51CHAPTER 5WRITING CONVENTIONS

The focus of this chapter is on students’ performance in spelling, punctuationand handwriting, using tasks specifically designed for this purpose. Theseskills were also assessed more indirectly within some of the tasks in Chapters3 and 4.

The results for seven tasks are reported here. The handwriting task was iden-tical for year 4 and year 8 students. Two tasks were administered only to year4 students, and four tasks were administered only to year 8 students. The fouryear 8 tasks consisted of a matched pair of punctuation tasks and a matchedpair of spelling tasks. Within each matched pair, the spelling or punctuationtask was the same — the only difference was the mode of delivery of the task(laptop computer or paper-and-pencil).

Four tasks were administered using the stations approach, two using the oneto one approach, and one using the independent approach.

Three of the tasks have been selected as link tasks (to be used again in theyear 2002) and therefore are not described in detail here. One link task wasattempted only by year 4 students and the other two only by year 8 students.The other four tasks are released tasks for which full details are given.

The tasks are presented in the following order: the released task for both year 4 and year 8 students; the released task for year 4 students; the two released tasks for year 8 students; the link task for year 4 students; the two link tasks for year 8 students.

There was a marked improvement in handwriting from year 4 to year 8, withan average of 22 percent more year 8 than year 4 students gaining the highestscores on each attribute. Differences in writing speed were far greater, with58 percent of year 8 students copying the prescribed sentence six or moretimes, compared to 2 percent of year 4 students. The spelling and punctuationresults revealed considerable score for improvement at both age levels: fewstudents made most of the changes required, and some made very few cor-rect changes along with several inappropriate ones. When both computer-presented and paper-and-pencil versions of the same tasks were attemptedby year 8 students, the results achieved were very similar but the computerversion was much more popular. For instance, the same punctuation task wasrated positively by only 30 percent of year 4 students when presented as a pa-per-and-pencil task (the least popular task in all of the 1998 assessments), butwas rated positively by 71 percent of students when presented on a laptopcomputer.

% responsesy4 y8

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Questions/instructions

52 NEMP Report 12: Writing 1998

Slope uniformity: substantial 40 63some 48 32

little 12 5

Letter size uniformity: substantial 31 57some 54 39

little 15 4

Letter shape uniformity: substantial 41 58

some 51 38little 8 4

Distinction between capitaland lowercase uniformity: substantial 50 61

some 28 27

little 22 12

Number of legible completed sentences: 8–9 0 11

6–7 2 474–5 24 27

2–3 63 50–1 11 0

Commentary

Year 8 students were substantially more successfulthan year 4 students at achieving consistency inletter formation, and at writing quickly.

Handwriting

Independent Year 4 and year 8

Answer sheet, pen, timer.

I’m going to give you your answer sheets and pensfor this activity but please don’t start any writinguntil I tell you.

Hand out student answer sheets titled “My Very BestWriting” along with blue ballpoint pens.In this activity you are going to write the sentenceon the answer sheet in your very best writing, thenin your fastest writing. The sentence says,

“Pigs oink when I let my five bees buzz orsix ducks quack.”

The first part of the activity is to write the sen-tence in your very best writing. You have 3 min-utes to do this, so you should be able to write itmore than once. There is more space over thepage for writing if you need it.

You can start now, doing your very best writing.

Allow exactly three minutes, then ask students tostop at the word they are writing.Now look at the answer sheet where it says “MyFastest Writing”. This time I want you to use yourfastest writing, and to write as much as you can in3 minutes. Remember, you are copying the sen-tence at the top of the page. There is more spaceover the page for writing if you need it.

You can start now, doing your fastest writing.

Allow exactly three minutes, then ask students tostop at the word they are writing. Collect in theanswer sheets.

