Running head: DAILY ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLS



Running head: DAILY ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLS

Improving Writing Skills tThrough Daily Oral Language

Amy Wright

Wichita State University

December 12, 2007

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to enhance the oral and written skills of students, specifically in writing complete sentences. Research shows Daily Oral Language benefits students’ writing with daily exercise. Twenty-three students at the second grade level,level participated over a two-week period, five days a week. The routine included students correctly identifying grammar and language errors in two sentences. Each Sstudents created a study guides throughout the week while following along in a written and oral classroom discussion focused on parts of grammar and mechanical errors. Study guides were used as homework practice in preparation for the tests. Research shows Daily Oral language benefits students writing with daily exercise. The results of this study showed the majorityover fifty percent of the students improved their writing by using complete sentence structure.

Improving Writing Through Daily Oral Language

The focus on today’s education is important for all students to be successful. There are even laws within our country that guarantee no child will be left behind. Teachers strive to give every child a chance to pass the curriculum at their level. Educators are constantly improving on ways of teaching through professional development, handling behaviors using positive reinforcement, communicating with parents, and furthering their own education to understand the changing world around them.

The Problem

During the first part of the semester, it became evident through test scores that the second grade students were struggling with writing complete sentences using correct capitalization and punctuation in second grade. The purpose of this study was to increase their writing skills through the daily oral practice of revising sentences. It is hypothesized that if my students participated in daily oral language, the student’s’ writing skills specific to capitalization and punctuation would improve. This paper contains a review of the literature, procedures, results, and conclusions for this study. What activities are required to increase writing complete sentences?

Review of the Literature

Daily Oral Language is a teaching technique used to enhance both oral and written language skills. Students should benefit from the spiral review of grammar and mechanical concepts. They should be able to apply skills learned to their own writing or editing of sentences. In the present paper, thewill the DOL (Daily Oral Language) strategy isbe able to used to measure the improvement of writing complete sentences.? It is hypothesized that the repetition of correcting sentences will enhance the writing skills at a second grade level. The follow six literature review attempt to demonstrate and support this hypothesis.

An article in the South Carolina Middle School Association Journal (Amenson, N. R., Nanke, T., & Wilson, J. 2006) tells several ways to engage students into grammar through the emersion of hand-on, contextualized, and authentic activities. Students tend to get bored with the same exercise daily and need extra stimulation to get engaged in the learning. Many students learn better when it is through hand-on activities such as index cards with words of a sentence and rearranging them in a complete sentence. Relating grammar to reading context will help enhance the importance of knowing grammar. For example, pulling sentences or phrases from literature students read within class will give it more meaning and personal connection to the way grammar needs to be used within writing. These three teachers suggested several great ideas for ways to get students engaged through hand-on activities while teaching the concepts and skills of daily oral language.

Hancock (2004) explored the connection between reading and writing. The quality of writing can be linked to the amount exposed to reading literature. Some quality stories are written in the format to beare used to be extended by a written response. Hancock explains each step of the writing process. Students learn to write through written examples. There are several good resources described for each step of the process to get students inspired about writing. She highlighted the importance of the editing with positive reinforcement within the writing process and gives several resources for teachers to apply within the classroom. DOL is a way to show younger students the proper way to edit written papers or formulating response to stories.

Hancock gives several resources for teachers to apply within the classroom.

Marzano, R., Pickering, D. J., and Pollock, J. E. (2001) wrote Cchapter two to identified some of the important ways of comparing similarities and differences among objects. Understanding of this enhances students understanding through detailed guidance, asking student to independently identify, representing information using a graphic organizer, and knowing it can be achieved in several different ways. Comparing can be scaffold by teacher directed statements and questions. Student can lead with minimal help from the teacher on dissecting each sentence until whole group discussion at the end viewing each specific concept. Some tools used can be a Venn diagram, comparison matrix, webs, charts, or analogies. Graphic organizers can help direct students and teachers in ways of learning important concepts of the curriculum.

