Functional Writing in Primary School

The goals of the project "Functional Writing in Primary School" ("FUS") were twofold. Firstly, it aimed to examine the hypothesis that providing first-grade students with more opportunities to write in various genres for different purposes and audiences over a two-year period would enhance their writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing. Secondly, it sought to gain insights into students’ development as writers and teachers’ instructional practices and professional development. The project’s objectives are described in a protocol article (doi:10.23865/njlr.v6.2040). To fulfill the first goal, we designed a longitudinal randomized control trial study where students in the treatment group participated in 40 writing activities during their initial two years of schooling. Participants were 2,697 students from 58 schools across Norway. Before the project began, half of the schools were randomly assigned to the experimental condition, while the remaining formed the control, or business as usual (BAU) condition. Teachers in the experimental group received training on how to implement writing activities aimed at engaging students in meaningful writing, with ten such activities introduced per semester. The BAU group teachers were instructed to continue their usual writing instructional practices. An investigation into the effects of participating in the FUS program (Skar et al., in press) indicated that the differences in handwriting fluency, text quality, and attitude towards writing between students in the experimental and the BAU groups were non-significant by the project’s end. To achieve the second goal, project researchers collected texts from students in the experimental group and observed and interviewed these students and teachers. This component of the FUS project is still ongoing, with anticipated publications in 2023 and 2024. Our investigations suggest that to analyze young children's writing effectively, researchers must understand the context of that writing. This approach in the FUS project has been labeled as “context embedded text analysis.” Observations and interviews have revealed considerable variability in how students interpret and execute writing tasks, perceive themselves as writers, and interact with peers during writing activities. Similarly, teacher interviews and observations have uncovered diverse approaches to writing instruction and varying perceptions of proficient writing. The FUS project has also produced knowledge about theoretical aspects of functional writing, and young students’ writing proficiency, writing development, instructional practices, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as produced tools for writing assessment and identification of struggling students. A book chapter (doi:10.18261/9788215050997-2021-11) provides a theoretical understanding of functional writing. Another book chapter (Falk & Jølle, 2022) examined the interaction between teachers and students during argumentative writing activities within the framework of a FUS writing activity. The guidelines provided to the teachers by the project influenced these interactions, and the formal language features in these guidelines received special attention, both from teachers and students. One study (doi:10.1007/s11145-021-10185-y) investigated writing proficiency among 4,950 students in grades 1–3. Handwriting fluency was a significant predictor of text quality. This study also provided insights into writing development, as did a study (doi:10.1558/wap.21541) about audience awareness in young children’s writing. Graham et al. (doi:10.1007/s11145-020-10080-y) surveyed 1,049 teachers in grades 1–3 about their writing instruction practices. The researchers noted a substantial variation. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' writing proficiency was examined in two studies. Directly following the school closures in spring 2020, students demonstrated a significant decline in performance compared to their peers unaffected by the pandemic (doi:10.1037/edu0000701). However, these disparities seemed to diminish a year later (doi:10.1007/s10648-023-09729-1). Lastly, researchers developed tools for assessing young children's writing (doi:10.5617/adno.7909) and identifying students at risk of "falling behind" in writing, as per the terminology used in the Education Act (doi:10.1558/wap.22095). They also investigated whether data from the start of the 1st grade could predict which students would struggle by the end of the same grade (doi:10.1080/0969594X.2022.2057424), which indeed proved to be the case. The FUS project successfully met both its primary objectives while generating new academic knowledge about young students' writing and the writing instruction they receive. The assessment tools developed during the project have been used to reliably assess 27,516 texts. We hope these tools will find application beyond the project, being utilized by practitioners in the field.

