ACADEMIC WRITING MOTIVATION:

A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ADOLESCENTS' PERSPECTIVES

BY KIMBERLY A. BALLINGER

A dissertation submitted to

The Graduate School of Education

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree

Doctor of Education

Graduate Program in Literacy Education

Approved by

Melanie Kuhn, Chair

Sharon Ryan

/ / / / // _ J A / H^os^u^cm i/Gwynne Ash

New Brunswick, New Jersey

May, 2009

UMI Number: 3373670

Copyright 2009 by Ballinger, Kimberly A.

INFORMATION TO USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy

submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations

and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper

alignment can adversely affect reproduction.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript

and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized

copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

®

UMI UMI Microform 3373670

Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against

unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway

P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 1

Chapter

I INTRODUCTION

Rationale for the Study 1

Research Questions 3

II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Motivation and Learning: An Overview 6

Motivation and Writing 10

Theoretical Framework 20

III METHODOLOGY

Pilot Study 23

Setting of the Study 26

Sample 27

Data Collection 34

Data Analysis 39

Validity 43

IV FINDINGS

Within-Case Analysis: Six Case Summaries 46

Layla 47

Timothy 55

Elizabeth 63

Troy 74

Jorja 84

Joshua 95

Cross-Case Analysis 105

According to students' perspectives, how do past writing

experiences shape writing motivation? 105

How does student perception of teacher characteristics and/or

classroom factors affect writing motivation? 110

According to middle school students, what kinds of tasks

motivate students to write? 117

V SUMMARY, LIMITATIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS

Summary 127

Limitations of the Study 130

Implications 131

Implications for Practice 131

Implications for Teacher Educators 134

Implications for Future Research 135

REFERENCES 138

APPENDIX 148

1

i

ABSTRACT

Writing is an intricate act of meaning making (Elbow, 1986). It is a complex

process of problem solving involving memory, planning, text generation, and revision

(Flower & Hayes, 1981). According to Vygotsky (1986), "Written speech is the most

elaborate form of speech" (p. 242). In a task as difficult as this, motivational issues have

tremendous impact upon process and product. Previous research studies in literacy have

tended to concentrate on reading and motivation and deal primarily with elementary,

secondary, or collegiate populations. Investigations of writing and motivation are fewer

and have focused largely upon self-efficacy and/or goal theory. Past inquiries involving

student self-reporting have used instruments such as multiple-choice surveys and rating

scales almost exclusively, thus restricting the extent to which apprentice writers' voices

have been heard. This study sought to begin to redress these gaps in the literature by

exploring the issue of motivation and writing and revealing the views of several middle

school students.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine six young adolescents'

perspectives on academic writing and investigate the following fundamental research

question: What do middle school students say motivates them to write? Both within-

case and cross-case analyses of multiple sources of data collected from diverse

participants uncovered four features that cut across student accounts of writing

motivation. These middle school students were motivated to write for school when

writing teachers, classrooms, and tasks provided connections, support, autonomy, and

real reasons for writing. Results emphasize the need for middle school writing

instruction to be developmental^ appropriate and reflect the true nature of writing in

ii

order for it to be motivating. These findings can help to both deepen our understanding

of the writing-related experiences of adolescents and inform the design and

implementation of engaging writing instruction practices.

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Rationale for the Study

Writing is an intricate act of meaning making (Elbow, 1986). It is a complex

process of problem solving involving memory, planning, text generation, and revision

(Flower & Hayes, 1981). A unique language act, writing requires thinking methods

different from those used for listening, reading, or speaking (Emig, 1983). According to

Vygotsky (1986), "Written speech is the most elaborate form of speech" (p. 242).

Because written language exists without a living framework, it must construct its own

"situation" through the symbols of the text. Not only must writing communicate

meaning, it must also convey context. Language users must take a more active role as

they utilize written semiotic tools. Emig (1977) asserts, "writing centrally represents an

expansion of inner speech" (pp. 125-136). Therefore, moving from the abbreviated sense

for self to the detailed meaning for other, writers must work slowly and choose words

deliberately. As writers compose, they need to purposefully establish connections and

relationships through the mediational means of language.

In a task as difficult as this, motivational issues have tremendous impact upon

process and product (Bruning & Horn, 2000). Students need to be dedicated and engaged

in order to devote the time, effort, and emotion necessary for successful academic

writing. In short, students need to be motivated in order to initiate, persist, and succeed.

Motivation is described in psychology as an internal state that arouses humans to action.

2

pushes us in particular directions, and keeps us engaged in certain activities (Ormrod,

1999). In the academic context, the concept of student motivation is used to explain the

degree to which students invest attention and effort to various pursuits (Brophy, 1998).

Motivation appears to affect learning and performance in at least four ways: it increases

an individual's energy and activity level (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990); it directs an

individual toward specific goals (Blumenfeld, 1992); it promotes initiation of certain

activities and persistence in those activities (McClelland, 1985); and it affects the

learning strategies and cognitive processes an individual employs (Perry et al., 2002).

Previous research has examined motivation in the context of general learning

tasks such as completion of assignments, amount of effort and time devoted to duties,

perceived competence, persistence in the face of challenges, and related anxiety. Studies

that have focused on literacy activities tend to concentrate on reading and motivation (i.e.