Marzano (2001) focused on the importance of constructive homework policies. Homework should be given to enhance the skill being taught within the classroom. For elementary students, homework should be a review; no new material should be assigned. Students can benefit from homework when assigned appropriately. Students at the elementary level have not yet develop study skills. Study skills should be taught with several examples and specific tasks to perform with clear directions. This chapter was useful to know how much and what to give students for homework to be beneficial to the students learning.

Maurano (2003) explores areas that support early literacy of a child. Oral language comes within the third stage of literacy. Students begin to transition from individual words into phrases. Eventually, children move to comments that invite conversation. It is important to teach children the correct structure of speech to use within verbal and written communication. Students need to be encouraged and engaged in environmental literacy activities daily. Talking in the classroom gives students a chance to practice and explore communication and sharing personal experiences. Maurano reinforces that daily oral language is a good practice within the classroom. Students get to explore written and verbal communication through the daily activities.

Finally, Parsons (n.d.) explains that issues about boys are concerning many westernized communities around the world. This was a study of gender issues affecting education. Several boys are at risk for failing to achieve at school. Parsons’ research is reflected in this study according to the scores of the boys on the daily oral language tests.

Research shows that written language may not be improved. It is important to consider the students’ attitude and phase of language of the student. There can be many factors that play a role into the ability to a students’ writing. Some educators agree that hands-on activities and engaged editing with positive reinforcement both by teacher and peers can be factors in the improvement within students’ capability to write and communicate.

Procedures (Design) of the Study

The participants for the study where in a school district in the Midwest with approximately 6,273 students enrolled. The ethnicity of this district was 84% White, 3% African-American, 6% Hispanic, and 7% other. The gender breakdown for the district was 49.7% females and 50.2% males. The percent of the students that were economically disadvantaged was 11.62% (KSDE, 2007). The particular school had a total of 692 2ndsecond through fifth–5th graders enrolled. The ethnicity of the school was 79.9% White, 4.9% Hispanic, 1.7% African-American, and 13.44% other. The building had 46.8% females and 53.1% males. The percent of students in the building that were economically disadvantaged was 13.3% (KSDE, 2007). Information regarding students in Special Education was not available. The demographics of the classroom had 25 2ndsecond grade students: 14 female and 11 male. Of these students within the classroom, 22 were White and three were Hispanic. Special attention provided to students was as follows: two in Special Education, three in Reading Lab, one in Math Lab, three in Speech Therapy, and one in Physical Therapy.

Students were given two separate tests to measure the improvement of language skills within writing. Tests were given over a two week period. Each test provided three sentences that needed to be corrected by using capitalization, punctuation, and proper use of grammar (see Appendix A). Students have previously seen each sentence on the test during daily exercises. Students are given a homework assignment to study the weekly daily oral language guidesheet. Students are unaware of specific sentences on the tests. Each test was worth twelve points. One point was given for correctly identified each language error. If students added or deleted extra parts within the sentence, students were not deducted points. Teacher showed corrections on paper to clarify each mistake. Students were fully aware of the expectations to prepare in class with both oral and written practice, study sentences on the daily oral language sheet at home as a homework assignment, and that they would havedemostrate knowledge of the skills on the test each Friday.

Students started daily oral language several weeks before the research began. They were fully aware ofknew the procedure and expectations of the activity which occurred on a daily basis. During weeks six and seven, students followed along in an oral discussion of mechanical and grammar errors within the sentences provided for each day of the week. Each of the days consisted of two sentences to be corrected. Daily Oral Language (DOL) sheets and tests were made up by a team of teachers within the school district. Second grade language and grammar standards were aligned with the DOL. Tests were directly pulled from the weekly DOL. These items should give an accurate result for improvement of student’s oral language andability to writinge complete sentences. Students participated in a two-week study of Daily Oral Language (See Appendix C).

Results

Results are broken down further into three different bar graphs to show the increase or decrease of whole groupindividual, gender, and whole groupindividual development. All three graphs able researchers to look at the data on a closer scale. All graphs represent the total scores divided by the amount of points possible for each test.