FUS-prosjektet fant ikke støtte for hypotesen om at gjennom å tilby førsteklassinger flere muligheter til å skrive tekster med ulike formål og til ulike mottakere gjennom en toårsperiode, ville det kunne bedre deres tekstkvalitet, håndskriftsflyt og holdninger til skriving (Skar et al.,u.u.). Spesielt testet prosjektet om studentene ville ha nytte av en “writing is caught”-tilnærming. En slik tilnærming er basert på premisset om at skrivekompetanse tilegnes gjennom skriving i meningsfulle sammenhenger. Mangelen på positiv effekt medfører ikke nødvendigvis at lærere skal unngå å engasjere elever i meningsfulle skriveaktiviteter. Det indikerer imidlertid at bare det å legge opp til mer av disse aktivitetene ikke forbedrer elevers skriveferdighet ut over det som kan oppnås gjennom «vanlig» skriveopplæring. Denne erkjennelsen innebærer at “writing is caught”-tilnærmingen kanskje ikke er tilstrekkelig effektiv, og at det kan være tilrådelig å supplere den med andre strategier som har vist seg å være effektive. FUS-prosjektet genererte også kunnskap om hvordan det undervises i skriving på 1.–3. trinn (doi:10.1007/s11145-020-10080-y), hvordan skriveferdighet utvikles fra 1. til 3. trinn (doi:10.1007/s11145-021-10185-y), samt verktøy for vurdering av unge elevers skriving (doi:10.5617/adno.7909). Som et eksempel på betydningen av disse resultatene, vil vi trekke fram storskalaundersøkelsen om norske læreres skriveundervisningspraksiser (doi:10.1007/s11145-020-10080-y). Funnene indikerte en betydelig variasjon i Norge, der noen elever får en variert skriveopplæring og skriver mye, mens andre får minimalt med skriveopplæring. Disse resultatene har implikasjoner for utdanning og videreutdanning av lærere. De lærerne som gir elevene minimalt med skriveopplæring, burde få tilgang til verktøy for å utvide sine repertoar når det kommer til skriveundervisning. Denne storskalaundersøkelsen avdekket også at lærere typisk kjenner seg lite forberedte til å undervise i skriving etter grunnutdanningen sin. Dette indikerer et behov for å undersøke hvordan lærerutdanningen forbereder studentene til å undervise i skriving, og nødvendigheten av å identifisere potensielle forbedringsområder. Et annet sentralt aspekt ved FUS-prosjektet har vært utvikling av teoretiske rammeverk. Nærmere bestemt tilbyr et bokkapittel (doi:10.18261/9788215050997-2021-11) en teoretisk tolkning av 'funksjonell skriving', noe som medfører implikasjoner for studier av både skriving og skrivere. Utviklingen av dette rammeverket kan ha betydning for fremtidige undersøkelser av utviklingen av unge elevskrivere. I FUS-prosjektet ble 27516 tekster vurderte, og det ble utviklet et verktøy for å identifisere elever som står i fare for å bli hengende etter, jamfør formuleringen i Opplæringsloven. Vurderingsverktøyet samt verktøyet for å identifisere elever, kan ha påvirkning på vurdering og kartlegging av elever i 1.–3. trinn i Norge. Disse verktøyene er tilgjengelige på nett (skrivesenteret.no)

The Functional Writing in Primary School (FUS) project aims to increase the quality of both teaching and learning writing in the first years of schooling. FUS will be a large-scale, mixed methods study investigating the effects on students’ writing proficiency of an early start with functional writing. FUS will focus on students’ using writing as a tool for learning and communication, and their development as writers. The project will also investigate teachers’ writing instruction and professional development. The primary objective of FUS is to investigate the consequences of an early start with functional writing on students’ writing proficiency, teachers’ professional development, and learning activities. The following secondary objectives have been formulated: *To investigate what effects a writing instruction intervention focusing on functional writing may have on students’ writing proficiency, *To describe and explain students’ development as writers, and *To describe and explain teachers’ professional development and writing instruction practices during the project. FUS will run as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) study including 60 schools, 1800 young learners and 120 teachers. All resources for teaching functional writing will be produced in close collaboration with teachers. FUS will use a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the objectives. It is anticipated that the project will result in new, evidence-based knowledge about how to promote functional writing development for young children, as well as valuable insights into writing development, children’s development as writers, and teachers’ professional development in the field of writing instruction and assessment. FUS will have the potential to reduce the knowledge gap in these areas and, consequently, benefit teacher education and the school sector – and not at least give an important basis for further research in the field of early literacy.