Guthrie et al., 1996; Reynolds & Symons, 2001; Sweet, Guthrie, & Ng, 1998).

Investigations of writing and motivation are fewer and have focused largely upon self-

efficacy (i.e. Pajares & Johnson, 1994; Pajares & Valiante, 2001a; Schunk & Swartz,

1993) and/or goal theory (i.e. Ames & Archer, 1988; Anderman, Austin, & Johnson,

2002; Meece & Miller, 1999). While these studies report that students with a mastery

goal orientation who believe they are (or can be) capable writers tend to be motivated to

write, most deal with elementary (i.e. Gottfried, 1990; Miller & Meece, 1997; Oldfather,

1993; Pajares, Johnson, & Miller, 1999), secondary (i.e. Geary, 1991; Pajares &

Johnson, 1996; Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001), or collegiate (i.e. Brand &

Powell, 1986; Daly, 1985; Straub, 1997) populations.

3

Adolescents in general, and middle school students in particular, comprise an

understudied group. They are an especially important population to consider because

levels of children's motivation change as they mature. There is a tendency for significant

decreases in motivation as children move from elementary to middle, intermediate, or

junior high schools (Brophy, 1998). Young adolescents increasingly need support from

others, yet they often report feeling less academic support and nurturance from their

teachers due to large class sizes and the addition of multiple teachers in the middle school

years (Covington & Dray, 2002). Tt is unclear whether similar trends arise regarding

writing and motivation. Moreover, past investigations involving student self-reporting

have used instruments such as multiple-choice surveys and rating scales almost

exclusively (i.e. Bottomley, Henk, & Melnick, 1998; Brand & Powell, 1986; Daly &

Miller, 1975), thus restricting the extent to which apprentice writers' voices have been

heard. This study sought to begin to redress these gaps in the literature by exploring the

issue of motivation and writing and revealing the perspectives of middle school students.

Research Questions

A qualitative study intends "to discover and understand a phenomenon, a process,

or the perspectives and worldviews of the people involved" (Merriam, 1998, p. 11). My

research focused on describing, interpreting, and understanding adolescents' experiences

with academic writing motivation. Overall, this study explored participants' past and

present writing-related experiences, feelings, and beliefs as it sought to answer the

overarching research question: What do middle school students say motivates them to

write?

Research literature indicates that several factors have an impact on writing

motivation. These areas informed more specific questions for the study. First, Geary

(1991) found that students' personal histories affect their views on writing. Adolescents

often relate current levels of writing motivation to early as well as recent literacy

environments (Potter et al., 2001). Therefore, this study explored the following specific

research question: According to students 'perspectives, how do past writing experiences

shape writing motivation?

Second, classroom contexts and student-teacher interactions drive patterns of

writing motivation. Oldfather (1993) asserts that key classroom elements are connected

to student literacy motivation: emphasis on student construction of meaning and deep

responsiveness to students' expression. Classrooms in which students perceive a mastery

goal emphasis elicit adaptive motivation behaviors in students (Ames & Archer, 1988).

Wentzel (1997) investigated student motivation in middle school and found that

perceived caring from teachers is a major motivating force. In order to build upon the

information gathered in previous studies, another specific research question also guided

this study: How does student perception of teacher characteristics and or classroom

factors affect writing motivation?

Finally, the writing task itself can motivate adolescents. Complex writing tasks

often prove to be more motivating than simpler ones (Miller, Adkins, & Hooper, 1993).

Students asked to write sophisticated passages, collaborate with peers, and monitor their

own progress are more motivated than their peers who completed simple, independent

pieces (Miller & Meece, 2001). Authentic writing assignments have also been shown to

increase motivation (Cleary, 1990; Potter et al., 2001). This study investigated

5

motivating characteristics of writing activities by asking young writers to reveal them:

According to middle school students, what kinds of tasks motivate students to write? By

using an overarching question with more specific inquiries embedded within it, this study

explored student perspectives on writing motivation including, but not limited to, these

topics.

6

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The purpose of this study is to reveal adolescents' perspectives on academic

writing motivation. The review of the literature is organized to provide a background of

the various components of existing research on writing motivation. In the first section, I

discuss research that examines the relationship between motivation and learning. This

section focuses on ways in which student motivation directly affects academic outcomes.

In the second section, I summarize studies that have investigated the ways motivation and

writing are linked. In this section, I use four headings from Bruning & Horn's (2000)

article, "Developing Motivation to Write," to organize subtopics addressed in this

intricate body of research literature. This review was conducted to better understand the

complexities of the strands of literature that contribute to this study and to identify

specific areas needing further exploration.

Motivation and Learning: An Overview

Over the past fifty years, theorists have drastically changed their approach to the

study of human motivation. Talk of physiological needs and drives has diminished;

concrete, external reinforcers of learning have been by and large abandoned; and interest

in global needs for achievement and affiliation has lessened (Ormrod, 1999).

Nevertheless, research in motivation and learning continues extensively and focuses on

both cognitive and affective aspects. Major areas of contemporary exploration include

7

intrinsic motivation of learners, the development of academic self-efficacy, goal

orientations of classrooms and students, and self-regulated learning strategies.