Whole group evaluation of the data showed there was no decrease or increase in learning. The study shows that daily oral language does not affect the writing if sentences at a second grade level.Figure 1:

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Data in Figure 1 indicated no decrease or increase in learning as a whole group. The study shows that all 23 students involved in the study stayed the same on writing through DOL. However, data on gender and individual scores shows an improvement.

The breakdown of gender helped to point out females showed an increased, while males showed a decreased in scores. Data collected reflects the research of Parsons (n.d.) that boys are at risk of being unsuccessful. Figure 2:

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Data in Figure 2 indicate gender helped to point out females (Blue) stayed the same showing neither an increase or decrease in learning. Males (Purple) showed a decrease of 17% comparing the pre and post test.

Figure 3:

Individual scores showed more improvement with students’ ability to write complete sentences. The majority of students showed an increase of skills. Some students showed a decrease in scores.

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Data in Figure 3 indicates individual scores showed 52% more improvement with students’ ability to write complete sentences where as 30% performed better on the pre-test. Only 13% neither showed an increase or decrease in learning. There was 1% of the students that performed at the maximum point possible for both the pre and post tests.

Conclusions

Overall, students’ did not showed improvement with writing complete sentences. As a whole group, the increase of learning was not apparent with students scoring 83% on both the pre and post tests. These results support the idea that students do better with a variety of activities (Amenson, N. R., Nanke, T., & Wilson, J. 2006).

Gender data analysis shows that girls tended to retain information and apply it to the test. On the week six test, girls received 86% which improved on week seven test to 89%. Boys scored 80% on week six test, while on week seven they ended up with the score of 74%. Parsons, S. (n.d.) study shows males are at risk for being unsuccessful at an education stand point. Looking at the graph showing individual data, most of the students showed improvement between the pre and post tests.

In looking at the score, several factors might have played a role in the results. It may be that students failed to use the study sheet as homework, and maybe they did not do as well as those who did study. In the future, it might be good to keep all the work in the class because the homework variable cannot be controlled.

The ability of the student to read or focus on the task can affect results. Students that struggle to read with fluency may not recognize errors do to their ability to focus only on sounding out each individual word. Some students have the inability to focus on tasks in general, such as routine activities that seem boring (Amenson, N. R., Nanke, T., & Wilson, J. 2006). In the future, DOL needs to engage students more into grammar through the emersion of hand-on, contextualized, and authentic activities

In conclusion, this research does not shows that daily oral language can help enhance the skills of oral and written language. This study needs to be improved to incorporate more hands-on activities which would capture the students’ attention. It might help to do more research and find other ways to introduce writing concepts. Data collected should be taken from pre and post test, sample of student writing of complete sentences, and a survey about knowing the importance and connection daily oral language does for students’ writing.

References

Amenson, N. R., Nanke, T., & Wilson, J. (2006). Daily oral language: “B-O-R-I-N-G!” Creative ways to spice up grammar instruction. South Carolina Middle School Association Journal, Vol. 14. Retrieved November 3, 2007, from

Hancock, M. R. (2004). Literature as a Model for Writing: Apprenticing the Author’s Craft. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/ Prentice Hall.

Marzano, R., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Maurano, M. E. (2003). Exemplary practices that support early literacy. Retrieved November 3, 2007, from

Parsons, S. (n.d.). Teacher Research. Retrieved August 31, 2007, from

Appendix A

Week 6: DOL Test

1. the car stopped at 2 53 at kurt’s house

2. we read the book Madeline in class

3. mary borrowed janes pencil

Week 7: DOL Test

1. i asked ms olsen to give me an apple

2. we aren t going to travel at christmas time

3. has she gone to the lake for christmas vacation

Appendix B

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Appendix C

Week 6 DOL Lesson Plans:

Day 1:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 1) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Colon: separates hour from minutes in writing digital time

Proper Noun: name of a person

Apostrophe: shows ownership / possession

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Proper Noun and Underline: book title