HIGH RANGE BEST WRITING YEAR 8 YEAR 4

Chapter 5: Writing Conventions 53

MID RANGE BEST WRITING YEAR 8 YEAR 4

LOW RANGE BEST WRITING YEAR 8 YEAR 4

% responsesy4 y8

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54 NEMP Report 12: Writing 1998

Words corrected: somthing 23funy 57

gril 43

Thay 38lookd 68

hapy 70calld 53

bruther 65runing 38

hav 88havn’t 17

befor 45

Number corrected: 12 210–11 14

7–9 304–6 30

1–3 180 6

Correct words changed to incorrect:

0 791 13

2–3 74–10 1

Commentary

Many year 4 students have considerable potentialfor further growth in spelling skills.

Spelling Check

Station Year 4

None

Here is a piece of writing that has a lot ofspelling mistakes. Put a line under eachword that is spelt incorrectly, and writein the correct word above it. The first oneis done for you.

Todey I saw somthing funy. A gril and a

dinosaur were in a little car. Thay lookd

very hapy together. I calld my bruther and

he came runing to hav a look. I havn’t

seen a dinosaur in a car befor he said.

% responsesy4 y8

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Chapter 5: Writing Conventions 55

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

,

,

,

Corrections made:

LINE 1: . 65 66

T 61 66

Commentary

The results for the paper and pencil and computer versions were very similar. The paper and pencil versionwas disliked by students with only 30 percent liking it and 49 percent disliking it. In contrast the computerversion was liked by 71 percent of students. Both versions showed that at least half of the students insertedless than half of the appropriate punctuation.

LINE 3: . 71 69

“ 75 67W 58 67

LINE 4: ? 31 32

” 57 55

. 39 44 H 39 46

LINE 5: . 33 24

I 31 24

LINE 6: . 36 50 O 34 47

’ 21 29 . 35 26

T 31 25

Number corrected: 14–16 5 4

11–13 18 8

8–10 23 315–7 26 22

2–4 23 190–1 5 6

Optional punctuation:

LINE 3, comma after drawers 25 14LINE 6, comma after course 7 6

LINE 7, comma after later 17 20

Number of incorrect changes:

0 27 491–2 41 39

3–4 19 95–6 9 2

7–19 4 1

% responsesy8 y8

paper screen

Punctuation / Punctuation Corrections

Station / One to one Year 8

None / Macintosh Powerbook 5300CS laptop computer, with Hypercard programmepresenting punctuation task.

Questions/instructions (station version)

A lot of punctuation has been left out of this piece of writing —things like full-stops, commas and speech marks.

Try to put in thepunctuation.

Questions/instructions (computer version)

The computer is set up with thehome page showing.This activity is done on thecomputer.

You will see a piece of writing thathas a lot of punctuation mistakes.A lot of punctuation has been leftout — things like full stops,commas and speech marks. Yourtask is to try to put in the correctpunctuation.

I want you to do this on your own, includingworking out how to use the computer.

You can start now by clicking thebutton that says Punctuation, thenstart to do the activity.

Apart from general encouragementto “try things out”, do not give thestudent any help with operating thecomputer word processor.

An Untidy Brother

Sometimes I just cannot understand my brother the

other day he decided to take all his clothes out of

his drawers and he threw them on the f loor what

are you doing I asked he said that his favourite

shirt had disappeared it was not where he usually

kept it of course he still didnt find it two days

later everything was still there on the f loor.

.T

. “W

?” .H

. I

.O ’ . T

56 NEMP Report 12: Writing 1998

Link tasks 9,10,11

Link tasks

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% responsesy4

LINK TASK 9

Year 4 only

Station

Students were given a paper and pencilpunctuation task.

LINK TASK 10

Year 8 only

Station

Students were given a paper and pencilspelling correction task.

Words corrected: 11–12 20

9–10 22

7–8 17

5–6 16

3–4 12

0–2 13

Correct words altered: 0 79

1 18

2 2

3 1

LINK TASK 11

Year 8 only

One to one

Students were given a spellingcorrection task on a laptop computer.

Words corrected: 11–12 21

9–10 23

7–8 19

5–6 13

3–4 12

0–2 12

Corrected words altered: 0 87

1 9

2 4

3 0

Punctuation added correctly: 9–10 3

7–8 12

5–6 22

3–4 34

1–2 25

0 4

Punctuation added incorrectly: 0 34

1–2 37

3–4 17

5–6 7

7–17 6