Intrinsic motivation exists when the source of motivation lies within the

individual and the task. The individual finds the task enjoyable or worthwhile in and of

itself (Ormrod, 1999). Theories of intrinsic motivation portray people as doing what they

do because of a want rather than a need (Brophy, 1998). Intrinsic motivation focuses on

the affective elements of motivation such as the delight of the intellectual discovery,

pride in a job well done, and an appreciation for what is being learned (Covington &

Dray, 2002).

Academic intrinsic motivation has been found to be a valid construct for children.

When young children tend to perform academic activities simply for the pleasure of

learning, this trait predicts higher motivation in later school years independently of

intelligence, achievement, and socioeconomic status (Gottfried, 1990).

Contextualization, personalization, and choice produce dramatic increases in intrinsic

motivation as well as depth of engagement in learning, amount of learning, and perceived

competence of the learner (Cordova & Lepper, 1996). For literacy learning, Oldfather &

Dahl (1994) identify three domains of intrinsic motivation: classroom culture,

interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Intrinsic motivation is one element among many that

attributes to the relationship between motivation and learning.

Bandura (1986) defines self-efficacy as "people's judgments of their capabilities

to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of

performances" (p. 391). This theory is grounded in a larger theoretical framework,

known as social cognitive theory, which examines human learning based on interactions

8

between one's behaviors, beliefs, and environmental conditions (Bandura, 1986).

Learners form ideas about their self-efficacy from their actual performances,

observational experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological reactions (Schunk &

Pajares, 2002).

In our culture, as children get older, many of them begin to attribute their

successes and failures to intelligence and/or natural talent, factors they believe to be

stable and beyond their control (Ormrod, 1999). If students are usually successful at

school activities, they come to believe that they have high ability and develop a high

sense of self-efficacy for academic tasks. If students often experience failure in school

activities, especially if they attribute it to low natural ability rather than low effort or poor

strategies, they often develop low self-efficacy for academic pursuits (Schunk, 1991).

From these snapshots, one can clearly see students who greatly differ in levels of

motivation to learn.

Motivation revolves around the accomplishment of certain goals, with such goals

influencing the actions people take and the consequences they deem reinforcing (Ormrod,

1999). Goal orientations have to do with students' reasons for engaging in academic

tasks (Anderman, Austin, & Johnson, 2002). Prevalent theoretical dichotomies of goal

orientation include learning vs. performance goals, task-involvement vs. ego-involvement

goals, and mastery vs. performance goals (Ames, 1992). Social goals have also been

proposed (Blumenfeld, 1992). Recent literature uses the terms mastery and performance

goals. Mastery goals are set with a desire to achieve competence by acquiring new

knowledge or mastering new skills; performance goals come from a desire to appear able

and receive favorable judgments from others (Ormrod, 1999). With a mastery goal,

9

students are oriented toward trying to understand their work, improving their level of

competence, or achieving a sense of mastery based on self-referenced standards; with a

performance goal, students focus on ability evidenced by doing better than others, by

surpassing normative-based standards, or by achieving success with little effort (Ames,

1992). Ames and Archer (1988) found that students who perceived an emphasis on

mastery goals in the classroom reported using more effective strategies, preferred

challenging tasks, demonstrated a more positive attitude toward the class, and professed a

stronger belief that success follows from one's effort. Students who perceived

performance goals as guiding ideals tended to focus on their ability, evaluating their

ability negatively and attributing failure to lack of ability. Specific motivational

processes are related to these two types of goals in classroom settings.

Like students who work to achieve mastery goals, those who engage in self-

regulated learning focus more on internal processes than external forces and outcomes.

Self-regulated learning is active learning in which students assume responsibility for

motivating themselves to learn with understanding (Brophy, 1998). It is a constructive

process that occurs when students set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor,

regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior as they work to achieve

those goals (Pintrich & Zusho, 2002). More specifically, self-regulated learning includes

the following elements: self-motivation, goal setting, planning, attention control,

application of learning strategies, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation (Ormrod, 1999).

Students who can monitor and direct or change their own cognition, motivation,

behavior, and environment are more likely to be successful in academic settings (Pintrich

& Zusho, 2002). Perry et al. (2002) found that specific teacher actions promote self-

10

regulated learning. These include giving students choices, chances to control levels of

challenge, opportunities to evaluate their own and others' learning, instrumental support,

and feedback and evaluation of a non-threatening and a mastery-oriented nature.

Pintrich and DeGroot (1990) investigated motivational and self-regulated learning

components of classroom performance. They found these areas linked to each of the

aforementioned topics: intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and goal orientation. Self-

efficacy was positively related to student cognitive engagement and performance.

Intrinsic motivation was very strongly related to the use of cognitive strategies and self-

regulation. Tn other words, students' involvement in self-regulated learning is closely

tied to their beliefs about their capability to perform classroom tasks and to their beliefs

that these tasks are interesting and worth learning.

In summary, the development of motivational beliefs, values, and goals directly

impacts learning. These constructs affect the degree to which students attend to learning

tasks and activities as well as the amount of effort they dedicate to completing them.

