 |
Students’
attitudes, interests and liking for a subject have a strong bearing
on their achievement. The writing survey sought information
from students about their curriculum preferences and perceptions
of their achievement, using the same questions for both year
4 and year 8 students. It was administered to the students
in a session that included both team and independent tasks
(four students working together or individually on tasks, supported
by a teacher). When it was introduced, all students were invited
to ask for help with reading or writing.
The survey included five items which asked students to select options
from a list, two items which invited students to write comments,
and fifteen items which asked students to record a rating response
by circling their choice.
Students
were asked what writing activities they liked most at school, choosing
up to three responses from a list of six. The percentages of students
choosing each option are summarized below, with comparative figures
from 1998 in parentheses. |
Preferred
writing at school |
%
responses
2002
('98) |
| y4 |
y8 |
|
writing
stories |
60
(72) |
60
(70) |
writing
letters |
46
(51) |
31
(41) |
writing
poems |
52
(49) |
42
(46) |
keeping
a diary |
33
(42) |
25
(25) |
writing
in science, social studies and other subjects |
33
(27) |
40
(29) |
other
(write what it is) |
16
(14) |
16
(14) |
Writing stories was clearly
the most popular writing activity at both levels, in 1998 and 2002. In 2002,
writing letters, writing poems, and keeping a diary were less popular among
year 8 students than among year 4 students. Between 1998 and 2002, the popularity
of story writing dropped somewhat for students at both levels, along with
keeping a diary for year 4 students and letter writing for year 8 students.
Writing in other school subjects became more popular at both levels, but
especially year 8.
Students were then asked what writing activities they liked to do in their
own time, choosing their favourite activity from a list of six options.
Writing stories was most popular at both year levels, but declined in popularity
between 1998 and 2002, especially for year 8 students.
Preferred
writing in own time |
%
responses
2002
('98) |
| y4 |
y8 |
writing
stories |
33
(36) |
27
(37) |
writing
poems |
14
(16) |
15
(16) |
writing
letters |
16
(12) |
14
(14) |
keeping
a diary |
14
(15) |
17
(12) |
writing
about hobbies or sports |
10
(10) |
15
(8) |
writing
about science, social studies and other subjects |
3
(5) |
3
(3) |
Asked
what “people need to do to be good writers”, students could
choose up to three things from a list of ten. There was considerable
stability between 1998 and 2002. Compared to year 4 students, year 8
students placed more emphasis on liking writing and less emphasis on
writing neatly and being willing to experiment.
|
Things needed by good writers |
|
| y4 |
y8 |
use
their imagination
|
51
(56) |
66
(68) |
be
willing to try things out |
40
(36) |
29
(27) |
learn
how to use punctuation |
26
(33) |
31
(35) |
go
back and check their work |
24
(25) |
20
(20) |
write
neatly |
24
(25) |
8
(10) |
know
how to spell words |
20
(23) |
15
(12) |
like
writing |
19
(17) |
35
(38) |
read
a lot |
19
(22) |
12
(13) |
write
lots |
14
(21) |
12
(15) |
talk
about their work with others |
15
(13) |
8
(8) |
Students
were asked to write down what they needed to do to “get better
in writing”. For each student, up to three distinct responses
were coded and tallied under eight headings. Between 1998 and 2002,
the emphasis on neatness increased, especially among year 4 students.
Differences between year 4 and year 8 students were slight, except for
somewhat greater emphasis on punctuation by the year 8 students.
| Need
to do to get better |
|
| y4 |
y8 |
| spelling
|
17
(24) |
27
(27) |
punctuation
|
12
(11) |
20
(21) |
editing/checking |
9
(6) |
7
(6) |
neatness |
29
(17) |
21(17) |
write
more often |
14
(19) |
15
(18) |
enjoyment
|
2
(0) |
3
(1) |
understanding
mechanics/grammar |
8
(2) |
8
(4) |
increase
ideas/resources |
18
(16) |
20
(20) |
In
a more narrowly focused question, students were asked to indicate what
they usually did when they couldn’t spell a word they needed for
writing. They could choose up to two things from a list of eight. The
most popular strategy was to use a dictionary. Year 4 students were
more inclined than year 8 students to try sounding out the word. Between
1998 and 2002, the option of asking the teacher declined noticeably
in popularity at both year levels.
| Spelling
strategy |
|
| y4 |
y8 |
| use
a dictionary |
56
(62) |
54
(60) |
sound
out the word |
33
(33) |
22
(18) |
ask
the teacher |
25
(34) |
18
(30) |
ask
a friend |
16
(19) |
23
(27) |
try,
then check out later |
14
(16) |
15
(17) |
guess |
12
(15) |
16
(16) |
use
another word |
6
(4) |
9
(9) |
use
computer spell checker [2002 only] |
2
(-) |
5
(-) |
In
the last question of this type, students were asked what they wrote
on a computer. They could choose as many options as they liked from
a list of seven. The percentages of students choosing each option in
2002 are shown below [this question was not asked in 1998]. Stories,
email and letters were most popular, with stories more prominent at
year 4 level and emails much more prominent among year 8 students. Perhaps
predictably, writing in other school subjects was also more prominent
for year 8 students.
|
Writing activity on computer |
%
responses |
| y4 |
y8 |
| stories
|
59
|
46 |
emails |
48 |
69 |
letters
|
41 |
43 |
poems
|
32 |
25 |
writing
about hobbies or sports |
16 |
18 |
a
diary |
16 |
10 |
writing
in science, social studies, and other subjects |
11 |
21 |
| Responses
to the fifteen rating items are presented in separate tables for Year
4 and year 8 students. There were no large changes
between 1998 and 2002, although in 2002 the year 4 students seemed
a little less enthusiastic about writing at school than they were
four years earlier. The interpretation of responses to questions 2,
3 and 4 is complicated by the accidental omission of the “Don’t
Know” category in 2002, but as might be expected it appears
that those who would have chosen “Don’t Know” have
opted for one of the middle responses on the rating scale (there is
very little change between 1998 and 2002 at the top and bottom of
each of the scales). Only about 10 percent of students at both levels
reported using a computer for writing at school “heaps”,
but at home this rose to 26 percent of year 4 students and 33 percent
of year 8 students. |
|
Compared
to year 4 students, fewer year 8 students were highly positive about doing
writing at school, about how good they believed themselves to be at writing,
and about how they felt their teachers and parents viewed their writing
abilities. Year 8 students also reported fewer opportunities in school
to write “things like stories, poems or letters,” and lower
enthusiasm for writing in their own time. These differences may, at least
in part, reflect the well-known tendency of students to get more jaded
about schoolwork as they get older. Such patterns have been found repeatedly
in our other national monitoring surveys. Another influential factor may
be that the emphasis on various types of writing tasks shifts between
year 4 and year 8, with more creative opportunities at year 4 and substantial
volumes of more formal writing required by year 8.
|
: 2002 Report
432KB
139kb
