings, as analyzed above, indicate that all three elements of my research questions improved or increased as desired. That is, writing quality and depth of writing improved as demonstrated by the analyzed freewrite entries discussed in finding one, overall enthusiasm for writing increased as indicated by answers to the survey questions discussed in finding two, and word counts rose at an upward trajectory as indicated by the graph discussed in finding three. Moreover, data suggests that these three elements writing quality and depth, enthusiasm, and word counts are inextricably interrelated. As indicated by my research, increases in word counts generally correlate with improvements in student writing quality and depth of writing. My analyses of student entries supported this hypothesis, as writing quality and depth of writing within these entries generally improved over the course of the intervention. In turn, students word counts rose and fell in relation to their enthusiasm for daily writing prompts. Finally, two separate indicators suggest that enthusiasm relates directly to the quality and depth of student writing. Specifically, the cross-sample students survey answers to the question, How much do you enjoy writing? suggest that higher levels of enthusiasm lead to higher-quality writing. Allisons survey answers increased from 4 to 5, and Evans survey answers increased from 3 to 4; high and increasing levels of enthusiasm therefore correlate with improved writing quality and depth, as the

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writing of these high-achieving students improved the most throughout the intervention. Middleachieving students Danielle and Kelly responded to both surveys with a consistent answer of 3, thus

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suggesting that moderate, unchanging enthusiasm relates to moderate improvements in writing quality and depth of writing (as the writing of these middle-achieving students improved somewhat). Finally, Joes answers fell from 4 to 3 while Marquis answers remained at a consistent 2. Since the writing quality and depth of writing of these low-achieving students increased the least during the intervention, decreasing and low levels of student enthusiasm relate to less improvement in student writing. Moreover, the graph shown in Figure 6 demonstrates the relationship between enthusiasm and quality and depth of writing, as the word counts of students who reported enjoying writing more at the end of the intervention increased at a steadier pace than did the word counts of students who did not report enjoying writing more at the end of the intervention. Since word counts relate directly to quality of writing, one could deduce that a steadier increase in word counts means a steadier improvement of writing quality and depth of writing. Implications This intervention, a study of the effect of freewriting on the quality and depth of student writing and on the level of student enthusiasm for writing, calls attention to the most important goal of effective teaching to meet the unique learning needs of students, instructing them in the manner most appropriate to their individual strengths and weaknesses. In a classroom full of ELLs and students on IEPs, my intervention has demonstrated that non-traditional teaching methods better accommodate non-traditional learners. As implemented on a daily basis for a span of three weeks, freewriting was shown to increase both the quality and depth of student writing as well as student enthusiasm for writing. More importantly, it showed the high correlation between students attitudes towards learning and their academic achievement. In other words, students who are excited and confident about their education will perform better. With this in mind, teachers should modify their practices to accommodate the specific interests of their students as a way to keep the curriculum engaging and effective. However, one must always

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remember that as shown in my study when low-achieving students improved less than higher-achieving students not every student will respond well to every type of instruction. Were I to implement my freewriting intervention a second time, with the intention of collecting more in-depth data and making broader conclusions about the ultimate effects of freewriting on students writing abilities, I would require, above all else, more time. For one, I had originally planned to show how my intervention influenced the quality and depth of student writing outside the narrow boundaries of the study. That is, I had intended to collect sample essays written by the cross-section students from before and after the intervention. I would have analyzed these compositions to determine if my intervention improved students general writing abilities or if student writing only developed within the limits of the freewriting activity. Unfortunately, time constraints made such data collection impossible; the class began a research project at the start of my intervention and wrote nothing substantial for the entire three weeks of my intervention, thus providing me with no post-intervention writing samples to evaluate. Secondly, although student writing did improve slightly from the beginning to the end of my three-week intervention, the true development of writing skills requires more time. Thus, I would implement the freewriting activity for an entire year in the hopes that results would be more drastic and longer-lasting. Furthermore, I would increase the time limit of the freewrite slightly to 10 or 15 minutes, allowing students more time to really consider and thoroughly respond to the freewriting prompts. Had I been the teacher of record in the classroom, I would have changed several variables of the study. For instance, I would have replaced independent reading responses with the intervention as originally planned, since my intention had been to evaluate how freewriting compares to more traditional methods for teaching writing skills. Furthermore, I would have ensured that sharing remained a voluntary activity so as to reduce shy students anxiety, preserve all students privacy, and encourage authentic enthusiasm for sharing and discussing the prompts. I would also participate in the freewrite along with my classes and share my entries with them so as to build a sense of trust between myself and the students, as suggested by my research. Finally, were I the teacher of record in the classroom, I would develop the most engaging freewrite prompts as indicated by number of words written into formal essay

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assignments so as to demonstrate how stream-of-conscious writing, or pre-writing, can transition into a formal composition. In this way, I would combine the non-traditional instruction necessary the learning needs of ELLs and students on IEPs with the more traditional instruction practiced by and expected in modern American education. In utilizing both non-traditional and traditional teaching styles, I would hope to meet the needs of all (or at least more) students, which is the ultimate goal of my profession. Although my freewriting intervention answered several pertinent research questions relating to student writing ability, certain unresolved aspects of the study offer new suggestions for future investigation. For instance, as mentioned above, a study demonstrating the influence of this intervention on the quality and depth of student writing outside the confines of the freewriting activity would better determine the effectiveness of freewriting as an established method of writing instruction. Also, as mentioned in my analysis, a study demonstrating the effects of teacher and peer commenting on the quality and depth of student writing could demonstrate the benefits of non-graded instruction on student achievement. As a professional teacher, I hope to maintain an inquiry stance toward instruction in order to best understand the learning needs of my students and to alter my instructional methods in order to accommodate their differences. This freewriting intervention, a non-traditional teaching approach which improved the quality of writing for ELLs and students on EIPs, is a good start. As a teacher, I would like to implement it on a daily basis in my own English classroom.