Changes in motivation across the school years direct choice, performance, and,

ultimately, success in academic endeavors.

Motivation and Writing

The relationship between motivation and writing follows a pattern similar to the

one between motivation and learning. Adolescents are faced with myriad academic

writing tasks each day, ranging from the five-paragraph essay to a journal response to the

laboratory report. The level of involvement (both cognitive and affective) that students

are willing to invest in writing and the way they feel about their skills and competencies

affects their motivation to write.

11

Bruning and Horn (2000) propose four clusters of conditions vital for developing

students' motivation to write. They include nurturing functional beliefs about writing,

fostering student engagement through authentic writing, providing a supportive context

for writing, and creating a positive emotional environment. These headings provide a

useful framework with which to examine the research literature.

Nurturing Functional Beliefs About Writing

Writing is a complex act of problem solving (Flower & Hayes, 1981). It requires

sustained concentration from both the cognitive and the affective realms (Geary, 1991).

Beliefs are propositions or statements of relations among things that are accepted as true

and invested with value (McLeod, 1997). Beliefs about writing, such as the value of the

task itself or in one's own writing competence, determine how people set goals for

themselves and are therefore an important part of the motivational process. Because they

carry affective weight, beliefs can give rise to motivational situations that either facilitate

or interfere with students' writing processes.

Belief in one's competence as a writer appears essential for writing motivation.

Based in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, the self-efficacy component relates to

the study of academic writing in that self-efficacy beliefs affect what students do by-

influencing the choices they make, the effort they expend, and the persistence they exert

during the writing process. Believing that they are capable writers serves students well,

not because it increases competence, but because it helps generate interest in writing,

more sustained effort, and greater perseverance and resiliency (Pajares & Valiante, 1997).

Pajares and Valiante (2001a) investigated the influence of self-efficacy on

elementary students' writing. They found that self-efficacy perceptions predicted their

12

writing performance and directly influenced their writing apprehension, perceived

usefulness of writing, and essay writing. Studies examining self-efficacy beliefs and the

writing performance of entering high school students, undergraduate students, and

preservice teachers present similar findings. Pajares & Johnson (1996) investigated the

writing self-efficacy of 181 ninth graders and found that students' self-efficacy

perceptions are strong predictors of their writing performance and play a mediational role

regarding the effects of apprehension and gender. Shell, Murphy, & Bruning (1989)

looked at self-efficacy and outcome expectancy mechanisms in the literacy achievement

of 153 undergraduate students. They discovered that self-efficacy (and not outcome

expectancy) accounts for significant variance in writing achievement. Pajares & Johnson

(1994) investigated the self-efficacy beliefs and writing performance of thirty

undergraduate preservice teachers. The researchers found a significant relationship

between writing self-efficacy and writing performance and noted that writing self-

efficacy did not improve over the course of the study even through writing performance

did.

Writing self-efficacy seems to follow a developmental course similar to that of

general academic motivation (Brophy, 1998). Shell, Bruning, and Colvin (1995) found

that seventh and tenth graders possessed higher overall waiting self-efficacy than fourth

graders. This difference is most likely linked to growth in writing skills as evidenced in

data collected by instruments such as the Writers' Self-Perception Scale (Bottomley,

Henk, & Melnick, 1998). Writers who perceive themselves as capable usually seek out

more occasions to write, devote more effort to writing tasks, and show more diligence in

working toward writing mastery.

13

Gender also seems to play a part in the development of writing self-efficacy.

Pajares, Johnson, and Miller (1999) studied gender differences in the writing self-beliefs

of elementary school students. While girls and boys scored closely on writing

performance, girls had greater self-efficacy. Pajares and Valiante (2001) explored gender

differences in the writing motivation of middle school students. Girls received higher

grades in language arts and also reported stronger writing self-efficacy, writing self-

concept, and value of writing. Results from high school student samples differ. Phillips

and Zimmerman (1990) found less confidence in young women's perceptions of their

writing competence than those of the young men in the study. Geary (1996) discovered

high school females struggling between writing using their true voices and writing

material they believed their teachers wanted to hear, thus negatively influencing writing

self-perception.

Self-efficacy beliefs affect what students do. Beliefs about writing go beyond

self-efficacy, though. Writers come to the task with goal orientations that impact

motivational processes. Students who possess a mastery goal orientation rather than a

performance goal orientation (or who spend time on mastery-oriented writing activities or

in mastery-oriented classroom contexts) are more likely to be motivated to write and/or

use self-regulated learning strategies (Ames & Archer, 1988; Miller, Adkins, & Hooper,

1993; Turner, 1995; Guthrie etal., 1996; Miller &Meece, 1997;Perry, 1998;Meece&

Miller, 1999). Although nurturing functional beliefs about writing is an important

component in developing motivation to write, little is known concerning specific patterns

of middle school students' beliefs about writing and how they come into being.

14

Fostering Student Engagement Through Authentic Writing Goals and Contexts

The belief that writing is a useful, valuable skill engages students and motivates

them to write. The quality of the academic writing experience, determined largely by how

teachers use writing in their classrooms, significantly shapes student motivation (Bruning

& Horn, 2000).

