WRITING SKILLS INTERVENTION PROGRAM(WRISIP) FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENTS

ELVIRA O. PILLO MaEd - Filipino

Rationale

Writing has been given great emphasis in the Philippine educational system since the

teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) support the aim of enhancing the

English competence of Filipino learners. Authorities agree that writing is one of the highest forms

of academic skills for it reflects a person’s level of language competence, concept development,

and abstraction With this nature of writing, many are convinced that writing is a complex task. It

is the most difficult of the language abilities to acquire; more so, if the language to be used is

considered a second or a foreign language. Thus, students are faced with difficulties in writing that

they try to avoid the task for they find it a struggle.

Thus, the Department of Education (DepEd) has endeavored to improve the academic

performance of Filipino students by implementing the K to 12 Program as prescribed by the

Republic Act 10533 also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act. The Senior High School

(SHS) curriculum of the K to 12 Program requires students to perform well academically. The

subjects for SHS demands students to acquire certain standards in order to pass. These content and

performance standards are indicated in the curriculum guides given by the DepEd. Such standards

should be acquired by the students in order to graduate from SHS. One of the indicators of

academic success of SHS students is having effective and comprehensive academic writing skills.
 As a response, the SHS curriculum offers different subjects that seek to enhance language

communication skills, such as academic writing. However, despite the academic essay writing

opportunities offered to students, it has been observed that students’ academic writing performance

remains to be deficient. SHS teachers continue to complain about students’ poor quality essays as

reflected in their output

That’s why in this research A primary goal of this study is to increase opportunities for

students to diagnose students academic writing and by diagnosing students will be given a writing

intervention. The purpose of this study is to conduct an experiment to determine effective strategies

for increasing the writing skills of at-risk students . More specifically, this study will examine the

effects of writing across the curriculum and writing process instruction on the writing skills of

Senior High School students.

One of the most effective models in writing is The book Teaching of Foreign Languages

entitled Proficiency, Curriculum, Articulation: The Ties that Bind, discusses the proficiency

guidelines for writing and the impact of writing on the curriculum. It also provides classroom ideas

for teaching writing. Probably the most helpful part of this article is the final section on responding

to student writing. In this section, Sally Sieloff Magnan discusses different forms of responding to

writing such as peer response, dialogue journals with the teacher, discussing the instructor’s

writing as a sample, providing tape recorded oral feedback, and using checklists. This is to

addressed the writing difficulty of the students and to promote an effective models to students who

sees writing as a burden and a waste of time.

To increase students’ time spent writing, Zemelman and Daniels 1988 suggested using

writing as a tool or method of teaching other subject matter content in the curriculum. In order to

see significant gains in the Hesperia students’ writing skills, an objective will be thatstudents write
for thirty to forty-five minutes per day in English class, and for thirty to forty-five minutes per

week in their science, mathematics, and social studies classes. process consistently when preparing

writing assignments in content area classes and in English class.

In addition, the majority of teens surveyed by the National Commission on Writing (2008)

acknowledged that more writing instruction in school would improve their writing skills. In the

Kiuhara et al. (2009) report on a national survey of writing practices among high school teachers,

recommendations included the need for (a) increased use of evidence-based practices in writing

instruction, (b) more frequent adaptation of writing instruction to meet the needs of struggling

writers, and (c) better teacher training in writing instruction.

Hence, no previous reviews on writing interventions have evaluated single-case design

research according to the new standards proposed by What Works Clearinghouse (WWC;

Kratochwill et al., 2010). The new WWC standards recommend initial steps for determining

whether a single-case research design meets standards, and if minimum standards are evident,

subsequent steps for determining whether the intervention produced an effect on the outcome

variables.

Thus, the current review was undertaken as an avenue to analyze writing interventions

from two novel perspectives: first, from a focus specifically on writing interventions con-ducted

with high school students to deter-mine the most effective methods with this particular

population, and second, as an opportunity to evaluate research using the recently released

WWC single-case design standards (Kratochwill et al., 2010). In sum many researchers doubt

on the implementation of the writing intervention because it is only limited on the conduct of the

assessment and evaluation.

 To fill in the gaps of previous researches writing across the curriculum programs are most

successful when teachers voluntarily include writing in their classes. According to Walvoord,

Hunt, Dowling, and McMahon (1997). This are the list of activities to overcome the lapses.

