Structured writing versus free writing with limited English proficient students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain which teaching strategy, structured or free writing, is most effective in teaching writing skills to elementary grade limited English proficient (LEP) students. Furthermore, is there a difference in writing productivity between students engaged in free writing every day and students engaged in free writing every other day. The study sample consisted of 72 fifth grade LEP students. The study utilized a time series design with single-subject repeated measures over a six week period of time. Since students' scores were measured weekly, it was necessary to first establish reliability for stability of scores over time. Ten indicators were used to evaluate the dependent variable, writing. They were: Total Words, Percent of Correct Words, Percent of Correct Word Sequence, Mean Length of Correct Words, Topic of Composition, Mechanics, Internal Organization of Thoughts, Conveying Meaning, Sentence Construction, and Holistic Scoring.