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Review of the Literature regarding The Benefits of Student Publishing |
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After I sent out media kits regarding my book Publishing
with Students, • If you are thinking about publishing with your students and are wondering why, read the following research. • If you are trying to convince your principal of the merits of student publishing, print out a copy of this research and share it with him/her. • Please e-mail me any anecdotes, thoughts, and/or pieces describing the benefits of student publishing, and I will post as many as I can in Teachers Talk about Why Student Publishing Matters (a future link). |
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Contents 1 NAEP Writing Framework
and Publishing’s Benefits
2 (The Publication
Stage in) the Writing Process — 3 Research Shows that Journalism Students Do Better
4 Implications of
the 1998 Writing Report Card that 5 Publishing along
with Effective Strategies Brings Best Results
6 Publication
Motivates a Vast Majority of Students 7 Publication
is a Powerful Means of Motivating Revision
8 Writing
and Publishing for a Wider Audience
9 Publication Helps Develop the Element of Voice 10
Web-based Publishing for Students The Meteoric Rise of Computer Technology, the Internet, 11 Forums for Our
Young People 12
Making A Difference in People’s Lives around the World
13 Publication:
When Student Writers Learn from Each Other
14 What
Student Publishing Does to the World Touches our Hearts 15 Publishing
Helps Us Understand, Come Together,
17
Why Parents Believe that Publishing is Important 18
Publication Reminds Teachers
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| “Publication is important
for all children. It is not the privilege of the classroom elite, the future
literary scholars. Rather, it is an important mode of literary enfranchisement
for each child in the classroom.” —Don Graves |
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Key
Findings of this Review of the Literature: • Research repeatedly points to publication
as a beneficial and integral addition to any writing program • Journalism students (tens of thousands of
them) working on high school newspapers do better on grades, ACT test,
AP exams, and in many other areas based on a large body of evidence in
Journalism Kids Do Better • In 1998, the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) administered the most recent assessment to approximately
160,000 students in grades 4, 8, and 12 throughout the United States.
Professors Stephens and Mandeville from Southwest Texas University wrote,
“The NAEP also implies that publishing writing is correlated with
higher performance levels of writing. Researchers found that 8th graders
whose teachers asked them to define purpose and audience once or twice
a month outperformed their peers whose teacher never or hardly ever asked
them to do so.” • Studies show that combining publishing with
effective teaching strategies produces the best results in student writing.
• Virtually all students are motivated to
do their very best writing and revising when writing for publication.
• Writing is rewriting, and the literature
clearly shows that student publications have an impact on increasing students’
interest and efforts in editing and revising. • In writing for publication, student writers
are writing according to purpose and for an intended audience. The literature
clearly states the powerful role that publication plays in helping young
writers learn to write and continue writing for an audience. The reason
we write is to communicate, and their expanded audience gives students
the purpose for writing. • Scholars advocate placing learners in situations
where they use or experience disciplinary knowledge in more realistic
or authentic ways than they do in traditional classrooms. Online publishing
allows teachers to place students in learning situations in which they
experience academic disciplines in more authentic ways than they had previously.
• Research and studies show that writing produced
for peers on an online network is often better than that produced for
local peers and teachers. • Being involved in e-mail and other online
publishing projects with students from other countries help students understand
different cultures. • 350,000 students at 4,000 schools in more
than 90 countries participate in the global telecommunications iEARN network
to tackle real problems and make a difference in peoples’ lives.
Much of their work is published in some form. • ePals Classroom Exchange connects more than
27,000 classrooms with more than 1.7 million students in 130 countries
around the world. • Millions of students have their writing
displayed or “published” in various web
based publishing mediums. |
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