Improving Writing Skills through Self-Assessment in 4th graders

Abstract

From an early age, kids resort to creativity to tell stories that allow them to entertain and communicate. Acting, drawing, speaking, writing, are some of the methods used to share their imaginative stories. Most of these creative interactions take place in the native language of the child, whereas a second language may pose more of a challenge. Nowadays, the acquisition of a second language seems imperative, as technology and culture keep progressing and connecting people around the world. English, as a second language, is being taught to foster this opportunity, to connect families, businesses, communities, countries, and more. In the process of learning English as a second language at a young age, children may not express their creativity to the fullest or voice their imaginative stories clearly. Nevertheless, this is part of the learning experience, and can be overcome with the practice of skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. The problem observed by the researcher relied on the writing of creative stories by young learners using English a second language, in the age of 8 to 10 years old. Students of this age group can read, listen, and ask and answer questions about creative compositions in English. However, they have difficulty writing creative stories on their own. On the contrary, the same group of students can develop creative content with their native language, Spanish, without difficulty and with long wording. To improve the writing skills of young learners, aimed towards their creative compositions, the research focused on the use of self-assessment. In doing so, students could identify what they needed to improve their text. Additionally, learners were encouraged to include new vocabulary words, transitional phrases, and character descriptions. During the research, feedback between the learner and the teacher was fundamental to the improvement of their skills. Thus, the study strived to answer to what extent self-assessment improves student’s written production and how students’ perception of their written texts changes both prior and following self-assessment