Classroom activities or, more specifically, task characteristics are related to

writing motivation. Turner (1995) investigated the effects of instructional contexts on

children's motivation for literacy. In her study, researchers observed 84 first-grade

students in twelve classrooms, documented the kinds of tasks in which they participated,

and interviewed the children following each observation. The strongest predictor of

motivation was the type of literacy task. Turner explored student behaviors and

motivations involving closed and open tasks (or simple/complex, convergent/divergent).

More complicated assignments elicited more instances of motivated behavior, and

students who pursued them were more aware of purposes for these activities and how

they could be used and applied elsewhere. In a follow-up article, Turner & Paris (1995)

maintain, "...tasks influence students' affect, such as desire to read and write,

understanding the goals of literacy, and self-regulation of readers and writers" (pp. 663-

664). Miller, Adkins, & Hooper (1993) discovered that even teachers were less

motivated to engage in writing instruction when using short, quickly measurable tasks.

The moderate level of challenge a more sophisticated writing activity requires motivates

students to write more extensively.

Having genuine reasons for writing has motivational consequences (Bruning &

Horn, 2000). Ames (1992) investigated classroom structures and found authentic tasks to

15

be an important element of a motivated, mastery-oriented structure. When writing is

used as a tool for intellectual and/or social development, students are more motivated

(Cleary, 1991; Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001). Zaragoza & Vaughn (1995)

interacted with third graders in order to obtain their opinions regarding good writing

instruction. The elementary students most often referred to sharing their writing with

classmates, the teacher, a small group of students, or the class as a whole as pleasurable

and valuable experiences.

Authentic tasks often allow students to express and refine their personal "voice"

(Elbow, 1986). Oldfather (1993) interviewed fifth and sixth graders to find out what

tasks they deemed as motivating literacy experiences. Students' motivation was

connected to two key classroom elements: emphasis on student construction of meaning

and a deep responsiveness to students' expression, what the author refers to as an

"honored voice." Potter, McCormick, & Busching (2001) interviewed nineteen students

from diverse backgrounds and of varying achievement levels in the fifth, sixth, and tenth

grades. The authors found that adolescents' writing motivation was shaped by how much

they believed they were encouraged to write "authentic personal texts whose messages

were respected by caring teachers" (p. 45). Researchers discovered that students saw

writing assignments as "real" when they were able to express a personal viewpoint to a

real audience and that "the most useful motivation for students to improve their writing

skills comes from their need to express themselves" (p. 53).

Authentic writing activities have been touted as motivating, meaningful, and

worthwhile in much of the research literature. However, there are no sources for

connecting different kinds of writing tasks to either skill or motivational development

16

(Bruning & Horn, 2000). Another area in need of further exploration involves asking the

students themselves. What writing activities do they find most meaningful and

motivating?

Providing a Supportive Context for Writing

Each act of writing takes place in a specific context. For students to engage fully

and succeed in writing, they need to be able to find sources of motivation in the task

itself, in their own interests and knowledge/skill base, and in the feedback they receive or

give themselves during the writing process (Bruning & Horn, 2000). The context of the

classroom establishes the standards for many of these elements.

A context for writing that is "supportive" includes both cognitive and affective

components. Oldfather and Dahl (1994) propose three domains of intrinsic motivation

for literacy learning: classroom culture, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. In this model,

supportive social structures and practices include students constructing meaning, learning

from others, expressing themselves through their work, and sharing ownership of

knowing. The idea of "honored voice" is emphasized. Oldfather (1993) suggests ways to

translate honored voice into classroom practice including offering students opportunities

for self-expression and choice and listening and responding to students' ideas and

concerns about learning. An important aspect here is the intrapersonal domain in which

students are taught to see the self as a valued participant, to seek competence in oneself,

and to take action to learn. Students are shown that the classroom is a safe environment

for expression; they are also taught how to use the tools they have to succeed. McLeod

(1987), on the other hand, presents writing as a problem-solving process, which can be

interrupted by emotional triggers. She proposes that metacognition (thinking about

17

thinking) be modeled not only as a way to think about composing strategies, but also as a

means to discuss feelings that occur during writing and how to use them productively.

Gaining and maintaining control of the writing process is a motivational practice.

Teachers can help students accomplish this by breaking down a writing task into

manageable parts. Schunk and Swartz (1993) investigated how the goal-setting and

feedback cycle affects writing motivation. They found that students performed best when

they received process goals and progress feedback. Process goals highlight strategy use

as a way to improve writing. Progress feedback conveys that the strategy is useful and

that the students are becoming skillful.

By providing students with action-oriented feedback, teachers can create a

supportive context for writing. Straub (1997) examined first year college students'

reactions to teacher comments. Most of the writers preferred feedback providing advice,

employing open questions, or including explanations to guide revision. They expressed

how even praise should be specific. Geary (1990) found that prolonged negative

response by critical teachers inhibited the writing motivation of high school students.

Empty or nonspecific praise had negative effects on writing performance whereas

teachers who highlighted student competencies increased writing achievement.

