The Impact of Self-Assessment on Writing Convention Usage of Second Grade Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of a self-assessment rubric would increase students’ proper use of writing conventions in a selected second grade classroom. Assessments, surveys, and writing rubrics with focus on capitalization, understanding, punctuation, and spelling, or “CUPS”, were designed by the researcher and used to compare writing skills of students who did and did not use the CUPS rubric to assess writing. Pre-tests were used to determine that the two groups did not differ prior to the intervention. The intervention then took place over the course of four weeks. During the intervention, students in the treatment group used the CUPS rubric to assess their use of the CUPS conventions. After post-tests and surveys were completed, the treatment group’s CUPS mean score was found to be statistically significantly higher than the comparison group mean; therefore, the null hypothesis suggesting the use of CUPS by the treatment and comparison groups would be the same was rejected. Mean survey scores did not differ significantly across the groups before or after the intervention; therefore, the null hypothesis that those scores would be the same was retained. Results may have been affected by a variety of factors, including elementary-aged students’ overall capability of self-assessment. Given the positive results regarding use of the writing conventions, future research is recommended using different approaches to determine if the CUPS strategy is beneficial under different circumstances such as an extended time frame or in additional classes.