Declarative Statement: period

Day 2:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 2) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Apostrophe: contraction (apostrophe takes place of a letter)

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Declarative Statement: period

Day 3:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 3) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Apostrophe: contraction (apostrophe takes place of a letter)

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Single vs. Double Subject: refers to one – single or refers to two or more - double

Declarative Statement: period

Day 4:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 4 and 5) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Colon: separates hour from minutes in writing digital time

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Pronoun: takes place of a noun, capitalize I

Subject-Verb Agreement: both are in the same tense

Colon: separates hour from minutes in writing digital time

Declarative Statement: period

Repeat process for DOL Day 5 sentences:

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Proper Noun: name of a person

Apostrophe: shows ownership / possession

Declarative Statement: period

and

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Subject-Verb Agreement: both are in the same tense

Declarative Statement: period

Students are assigned homework, to review using the sheet with corrected sentences as a study guide for the quiz on Day 5. Sentences on the quiz will be taken directly from the sheet, therefore, no new sentences.

Day 5:

Students will be given time to complete the quiz #1.

Students will make the corrections on the quiz for each sentence.

Students will grade quiz using a red pen/crayon marking any errors.

Students will not be marked off for making extra corrections. Only corrections are graded for scoring value purposes.

Teacher will pull name sticks for volunteers to help make the corrections for each sentence on the quiz.

Teacher will observe students’ grading by walking around or glancing while writing under the Elmo.

Teacher will discuss any common errors on students’ quizzes. Teacher will re-teach skill immediately with students.

Week 7 DOL Lesson Plans:

Day 1:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 1) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Proper Noun: book title and name of a person

Period: abbreviation of a person’s title

Enunciation: say the words correctly using phonics / sight words

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Proper Noun: pet name

Declarative Statement: period

Day 2:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 2) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Comma: use before and in a compound sentence (two separate ideas)

Proper Noun: name of a person

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Avoidance: do not use ain’t

Apostrophe: contraction (apostrophe takes place of a letter)

Exclamatory Statement: exclamation point

Day 3:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 3) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Apostrophe: contraction (apostrophe takes place of a letter)

Exclamatory Statement: exclamation point

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Proper Noun: name of a holiday

Interrogative Statement: question mark

Day 4:

Students will be given time to practice correcting two sentences (Day 4 and 5) on their copy of the DOL sheet.

Teacher will pull name sticks for a volunteer to read aloud the sentence.

Name sticks will be continuously drawn until all corrections are made in the sentence.

Students will correct and follow along as class discusses each correction.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Pronoun: takes place of a noun, capitalize I

Verb: shows the action of the noun (Ask: Can I ____ ?)

Declarative Statement: period

Students will be given time to rewrite the correct sentence on the line.

Students are expected to spell correctly, make corrections, and use best handwriting.

Teacher will observe students progress and understanding at a glance of their papers.

Repeat process for second sentence.

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Period: abbreviation of a person’s title

Proper Noun: name of a person

Declarative Statement: period

Repeat process for DOL Day 5 sentences:

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Avoidance: do not use ain’t

Apostrophe: shows ownership / possession

Proper Noun: name of a holiday

Declarative Statement: period

and

Capitalize: beginning letter of the sentence

Comma: use before and in a compound sentence (two separate ideas)

Declarative Statement: period

Students are assigned homework, to review using the sheet with corrected sentences as a study guide for the quiz on Day 5. Sentences on the quiz will be taken directly from the sheet, therefore, no new sentences.

Day 5:

Students will be given time to complete the quiz #2.

Students will make the corrections on the quiz for each sentence.

Students will grade quiz using a red pen/crayon marking any errors.

Students will not be marked off for making extra corrections. Only corrections are graded for scoring value purposes.

Teacher will pull name sticks for volunteers to help make the corrections for each sentence on the quiz.

Teacher will observe students’ grading by walking around or glancing while writing under the Elmo.

Teacher will discuss any common errors on students’ quizzes. Teacher will re-teach skill immediately with students.

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