Browsing by Author "Ramzy, Miriam"

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    Instruction in the Foundations of Writing: A Case Study of Grade One Gifted Children
    (2019-06-07) Ramzy, Miriam; Roessingh, Hetty; Lenters, Kimberly A.; Eaton, Sarah Elaine
    Writing with paper and pencil continues to be the most common method students use in school to communicate their knowledge. It is a skill that is foundational to generating text for a wide variety of purposes from kindergarten through grade twelve. In this doctoral research, I collaborated with one teacher and her classroom of grade one gifted students for a full school-year. This case study applied a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis to explore the overarching question, how did an explicit and systematic approach to instruction, following the Handwriting Without Tears and Words Their Way programs, influence grade one gifted children’s composition abilities? The findings revealed that handwriting and spelling seemed to improve, as did compositional length. However, instruction in handwriting and spelling did not seem to improve the quality of students’ written compositions more than what would be typically expected in grade one. The findings revealed a need to understand how handwriting and spelling constrain children’s written compositions, including their abilities to unlock higher-level vocabulary, and how to choose developmentally appropriate assessment tools that reflect students’ current abilities. Implications for handwriting and spelling assessments and instructional approaches are included.