The Effect of Daily Writer's Workshop Implementation on Fourth-Graders' Reading Comprehension Achievement

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2019-05-09

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if fourth-grade students’ reading comprehension would be impacted by the implementation of a Writer’s Workshop during the ELA instructional block. The measurement tool was the mid-year on-grade level Fountas and Pinnell reading comprehension assessment for fourth grade. This study involved the use of a pretest and posttest design to measure the data collected from the Fountas and Pinnell reading comprehension assessment for two groups of students, upper-level readers and lower-level readers. After the Writer’s Workshop was implemented for two weeks, student comprehension scores significantly improved for the lower-level readers and did not significantly improve for the upper-level readers. Research in this area should continue as there is not enough evidence to support that it was solely the Writer’s Workshop that improved lower-level student scores. Other factors such as reading at home, reading level, reading during the school day, interdisciplinary activities, and lessons could also play a role in increasing student achievement in reading comprehension. Though writing has now become a key action in Baltimore County Public Schools, it is inconclusive to whether this is a primary factor in boosting reading comprehension amongst students.