Scholastic as an ELL tool for writing development
Is there any correlation between the use of reading platforms such as Scholastic and the improvement of students' writing skills?
General topic of interest
Reading and writing integration
Participants
2 fourth-grade learners, new at Escola Concept, with a beginner level of English.
Literature Review
“[...] However, either in first language or in second language acquisition, the acquired order of reading and writing ((i.e., listening -> speaking -> reading -> writing)) is always debatable and, perhaps, yields less meaningful results. What ought to be emphasized is the reciprocal reading-writing relationships in which reading and writing actively interact with each other and both construct meanings for language learning.” (Reading, Writing, and Reading-Writing in the Second Language Classroom: A Balanced Curriculum; National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology).
Data collecting approach
For this research, we used pre and post (March and December) samples of student narrative writing for each student; the goal was to compare the evolution of the quality of these compositions after students were submitted to using the platform Scholastic for reading as well as developing some Thinking Maps about given books.
Data collection tools/resources
This research collected data directly from students. The tools used were Scholastic (where learners dedicated more reading time); Google Slides (where learners were able to complete Thinking Maps about some specific books that have been assigned); Physical notebooks (where learners underwent freewriting narrative sessions.
This is a writing sample from Student 01 (Alice) written in March.
During the period using the platform Scholastic, Alice wrote some Thinking Maps about some books she's been assigned to her throughout the year. This example shows a Circle Map about the book "Where in the World".
Another Thinking Map (flow-map) filled-out by Alice.
This is a writing sample from Student 02 (Bernardo) written in March during a freewriting session that showed little vocabulary knowledge (it's observable that the student mixed words in L1 amongst the English writing).
During the period using the platform Scholastic, Bernardo also wrote some Thinking Maps about some books.
Scholastic student reading dashboard.
Emerging results
As for the writing samples, the data showed that the first compositions from these learners were short, inconclusive, contained Portuguese vocabulary mixed with English writing, and were poor in detail. The texts written in December contained more information and were relatively long, complete, and richer in word stock.
This image shows a narrative written in December and the evolution of Alice's writing over the year, if compared to the previous composition in March.
Here we can see a narrative written by Bernardo during a freewriting session in December; this piece is visibly richer in content and vocabulary.
Reflections
From this research, it can be inferred that immersing in more reading in the English language is an efficient way to provide learners with the necessary vocabulary and cohesive devices that can instrument learners to produce higher-quality writing. A platform such as Scholastic, with graded books and features such as an embedded glossary, can be a powerful ELL tool. It goes without saying that Scholastic is not the sole responsible for learners' writing evolution but it played, nonetheless, a powerful role in expanding their language knowledge and, consequently, their writing skills.
Click here to see a video of Bernardo talking about his experience with Scholastic and Writing.