Throughout this study, teachers will meet to discuss progress, identify students’ strengths and

weaknesses, and prepare topics and teaching methods. According to Walvoord, Hunt, Dowling,

and McMahon (1997), writing across the curriculum programs are most successful when teachers

voluntarily include writing in their classes.

Problem Statement

1. What is the profile of the SHS students in Esperanza, National High School in terms of?

1.1 Name

1.2 Age

1.3 Gender

2. What is the level of academic writing skills among Esperanza, National High School
Students?

3. Is the writing skills intervention program effective in its implementation and outcomes?
Review of Related Literature

In order to build a foundation for the study of improving the writing skills of at-risk students,

several relevant areas of research will be examined. The research will focus on the following

topics: the importance of improving writing skills, the instructional needs of at-risk students,

writing across the curriculum programs, using the writing process, effective instructional strategies

for teaching writing, and evaluation.

Hilldenbrand (1985) in a case study research of a Spanish speaking subject suggested that

the mode of writing could influence the writing process. The creative and personal mode conflicted

with the academic mode expected of a learner. There might be factors beyond linguistic

competence, which could impede the composing process. Jones (1985) investigated the factors

containing writing. The investigator interviewed nine advanced students and found out that

monitoring would not lead to improve writing. The study concluded that the process oriented

writing instruction would help acquisition of English.

Antonisamy (1996) conducted a research study on "Effect of Auto instructional programme

on developing writing skills in English at First year B.E. Level". The main objectives of the study

are: to design and implement a programme at First year B.E. level to make the students self learners

and to find out the effect of Auto materials instructional package through descriptive differential

and relational analysis.

Case study method was followed. The investigator made use of an auto instructional technique to

improve the writing skills of First Year B.E. students as their communicative ability in writing was

not satisfactory. This package helped the learners to learn for themselves. The learners sought only
minimum help from the teacher. The educational implication involved in this auto instructional

technique was to minimize the teacher’s work and to maximize the learners task.

Bassett et. al. (2001) in their study aimed at describing a course for improving writing

skills. The targeted sample students consisted of first and third graders in two middle class

communities in the southern suburbs of Chicago. The need for improving writing skills was

documented through inspection, checklists, writing samples and surveys. The suggested strategies

for teaching writing skills were parents association, through newspapers and articles, using writing

centers, the make use of of e-mail, letter writing, free option of topics, the sue of literature to read

writing, author's chair, interactive journals or notebooks, allowing inventive spelling, cross

curricular writing and encouraging at home writing. Findings showed an increase in the targeted

students` writing abilities, a positive attitude towards the writing process, an increased self -

confidence in the editing and revising of student work and increased parental involvement in the

area of writing.

Hopkins (2002) applied and developed his study to assist low- achieving tenth grade

students` essay writing skills. According to first term examinations in the academic year 2002,

many students were not performing well in the writing process. The goal was to help students write

successfully and understand the elements of the essay. The objective of the study was to help

students write successfully and understand with 70% accuracy in prewriting, drafting, revising,

and finalizing the essay writing. The posttests were implemented to test the writing process. The

researcher developed various stages of writing, such as, prewriting, drafting, revision, proofing

and publishing essay. To achieve the objectives, the researcher used graphic organizers for

clustering diagrams, charts, revision charts, and peer editing and scoring rubrics. The researcher
recommended that the time spent on peer editing clustering methods and writing portfolios be

increased and rubrics be used to help students in essay writing.

The study was conducted in Bethel High school in Virginia. The school had 966 male students and

984 female students. The population of tenth graders was 504:255 male students and 249 female

students. The study lasted for six weeks, 18 interventions were implemented to help low achieving

students with their ability to improve essay writing skills. This study is useful for the present one

as it gives clear ideas about the stages of the writing process.

Stone, Ashbaugh & Warfield (2002) studied the effects of repeated practice and contextual

– writing experiences on college student’s writing skills. The authors examined the effects of both

general and task specific writing experiences on the college student’s writing skill development.

On the basis of theories of expertise development and a cognitive process theory of writing skill

development the authors predicted that repeated practice would be associated with superior writing

skills and that after controlling for repeated practice writing within a specific task domain would

be associated with superior writing skills. The results were consistent with the predictions.

Kamala (2003) has developed communicative strategies to enhance the written

communication skill in English among college students. The researcher has chosen the task of

constructing a story out of a given title or outline. The strategies developed proved to be effective.