Research shows a supportive context helps students to succeed in the intricate act

of writing. Closer examination of the motivational fluctuations that occur during the

writing process is needed (Bruning & Horn, 2000). For example, not enough is known

about what students say constitutes a supportive context for writing.

18

Creating a Positive Emotional Environment

Writing is an emotional as well as a cognitive activity; we feel as well as think

when we write (McLeod, 1987). Emotions are defined as qualitatively distinct feeling

states that have behavioral and physiological properties (Brand & Powell, 1986).

Usually, an individual experiences a physical reaction and subsequently assigns an

evaluative label to it. A continuum of emotions is associated with the writing process,

ranging from so-called writer's block to "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975), and these

emotions can be connected with the topic, the audience, the purpose, and the writing

environment. All in all, "emotions motivate" (Brand, 1987, p. 436): an emotional state

can cripple, maintain, or advance the act of composition.

Writing anxiety, or writing apprehension, may be the most widely researched

emotional component of composition. Writing anxiety generally refers to the negative

feelings, about oneself as a writer or about the writing situation or task itself, that impede

some part of the writing process. Daly and Miller (1975a) developed an instrument to

systematically measure writing apprehension, The Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension

Scale. Through the use of such instruments, writing apprehension has been shown to

have powerful effects on individuals' attitudes toward writing and behavior related to it.

Apprehensive writers tend to limit their exposure to writing or avoid the act altogether

(Daly & Miller, 1975b). During writing, high apprehensives experience greater stress

than low apprehensives, and low apprehensives produce written products of higher

quality than high apprehensives (Daly, 1985). Larson (1985) attributes poor product

from high anxiety writers to overwhelming experiences in which the accompanying

emotions become inseparable from the task. He found that writing anxiety leads to

19

impulsive and poorly controlled writing, at best, and a complete inability to write, at

worst.

A broader examination of the emotions involved in writing includes consideration

of students' past writing experiences and relationships with or perceptions of writing

teachers. Cleary (1991) studied the writing experiences of forty secondary writers from

diverse backgrounds in order to pinpoint circumstances in which emotion interrupts the

concentration and motivation necessary to successfully complete a writing task

performance. She found four conditions in which emotion disrupted the writing process

for high school students: frustration/task overload, distressing life situations, threat in the

writing environment, and lack of intrinsic motivation. Quality of student writing and

writing motivation were both affected by concentration. Clearly, personal histories affect

students' views of writing.

Potter, McCormick, & Busching (2001) also encountered the influence of past

experiences, especially past relationships with teachers, on students' writing motivation.

Tenth graders discussed the negative emotional effects of their recent teachers' "error-

oriented, check-off approach to writing" and reminisced about elementary school

teachers whom they felt had valued self-expression. The researchers concluded that

teachers who seemed to care were motivating forces. Wentzel (1997) conducted a

longitudinal study with approximately 300 middle school students. Survey information

and achievement data were collected when students were sixth-, then eighth-graders.

Results showed that perceived caring from teachers predicts motivational outcomes.

Students in the study described teachers who care as demonstrating democratic

interaction styles, developing personalized expectations for students, modeling a "caring"

attitude toward their own work, and providing constructive feedback. Murdock & Miller

(2003) studied relationships between 206 eighth-grade students' achievement motivation

and their perceptions of teacher caring. "Findings from this study show that students'

perceived relationships with teachers affect the development of their motivation" (p.

393). Perceived teacher caring accounted for significant amounts of variance in students'

self-reports of attitudes and achievement, teacher reports of effort, and school measures

of success.

Several studies have explored student perspectives on the emotional aspects of

writing motivation. More research examining the ways students say past writing

experiences directly shape their current beliefs and behaviors related to writing

instruction and motivation will be useful to educators.

Researchers are beginning to understand that attitudes (such as goal orientations),

values (seeing writing as worthwhile, for example), and beliefs (i.e. self-efficacy) affect

writing motivation and subsequent performance. This study builds upon previous

investigations of writing motivation by using a qualitative lens to examine the learning

community and the perspectives of adolescent writers themselves.

Theoretical Framework

Studying motivational issues in writing requires looking at composition within a

framework broader than one that considers only the thinking and doing involved. Even

John R. Hayes (2000) has revisited and revised his original cognitive process theory of

writing (Flower & Hayes, 1981) to include a "Motivation/Affect" component: "Indeed,

writing depends on an appropriate combination of cognitive, affective, social, and

physical conditions..." (p. 11). Research in the affective domain is usually guided by

21

social learning theory, and it is important to examine the assumptions about learning in

this area of the literature.

Social learning theories, including social cognitive and social construction, view

learning as occurring within a social context. From this perspective, both environmental

and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior (Ormrod, 1999).

Research framed by these beliefs tends to focus upon individuals as active participants in

their own learning. For example, social cognitive (also sociocognitive) theory views

learners as possessing self-beliefs that enable them to exercise a measure of control over

their thoughts, feelings, and actions (Bandura, 1986). In social construction theory (or

social constructivist framework), learning is seen as a process of active construction of

meaning by learners (Oldfather & Dahl, 1994). There is reciprocity between the

individual and the social context (Vygotsky, 1978), and meanings are constructed and

negotiated within the unique context of each classroom or culture (Heath, 1983). It is

within this framework of sociocultural theory that the concept of academic writing

motivation is situated.