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References Ortiz-Marrero, F. W., & Sumaryono, K. (2010, July). Success with ELLs: ELLs at the center: Rethinking high-stakes testing. English Journal, 99(6), 93-96. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org.proxy.bc.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0996jul 2010/EJ0996Success.pdf Lutz, P. A., & Moxley, R. A. (1995, May). Self-recorded word counts of freewriting in grades 1-4. Education and Treatment of Children, 18(2), 138-157. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.bc.edu/ehost/detail?sid=fe7a5013-fa58-44adb59bb52baaed9eef%40sessionmgr10&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWh vc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=9508180427 Knight, A. K. (2008, January 1). Finding the center of gravity: Unexpected benefits of nongraded writing. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 24(1), 13-21. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=lajm Greenwood, S. C. (1989, December). Journal writing for middle school students. The Clearing House, 63(4), 184-187. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30182069.pdf?acceptTC=true Chandler, A. (1997, January). Is this for a grade? A personal look at journals. The English Journal, 86(1), 45-49. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/820780.pdf?acceptTC=true Fox, D., & Suhor, C. (1986, December). Limitations of free writing. The English Journal, 75(8), 34-36. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/819077.pdf?acceptTC=true

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Appendices

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Figure 1: How much do you enjoy writing?

25 20 15 Frequency 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 Survey Responses 5 Before Intervention After Intervention

Figure 2: How comfortable do you feel with the writing process?

20 18 16 14 12 Frequency 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 Survey Responses 5

Before Intervention After Intervention

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Figure 3: How well do you write?

25 20 Frequency 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 Survey Responses 5 Before Intervention After Intervention

Figure 4: To what extent do you see writing as a way to express yourself?

16 14 12 10 Frequency 8 6 4 2 0

Before Intervention After Intervention

2 3 4 Survey Responses

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Figure 5: Average of Non-Zero Word Counts by Day 160 140 120 100 Number of 80 Words 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Journal Entry 9 10 11 12

Figure 6: Word Counts by Level of Enjoyment after the Intervention

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Number of Words

People Who Enjoyed Writing More After Intervention People Who Didn't Enjoy Writing More After Intervention Journal Entry

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Figure 7: How much did you enjoy the freewriting activity?

16 14 12 10

Frequency 8
6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 5

Student Responses Average: 3.84

Figure 8: How applicable were the writing prompts to your life, experiences, and interests?
18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 5

Frequency

Student Responses Average: 3.49

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Figure 9: To what extent do you think the freewriting activity improved your writing ability?
14 12 10 8

Frequency

6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 5

Student Responses Average: 3.49

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Figure 10 Prompt Chart

Freewrite Prompt 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Number of Students Number of Students Who Listed Prompt as Who Listed Prompt as Favorite Least Favorite 2 1 2 2 7 4 3 5 4 9 3 9

2 15 1 3 3

Number of students who said they liked ALL of the prompts: 13 Number of students who said they liked NONE of the prompts: 1

Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner Figure 11 Name: ______________________________________________ Date: __________________

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Survey 1
Instructions: Answer questions 1-4 to the best of your ability by circling the number that best correlates to your response, with 1 representing not at all and 5 representing very much. For questions 5-6, respond in a sentence or two. 6. How much do you enjoy writing? 1 2 3 4 5

2. How comfortable do you feel with the writing process (brainstorming, outlining, organizing your thoughts, editing and revising, etc.)? 1 3. How well do you write? 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5

4. To what extent do you see writing as a way to express yourself (thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc.)? 1 2 3 4 5

5. What is your favorite type of writing (journal writing, creative writing, poetry, literary analysis, research papers, etc.)?

6. Is English your native language? If not, what other language(s) do you speak?

Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner Figure 12 Name: ______________________________________________ Date: __________________

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Survey 2
Instructions: Answer questions 1-9 to the best of your ability by circling the number that best correlates to your response, with 1 representing not at all and 5 representing very much. For questions 10-15, respond in a sentence or two. 1. How much do you enjoy writing? 1 2 3 4 5

2. How comfortable do you feel with the writing process (brainstorming, outlining, organizing your thoughts, editing and revising, etc.)? 1 3. How well do you write? 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5

4. To what extent do you see writing as a way to express yourself (thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc.)? 1 2 3 4 5

5. Overall, how much did you enjoy the freewriting activity? 1 2 3 4 5

6. How applicable were the writing prompts to your life, experiences, and interests? 1 2 3 4 5

7. To what extent do you think the freewriting activity improved your writing ability? 1 2 3 4 5

Non-Traditional Instruction for the Non-Traditional Learner 8. What was/were your favorite writing prompt(s)? Why?

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9. What was/were your least favorite writing prompt(s)? Why?

10. What was your favorite part of the freewriting activity (writing, sharing, reading/hearing your peers entries, the word count competition, etc.)? Why?

11. What was your least favorite part of the freewriting activity? Why?

12. At any time during the last three weeks, did you ever choose not to participate in the freewriting activity? Circle one: Yes / No 13. If you answered yes to the above question, please explain why you chose not to participate.