The objectives of the study are: (i) To introduce a task- based, genre – oriented approach to

teaching writing and measure its effect on written communication. (ii) to find out the influence of

the nature and type of tasks on the performance of the learners. (iii) To find out the relationship

between “input enhancement” and the quality of intake in the process of enhancing written

communication skill. (iv) To study the effect of the teaching of the process of writing on the

enhancement of written communication skill. (v)To find out the relationship between training in
strategy use and skill development (vi) To find out the relationship between the students

knowledge of the subjects learnt at the major level and written communication skill. (v) To find

out the relationship between training in strategy use and skill development (vi) To find out the

process in content and form in the process of the enhancement of written communication skill.

(vii) To find out the relationship between the students knowledge of the subjects learnt at the major

level and written communication skill. The findings of the study are: (i) There is progress both in

‘content’ in writing and ‘Form’ in writing in the performance of the students over the progressive

tests measuring the development of written communication skill (ii)Literature students employ the

strategies of \ ‘conceptualizing’, coherence detection, Inference, Word identification, Looping

forward in chunks and knowledge Transforming effectively. Their use of organizing strategy is

not effective. (iii) The use of communicative strategies facilitates the enhancement of written

communication skill

Franco (2008) conducted a study titled ‘Using Wiki-Based Peer-Correction to Develop

Writing Skills of Brazilian EFL Learners’. The research was planned to investigate whether

students' writing skill will be improved if shared learning strategies are applied in wikis. Additional

issues were examined, such as, the level of motivation and the development of social skills. The

study consisted of 18 Brazilian EFL students from a private language school as a population. They

were young learners whose ages ranged from thirteen to seventeen. Moreover, the largest part of

them was teaching English with a view to enhance their curriculum and to broad the possibilities

of job prospects. Data were accumulated from a survey and an online questionnaire, which helped

the researcher to draw conclusions from the function of peer-correction through wikis. The

findings of the study showed that an increasing curiosity in belonging to an online community

emerged from students altogether with elevated degrees of motivation.

The learning through wikis also supported students in their writing skill and developing social

relationship. Apart from maximizing opportunities related to writing, learners improved their

societal skills in the sense that they cooperated. The findings also suggested that wikis offer

learners with many reimbursements in developing their writing skills

Schnee, A.K. (2011) conducted a study titled ‘Student Writing Performance: Identifying

the Effects when Combining Planning and Revising Instructional Strategies’. The purpose of the

study was to identify the impact of teaching students to revise their stories on writing production

(Total Words Written; TWW), writing accuracy (Percent Correct Writing Sequences; %CWS),

number of critical story elements included in stories, and quality of writing. The students were first

taught to plan their stories using the evidencebased program, Self-Regulated Strategy

Development (SRSD), which had frequently been implemented to teach students to plan their

stories.. Results indicated that instruction in revising increased student writing accuracy beyond

the effects of instruction in planning. Additionally, although instruction in planning was shown to

increase writing production, number of critical story elements, and quality of writing, instruction

in revising produced additional improvement in these variables as well. Finally, results indicated

that students liked the intervention and their attitudes toward writing generally increased.

Zhao (2014) conducted a study titled ‘Investigating teacher-supported peer assessment for

EFL writing’. This study sought to effectively implement peer assessment for EFL writing in

China, by addressing learners’ concerns through tailor made teacher intervention strategies.

Eighteen English majors participated in peer assessment for nine writing tasks. Pre-intervention

surveys elicited learners’ concerns over peer assessment, leading to the design of teacher-led

support strategies. Post-task surveys examined learners’ satisfaction with teacher-supported peer

assessment, and were supplemented by the assignment feedback data. The results show that a
dynamic and continuous teacher support approach to peer assessment was reported which proved

to substantially affect learners’ perceptions, and the nature and the perceived value of peer

assessment, respectively. Writing teachers should explain to students how teacher comments on

peer feedback should be used in order to help them understand the necessity of peer feedback for

their subsequent drafts.