In order to explore academic writing motivation, this dissertation incorporates an

inquiry model whose design is based on a sociocultural view. Adolescent writing in the

context of schooling is a "complex cultural activity" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 118), different

from any other in time, place, and meaning. The structure and history of the community

in which the writing occurs have direct effects on the individual experiences and

development that take place within it. Consequently, this study employed qualitative

research methods to situate the phenomenon of academic writing in the social community

of one bounded system or school. Merriam (1998) asserts, "In interpretive research,

22

education is considered to be a process and school is a lived experience. Understanding

the meaning of the process or experience constitutes the knowledge to be gained from an

inductive... mode of inquiry" (p. 4). In this vein, I performed an interpretive research

study, combining the format of a basic qualitative study and drawing elements of data

collection and analysis from models of case study research, in order to describe what

middle school students say motivates them to write. The central focus of this endeavor

was to deepen the understanding of adolescents' writing motivation by using their own

words and experiences, gathered via interviews, observation, and original documents, and

providing rich description of context in order to inform literacy instruction practices.

23

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This study was designed to uncover adolescents' lived experiences with and

personal meanings of academic writing motivation. In order to reveal their understanding

of this phenomenon, qualitative research methods were utilized. According to Merriam

(1998), when using such techniques, "the interest is in process rather than outcomes, in

context rather than a specific variable, in discovery rather than confirmation" (p. 19).

Pilot Study

A pilot study was conducted over the course of six weeks in February-April of

2006 to test the research questions and methods for this project on a smaller scale. The

pilot study sampled three middle school students (one from each grade 6-8) who

demonstrated average reading and writing ability and who seemed likely to be able to

verbally express their views in earnest. The researcher conducted three interviews with

each of the three participants and observed each student during one writing lesson.

Results supported the need to ask middle school students themselves what motivates

them to write for school and refined the proposed methods for carrying out such an

inquiry.

My pilot study findings highlighted comparisons between adolescent writing

motivation and adolescent development. Four themes related to the research question,

"What do middle school students say motivates them to write," emerged from the data I

collected. These four themes-interaction, support, connections, and creativity (or

24

freedom)~also arise in theories of developmental psychology and recommended best

practices for adolescent literacy. The themes of support and creativity/freedom suggest

the struggle for independence that occurs during adolescence. The themes of interaction

and connections, on the other hand, indicate the significance of relationships during this

stage of development.

Further, when discussing writing teachers and ways in which they influence

motivation, all three students used the word "interactive" to describe a teaching style they

found motivating. According to the adolescents involved in the pilot study, an interactive

teacher involves students directly in writing lessons; these teachers do not simply report

information to them. The participants described interactive teachers as enthusiastic,

approachable, and able to cultivate relationships with their students.

The young writers also emphasized the importance of a "give and take" or an

"interactive" classroom format when discussing writing motivation. One student

described it simply: "Then the actual lesson, no matter what, is very interactive, so that

we can all get in our questions and answer other questions." Another stated that an "open

forum" type of classroom made him want to put more effort into his writing because then

he felt his writing voice was more likely to be heard. Peer work was also mentioned as

an "interactive" and effective way to increase academic writing motivation. Students

appreciated different formats for peer editing and opportunities for collaboration and felt

that these practices helped them to improve their writing skills.

The adolescents in the pilot study reported writing better for and enjoying writing

more with a teacher they perceived as "supportive." All participants discussed support in

several ways. One student classified a supportive (and therefore motivating) writing

teacher as one who provides plenty of time for writing and action-oriented feedback

along the way. Another appreciated the way her teacher recognized that good writing

takes time and effort and was willing to help her students create a well-crafted product of

their "very own." Participants also explained a supportive writing teacher as someone

who "shows us what writing is for." They were affected negatively by teachers who just

said, "Do this" or "because you have to." All three students expressed a desire to know

how writing assignments relate to "the real world" or "real life." They were less

motivated to write when they believed teachers were not "flexible" and/or would not

"work with us." All in all, these students wanted a writing teacher to help them write to

learn and to express themselves.

Students labeled a "supportive" classroom structure as being motivating as well.

They spoke often about needing class time to receive feedback for successful academic

writing. On the other hand, all three participants also brought up "freedom" as a

supportive classroom factor. They each discussed "freewriting" as an enjoyable and

useful writing activity, and they all expressed a desire for more "freedom to write."

Students all felt supported when teachers provided class time to write (they want more)

and liked classes better when they had more time to write and wrote often in the context

of learning content.

All of the students in the pilot study said they were motivated to write for

assignments they enjoyed or had interest in. Each participant defined an interesting task

as "open-ended" or "creative." Although all three students enjoy creative writing, they

all want a starting point and guidance as they write. This being said, the students also

expressed being stifled by overly structured tasks. In addition, participants all felt they

26

were unable to write about topics about which they did not care, to which they felt no

personal connection, or about which they simply had nothing to say. Prior knowledge

came up as a "connection" in at least one interview with each subject. Students stated

that it was easier to write about something "you know about." These students also

heavily favored more complex writing tasks, such as projects, because they require

deeper thinking, they allow one to personalize writing content or pursue personal

interests, and sometimes because they "count more." Interaction takes place when a

young writer can connect to a task they know something about, they perceive as useful

and/or interesting, and they feel they have opportunity to personalize.

