Using Choice as a Writing Intervention to Investigate Gender Differences

Writing has been specifically identified as a neglected skill within the core academic areas for elementary aged students (National Commission on Writing, 2013). Therefore, there is a need for researchers to focus on interventions that will improve students’ writing skills. Unfortunately, limited research exists with regards to interventions that have proven to increase academic productivity in the area of writing. Panahon, Hilt-Panahon, and Arbolino (2012) found that when students were given a choice of story starters, students wrote more words as opposed to when they were provided only one story starter. The current study looked to further examine the use of a choice intervention on writing by comparing the performance of male and female students. Participants were randomly assigned to either the choice or no choice groups and administered curriculum-based writing probes on a weekly basis. Participants assigned to the choice group were presented two writing prompts at the beginning of each session and chose which they preferred to write about for the day. Participants assigned to the no choice group were provided one writing prompt. The total words written by both males and females were compared in both conditions to investigate any potential gender differences. Implications of the findings will be discussed