Troester, J.M. (2015) conducted a study titled ‘The Writing Process: Using Peer Review

to Develop Student Writing’. The study explored how peer review through an online writing

exchange influenced student writers during the writing process in eighth grade English classes at

O'Neill Public Schools, and the influence this experience had on students involved. The researcher

proposed that when students participated in this online writing exchange to peer review, it assured

that they had a better understanding of the writing process, and more confidence in analyzing their

own writing and in themselves as writers. It also made these students more conscientious of the

writing they share with peers because they had a wider audience than just their teacher, and this

motivated them to improve their writing

.In most of the studies conducted in local and Abroad on writing, tools, such

as questionnaire, opinionnaire, interview-schedule, rating scale, reaction scale, rubrics and

students’ writing samples were used. In the area of Participatory approach, Keller used qualitative

methods of observation, interviewing and the review of program documents. Hunt used survey-

questionnaire.

By the review of related studies, the researcher has come across certain studies conducted

in India as well as Abroad in the field of teaching and learning English language. These studies

deal with writing skills, different approaches and methods to teach English effectively to make

English language teaching interesting and easy.

Theoretical Framework

Construction-integration theory

The construction–integration model of reading explains how reading can be separated into

a micro and macro level (Kintsch, 2013, . The micro-level represents the more localized level of

reading, including decoding and phonological awareness. The macro-level represents a more

global understanding of reading, focusing on the semantic representation of the text. Together, the

micro- and macro-levels explain the two dichotomies of reading, decoding and comprehension.

This theory primarily describes reading but can be applied to writing. To explain writing, the

micro-level represents the correlation between letters and words, as well as words and sentence.

The macro-level would include overall comprehension of a written text and the connections among

sentences to form ideas.

Sociocultural theory

Writing is a social construct that is culturally based and individualized. Currently,

sociocultural theory is the dominant framework for writing research (Prior, 2006[Google

Scholar]), which posits that an activity such as writing happens in specific situations and is

governed by the rules of a culture or society but can also be individualized to the specific

individual. Sociocultural theory builds on Vygotsky’s (1980, [Google Scholar]) Zone of Proximal

Development (ZPD) and learning from a more knowledgeable other, focusing on social and

concrete aspects of learning. Therefore, sociocultural theory views writing and reading as modes

of social collaboration and cognitive processing (Prior, 2006[Google Scholar]).

Situated Learning and Low-Road/High-Road Theory

 Brown et al. (1989), in a speculative article “Situated Cognition and the Culture of

Learning,” developed the theory of situated learning and cognition. They believed that activity and

learning are essential to cognition and learning. Based on this theory of situated learning,

knowledge, similar to language, is acquired from the world through a series of activities and

situations where it is produced. A learner’s formation and understanding of a concept will

continually evolve in different activities and changing contexts. According to Brown et al. (1989),

learning by doing or “situated learning” often leads to learners’ unintentional transfer of skills to

problem solve under changing contexts.

Hutchinson’s and Waters’ Model Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

Propose a material design model which is aimed at providing a coherent framework for

the integration of the various aspects for learning and basically they describe the development of

programs and materials for ESP. In conducting a program planning, Hutchinson and Water propose

two steps. First, in the beginning of the program planning, they begin by doing the needs analysis,

meaning that they analyze the needs of the learners first. The second is the continuity from the

needs analysis, which is translating the needs into a syllabus design from which the designer

designs the materials

Genre- Based Approach in Teaching Writing

Writing in process approaches is seen as predominantly to do with linguistic skills, such as

planning and drafting, and there is much less emphasis on linguistic knowledge, such as knowledge

about grammar and text structure.

In the ELT field, Dudley-Evans (1997; 154) identifies three stages in genre approach to writing.

First, a model of a particular genre is introduced and analyzed. Learners, then, carry out exercises

which manipulate relevant language forms and finally produce a short text.

Genre-based approaches see writing as essentially concerned with knowledge of language, and as

being tied closely to a social purpose, while the development of writing is largely viewed as the

analysis and imitation of input in the form of texts provided by the teacher.

Communicative approach

Focuses on message rather than form. Futhermore, they also state that the communicative

approach has enlarged the materials developer’s concern with language skills, moving away

from the encoding and decoding levels to the use of skills for real communication in real time,

those should be provided because they are really needed by learners.

According to Dubin and Olsthain (1986), the four skills in English – speaking, listening,

reading, and writing, should be based on communicative goals. It means that the skills should be

taught based on it purposes, for example, speaking is defined in the form of the communicative

use that the learners will be able to make of it. Listening is also seen as an independent

counterpart of speaking, reading and writing and also needs to be based on the communicative

goals. Reading may be different from reading a magazine and be focused on the purpose for

reading itself, while the writing activity, which becomes and the interactive process is conducted

to communicate to the audience.

