Language and Literacy

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    Book Leveling and Reading
    (International Reading Association, 2005-11) Stein, Brenda Dzaldov ; Peterson, Shelley Stagg
    In this article, we discuss the “leveling mania” that we have observed in schools, using findings of a mini-research study in which we assessed the uniformity and variability of texts purported to be at the same level for instructional or independent reading in primary classrooms. Specifically, we looked at book and print features, language and literary features, as well as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status representation, criteria that fit with our views on reading as a relationship between readers and texts. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for appropriate use of leveled text in the classroom to support reading instruction.
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    Fourth, sixth, and eighth graders' preferred writing topics and identification of gender markers in stories
    (2000) Peterson, Shelley Stagg
    In their identification of gender in the writing of nine narratives, students in this study reproduced a narrow range of gendered subject positions offered within dominant discourses. Congruent with Davies’ and Harré’s observations (1990), students defined the categories of female middle-grade writer and male middle-grade writer as binary opposites. Whether students identified a writer’s gender correctly or incorrectly, their positioning of a writer as female foregrounded specific characteristics: (1) the location of elements within primary territory; (2) limited or mitigated evidence of violence and/or action; (3) the demonstration of writing competence and a conscientious attitude toward writing, and (4) a positioning of female characters in more powerful roles. Students positioned writers as male using the following contrasting characteristics: (1) the location of elements within tertiary territory; (2) strong and graphic evidence of violence and/or action; (3) the demonstration of a lack of writing competence and an uncaring attitude toward writing, and (4) a positioning of male characters in powerful roles.
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    Grade Six Teachers’ Feedback on Girls’ and Boys’ Narrative and Persuasive Writing
    (2006) Peterson, Shelley Stagg ; Kennedy, Kerrie
    This study extends previous work examining teachers’ written feedback on students’ writing from postsecondary into elementary contexts. The objective was to determine the influence of genre and gender on teachers’ written feedback to sixth-grade authors of narrative and persuasive writing. We considered the quantity of comments and corrections, as well as the focus and mode of comments written by 108 teachers on four pieces of writing composed by two students. There were significant differences between comments directed to the two types of writing. Process, conventions, artistic style, and format were the focus of significantly greater numbers of comments directed to narrative writing than to persuasive writing. In contrast, meaning, organization, effort, and ideology were emphasized to a greater degree when teachers responded to persuasive writing than to narrative writing. There were also gender differences: Teachers tended to indicate and make greater numbers of corrections on writing attributed to boys, and to provide more criticisms and lessons, explanations and suggestions when the work was attributed to a male writer. Female teachers focused on conventions and organization in contrast to male teachers’ tendency to focus more on artistic style. In addition, female teachers generally wrote greater numbers of comments and tended to indicate and make more corrections than did male teachers. Our findings indicated a correlation between convention errors and the number and types of comments, as well as teachers’ reluctance to engage with the ideologies in students’ writing
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    Social Ideologies in Grade Eight Students’ Conversation and Narrative Writing
    (2004) Peterson, Shelley Stagg ; Calovini, Theresa
    In this paper, we illuminate the nature of social ideologies in four eighth-grade students’ talk as they generate ideas for their narrative writing. Using systemic functional linguistics (Eggins & Slade, 1997) and related critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995), we identify the influence of social ideologies on students’ informal talk and on their writing. We consider ways in which interpersonal and intertextual relationships were constructed, influenced, and negotiated in an informal brainstorming session.
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    Written feedback and scoring of sixth-grade girls' and boys' narrative and persuasive writing
    (2004) Peterson, Shelley Stagg ; Childs, Ruth ; Kennedy, Kerrie
    This study examined the possible gender differences in teachers' scoring and written feedback on two narrative and two persuasive writing samples sent to 108 grade six teachers throughout one Canadian province. Participating teachers read a narrative and a persuasive piece of writing from one boy, and a narrative and persuasive piece written by one girl. The four papers were credited to a male author for some teachers and to a female author for others. The teachers evaluated the writing using the provincial scoring guides for narrative and persuasive writing. They also wrote comments and/or indicated needed edits and revisions on the piece of writing, providing the same kind of feedback to the student writers that they would provide to their own students. A two-way ANOVA was used to compare the scores by the teacher’s gender and the identified gender of the writer for each of the four papers. There were significant differences between scores assigned to female and male writers on particular papers within specific scoring categories. Nevertheless, teachers’ ratings of the writing showed no consistent patterns privileging female or male writers. Additionally, female and male teachers’ scores were not significantly different for three of the four writing samples. The persuasive papers overall were scored higher than the narrative papers. With one exception, the highest scores within each of the four scoring categories were assigned to papers whose writers were identified as boys. Teachers scored two papers higher when the student writer’s perceived gender matched their own (same-sex appreciation). Their scoring demonstrated the opposite effect (same-sex depreciation) for the other two papers.