Teaching perspective taking and coherence generation to improve cross-genre writing skills in secondary grades: A detailed explanation of an intervention

authored by

Joachim Grabowski, Moti Mathiebe, Sabine Hachmeister, Michael Becker-Mrotzek

Abstract

This paper gives an analytic description of why and how an instructional writing program on the improvement of cross-genre writing skills in German secondary grade level has been designed and implemented. From a diagnostic research phase, and according to theoretical expectations, coherence management and perspective taking proved to be ability components that substantially contribute to text quality across different genres. To train these two abilities in a didactical setting, two 11-unit writing courses were analogously constructed and administered in 5^th and 9^th grades. There were 12 intervention classes and 12 control classes in each grade, forming 48 classes with 1.145 participants. The decisions that lead to the design of the intervention study and the corresponding didactical settings are explained and justified in detail, and the developed self-learning materials are described in terms of their assumed learning potentials and the underlying didactical principles. Based on the obtained empirical experiences, the intervention is critically evaluated with respect to good intervention research and its proper description.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Psychology

External Organisation(s)

University of Cologne

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of Writing Research

Volume

10

Pages

331-356

No. of pages

26

ISSN

2030-1006

Publication date

15.10.2018

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education, Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and Language, Literature and Literary Theory

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2018.10.02.06 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.15488/5357 (Access: Open)