Based on the theories and models, the basis of the researcher to develop the material is the

procedure in developing the materials themselves. First, the researcher needs to understand and

comprehend the curriculum and the theories of developing of sequencing the material. Then, the
researcher needs analyzing in order to find the students’ needs. A need analysis which is aimed at

finding the learners’ need and interest.

Next, the result of comprehending the curriculum, the theories of developing materials, and

the analysis of students’ needs and interests are used as a basis in developing the course grid,

writing materials, and designing the tasks and activities. When the materials have been designed,

the materials are used in teaching and learning process.

Theoretical Conceptual Framework

Figure 1

Construction  Hutchinson
integration
Theory ’s and
Waters’
Model
Hutchinson
and Waters
WRITING SKILLS (1987)
Socio-
INTERVENTION Cultural  Genre-
PROGRAM(WRISI Theory Based
P) Approach
in Teaching
Writing
 Communic
Situated ative
Learning and approach
Low-
Road/High-
Road Theory
METHODOLOGY

Research Design

METHODS This study used the descriptive-qualitative research design as it focused on

identifying difficulties of Senior High School students in writing. Students were asked to write an

academic essay and used rubrics in grading. Students who score low (e.g., bottom 30% of their

class) inscreenings should then participate in one or more phases of intervention programming. If

the student does progress in a first intervention phase, then the child can return to regular education

classroom programming with monitoring and support as needed. In the third phase suggest that be

a more intensive academic-skills intervention than Tier 2 (e.g., fewer children per group, more

time per daily session)

General Procedure

The headteacher of Esperanza, National High School was given a letter for permission to

conduct the research study at the school. Authority was given on the condition that the data would

be collected during the third term so as not to disrupt end of year examinations. The School Head

made specific classes available for the research to take place in.Consequently, the researcher

discussed the study to the teachers o from the school. Before the students were asked to write their

outputs, the criteria in evaluating their written works were given.

Research Setting

The district of Matalom Leyte is composed of two area the Matalom South district and

Matalom North District. Esperanza National High School belongs from Matalom South district. In

the said district there are only two secondary high School the Cahagnaan National High School

and ENHS respectively. Esperanza National has a population of not more than 250 Junior High

School Students and Not more than 150 Senior High School Students.

Participants

The participating students came from the Senior High School of Esperanza National High

School. The researcher then visited each section in person, introduced the study design to the

students, and invited them to participate in the study. As the maximum of enrollment for each

section was 30 from both Strand 4 section no more than 120 students. The actual sample population

was smaller due to the small population size of the Senior high School enrollees. The researcher

then conduct the Writing Skills Intervention Program(Wrisip) .

Survey Instrument

The study used a researcher-made checklist patterned from the standardized criteria set by

Jacobs [10] to identify the writing difficulties of the SHS students. Moreover, the Standardized

Analytic Rubrics in Evaluating Academic Writings of Jacobs [10] enriched by Valdez [8] was used

to determine the overall quality of the students’ written essays. The researcher-made checklist has

six criteria. Each criterion has set of descriptors that show difficulties in writing academic essay.

These criteria include content/ ideas, organization, vocabulary/word choice, language use,

formality and objectivity and referencing. The criteria on content/ ideas looks into the treatment

of the topic, variety of ideas, interpretation of the topic, relevance, accuracy of details and purpose
of writing. Organization assesses the fluency of expression, statement and support of ideas,

appropriate paragraphing, effective essay parts, coherence and cohesion. Moreover, vocabulary

and word choice focuses on the range of vocabulary, accuracy of word choice and usage, and

appropriateness of words to match register. Further, formality and objectivity check the avoidance

of contracted verb forms, use of one-word verbs, use of abbreviations or colloquial words, correct

use of personal pronouns and avoidance of rhetorical questions and emotive language. Lastly,

referencing weighs the effective use of citations and correct way of writing such. On the other

hand, the Standardized Analytic Rubric of Jacobs [10] and improved by Valdez [8] was used in

the evaluation of the overall quality of the academic essays contain four scales. Each scale has a

corresponding point: a) very good to excellent (4 points); b) good to average (3 points); c) poor to

fair (2 points); and d) very poor (1 point). After the diagnostic is the proceeds of the intervention

phase
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Hopkins (2002) applied and developed his study to assist low- achieving tenth grade

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Troester, J.M. (2015) conducted a study titled ‘The Writing Process: Using Peer

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