Needs Assessment: Writing Instruction in Lower Elementary Grades

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The Need for Writing Instruction in Lower Elementary Grades

 

Project Description 

The first years of schooling for a child are fundamental and set a strong foundation that will assist with learning as they proceed into higher grades. As a first-grade teacher, I have noticed some problems in the instruction and curriculum for the kindergarten through second grades (k-2), specifically in writing. According to Kufi et. al. (2020), the pandemic magnifies these discrepancies because children have less exposure to in-person and hands-on instruction that is crucial to setting a proper base of experience in k-2 grades.  

The purpose of this project is to identify what instruction or changes to instruction, students in the lower elementary grades need to improve their writing. Florida State Standards for the English language arts requires students to be able to write all upper- and lower-case letters, have proper spacing between words and have legible printing skills (CPALMS, n.d.). 


Needs Assessment

After a review of a few students’ notebooks and handwritten assignments, they are not meeting the Florida State Standards. All the students’ notebooks displayed all or some of the following problematic signs: 

·         Large written letters         

·         Little to no spacing between words

·         Few words fitting in a composition notebook page.

·         Some letters and words are written backward.

·         Low understanding of line usage or direction in a composition notebook

This is a normative need since the students are not meeting the following Florida State Standards: ELA.2.C.1.1, ELA.1.C.1.1, and ELA.K.C.1.1 (CPALMS, n.d.). The lack of proper writing instruction can lead the students to struggle in the grades that follow. After student interviews, there is also a consensus of a felt need. The students want to improve their writing either to impress their families, teachers and, or themselves. However, they do not know where or how to start the learning process. 

According to Asher (2006), when a math or reading assignment has a written portion, the task increases in difficulty for students with writing troubles. The learners have low confidence in their writing abilities and the content assignments they do are becoming increasingly difficult as the school year goes on; making it tough for them to complete the classwork properly. Finding a specific time to work on their writing alone can improve performance in other subjects.

 Haward et. al. (2014) state that the writing curriculum and instruction in the 2000s have declined due to a higher focus on teaching reading and reading comprehension to improve standardized test scores. Although most careers now are dependent on typed writing, there are still many careers that need handwritten work, like education, medicine, designers, and others. Also, many life tasks still depend on having legible handwriting. Most schools’ goals are to create law-abiding citizens that can do adult tasks properly, but this problem can affect the students’ future adult lives.   


Goals Analysis 

Writing skills are needed for students to communicate, express themselves, and succeed in their academic lives. However, the students need explicit and hands-on writing instruction to achieve their goals. First, creating authentic learning experiences where students learn to write the upper-case and lower-case letters, proper spacing between letters and words, and text directionality will greatly benefit them. Then, setting up a scheduled time between the reading and language arts lessons will serve as a reinforcement of writing concepts and knowledge before starting language arts. 

To add to the above, k-2 learners need repetition and reminders to keep the knowledge active in their minds. Subtle reminders like a checklist and rubric can help the students remember the expectations and needs of their written work. These checklists should be placed at the bottom of any written assignment, and the teacher should encourage the use of the checklist with verbal or positive praise. 

The goals are as follows:

·         Develop and implement hands-on writing lessons.  

·         Prepare a child-friendly rubric/checklist for writing assessment.

·         Prepare child-friendly posters for proper forms of writing. 

·         Review the concept of words and sentences often.

·         Set blocked time of 20 minutes to teach writing explicitly.

·         Incorporate checklist into all assignments with a written component.

 

Learner Analysis and Content Analysis

The learners interviewed for the Needs Assessment are k-2 students in a charter school. The school is in an area of low socioeconomic status in South Florida. It is a Title 1 school, which means that the school receives funds to provide a quality education because 40% or more students have a low

socioeconomic status (US Department of Education (ED), 2018). Most come from Hispanic, or Latinx, backgrounds, where at least one household member does not speak English. 

The children expressed enthusiasm in learning to write “like adults”, and many assume their writing abilities will appear in the future. Some students stated they were unsure of how to hold a pencil and position a notebook for writing. The learners expressed a sense of confusion when writing letters like “b” and “d” or “I” and “l” because of their similarities. To add, many did not know in which direction to write the letters and numbers like “g”, 5, and “j”. These are fundamental skills that many adults assume children know, but children need to learn these concepts to improve their writing and reading.

From a different point of view, the general education teachers of these students were interviewed to give some insight into how the students perform written tasks during class time. Throughout virtual teaching, they noticed the same problems stated earlier; and by observation, they have not seen enough progress in the students’ writing from the beginning of the school year in August 2020 to now January 2021. According to the teachers, most notebooks are disorganized with many pages left blank in between, and they must give an extra five to ten minutes for writing sentences compared to students in previous years, yet some do not finish. As the content gets harder, the writing proficiency of the k-2 learners is not advancing creating a problematic learning gap.

 

Tasks Analysis

The tasks will be performed in the order of importance of the goals. Below is a final rank of the goals, the first being of most importance and necessity, the last being the most time-consuming but still important to student success. 


  1. Set blocked time of 20 minutes to teach writing explicitly.
  1. Develop and implement hands-on writing lessons.  
  1. Prepare a child-friendly rubric/ checklist for writing assessment.
  1. Incorporate a checklist into all assignments with a written component.
  1. Review the concept of words and sentences often.
  1. Prepare child-friendly posters for proper forms of writing.  
Works Cited
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First, set up a 20-minute slot of writing instruction between reading and language arts. This blocked time will serve as a reinforcement of writing conventions needed for completing language arts tasks. During this time, students can do hands-on activities to practice writing upper-case and lower-case letters. For instance, the students can write the words using shaving cream, Play-Doh,

or colored glue in a Zip-loc bag. The teacher will review concepts of writing like word sense and sentence awareness.

 Next, incorporating a writing rubric and visual checklist to assignments with a written component will help remind students of expectations. For example, placing the rubric before assignments in the teachers' presentations will be a great reinforcement. To add to that, the checklist would be sent through the online platform the teachers use or given in-person to in-school students. The learners will know what is expected of them when they are writing. 

Similarly, preparing posters that remind students about proper writing conventions like punctuations and word spacing. Other posters they could benefit from is one differentiating commonly mistaken letters.  

To conclude, these goals will not cost much to the school. There will be an initial cost to parents or teachers to purchase materials for hands-on activities, but most materials are found at home. The school does require volunteer hours from the parents, which are completed by donating materials for classroom activities. The constant visual, verbal, and physical reminders will help the students build confidence in their writing abilities, and hopefully, it will positively affect their academic performance in the following years.     

 

 

Asher, A. V. (2006). Handwriting Instruction in Elementary Schools. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60, 461–469. https://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1870050

CPALMS. (n.d.). Search Standards | CPALMS.org. Cpalms.Org. Retrieved January 25, 2021, from https://www.cpalms.org/Public/search/Standard

Harward, S., Peterson, N., Korth, B., Wimmer, J., Wilcox, B., Morrison, T. G., Black, S., Simmerman, S., & Pierce, L. (2014). Writing Instruction in Elementary Classrooms: Why Teachers Engage or do not Engage Students in Writing. Literacy Research and Instruction, 53(3), 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2014.896959

Kufi, E. F., Negassa, T., Melaku, R., & Megro, R. (2020). Impact of corona pandemic on educational undertakings and possible breakthrough mechanisms. Bizecons Quarterly, 11, 3–14. https://bizecons.hevanz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Fufi-et-al.pdf

US Department of Education (ED). (2018). Title I, Part A Program. U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html#:%7E:text=Schools%20in%20which%20children%20from,of%20the%20lowest%2Dachieving%20students.