Exploring Eighth Grade Middle School Students’ Reading and Writing Experiences and the Impact of Culturally Relevant Writing Instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative dominant crossover mixed action research study was to understand eighth grade English I students’ middle school reading and writing preferences, writing experiences, the impact of culturally relevant writing instruction, and the impact, if any, it had on increasing students’ writing self-efficacy. A qualitative dominant crossover mixed approached was selected for this study as it involved collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data included: reflective journals, a writing interest form, learning logs, and writing artifacts collected throughout the writing unit. The quantitative data consisted of students rating their writing self-efficacy at the beginning and at the end of the writing unit and rating students’ expository and narrative writing, using a STAAR rubric, at the beginning and end of the research study. The participants in this study consisted of 63 students who were enrolled in an eighth grade English I course at the research site and participated in the three-week writing unit.

An in-depth In Vivo data analysis and descriptive statistics were utilized to correlate the quantitative data with qualitative data. The In Vivo data analysis revealed four themes: (1) the lack of culturally relevant writing instruction, (2) culturally relevant writing instruction has the potential to ignite student interest and writing passion, (3) culturally relevant writing instruction challenges students to explore their cultural background and the background of others, and (4) the lack of time impeded students ability to create writing products.

The descriptive statistics indicated a statistical difference for student writing self-efficacy for poetic, narrative, and expository writing. Students’ self-efficacy scores increased for narrative and expository writing but decreased for poetic writing