As a result of the findings of the pilot study, I modified the design of the

dissertation study in several ways. First, interview questions were added, revised, and

refined. Participants' reactions to pilot study interview scripts pinpointed areas in need of

revision, and topics students brought up on their own helped to structure possible

prompts. Next, the sampling procedure was revised and the sample itself expanded. The

research study used a larger, more diverse sample in order to take advantage of maximum

variation. Finally, methods for collecting and analyzing contextual information about the

adolescent writers' community were augmented. I conducted additional observations and

utilized case study research methods to gather and examine related background

information. The experience gained in collecting and analyzing qualitative data during

the pilot study provided invaluable insight for this research project.

Setting of the Study

The study was conducted at The Palmer School, an independent day school in the

Northeastern United States (pseudonyms are used for the names of the school, students,

27

and teachers throughout this dissertation). The Palmer School serves approximately 900

students, grades junior kindergarten through twelve. Average annual tuition is $20,000,

and one third of the students receive financial aid. Seventy-five percent of students are

Caucasian; twenty-five percent are students of color. According to the school's literature,

its "core values" are "the pursuit of excellence, student/teacher relationships, principles

of character, and independence of thought." Academics and the arts are major emphases,

and class sizes are small, sixteen students or less.

This site was selected for maximum accessibility; T am the literacy specialist and

a supervisor at the middle school. In this position, T have established relationships with

students and teachers alike. As an "insider," my presence observing in classrooms and

meeting with individual students was not likely to interrupt daily events; consequently, a

naturalistic setting was preserved.

Sample

Description of Selection Procedures

From the overall population of 900 students, approximately 275 of these are

middle school students, grades five through eight. I chose six middle school students for

this study because this population has been studied minimally, through mostly

quantitative endeavors (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Wentzel, 1997; Pajares & Valiante,

2001; Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001). The selection process utilized maximum

variation sampling because rich data collected from "a small sample of great diversity"

are more likely to generate "important shared patterns that cut across cases" (Patton,

1990, p. 172). I purposefully sampled students who demonstrated the most diverse set of

student characteristics available at The Palmer School for this study.

28

I systematically selected participants who differed by gender, age, race, socio

economic background, writing ability (according to standardized test scores and teacher

grade reports/evaluations), and past schooling placements. To do this, I examined

standardized test score reports, read student files, and collaborated with the Director of

Admissions (who had access to information regarding family incomes). First, I created

six spreadsheets to organize student information for the sixth grade girls, the sixth grade

boys, the seventh grade girls, the seventh grade boys, the eighth grade girls, and the

eighth grade boys. T completed columns for age, race, standardized test scores for the

two writing subtests, writing grades, number of years attending The Palmer School, other

schools attended, and current writing teacher. Second, I eliminated students with

inconsistent test scores (for example, "high" in one subtest and "low" in the other) as well

as those I was teaching or advising that school year. Third, I asked the Director of

Admissions to consider the information on the spreadsheets as well as the socioeconomic

status of the families to select the six most varied students possible. I used this initial list

to begin inviting students to participate in the study. As students and their families

agreed and/or declined to participate, I resubmitted the list to the Director of Admissions

for additional feedback. In the end, we had selected six students who represented all of

the different traits of The Palmer School population.

Participants were one girl and one boy from each grade, sixth through eighth. I

chose two students from each grade in order to describe experiences for middle school

writers both near the beginning and near the end of their time at this academic level.

Potter, McCormick, & Busching (2001) found waning levels of motivation for middle

school writers. These writers tended to look back fondly on writing in the earlier grades

then approach it with "grudging compliance" by the beginning of secondary school.

Such a trend needed to be explored further. Therefore, 1 sought younger students whose

recent writing experiences included an elementary school model as well as older students

who were rooted in a middle school model and possibly looking ahead to high school

writing endeavors. By working with two students from each of the traditional "middle

school" grade levels, I was able to present detailed and diverse portraits of young

adolescent writers and their perspectives in order to share their construction of meaning

and create an embodiment of the common writing phenomena.

The Participants

After inviting students to participate in the study, discussing the purpose of the

study and the specifics of participation with students and parents, and obtaining signed

parental consent and student assent forms, I identified six diverse participants: Layla,

Timothy, Elizabeth, Troy, Jorja, and Joshua. In this section, 1 present each young writer

in terms of the selection criteria. First, I describe each student using demographic details

obtained during interviews. Then 1 discuss each participant as an academic writer,

drawing upon information gathered from school files.

Layla

Layla was a twelve-year-old, African-American female in the sixth grade. She

described herself as "a Christian, a Baptist." She joined this school in the fifth grade, so

it was her second year in the community. She had previously attended public school, for

kindergarten through fourth grade, in her town of residence. Layla's mother was a single

parent and a guidance counselor in the local public school system. Her father was

estranged. Compared to the other students in this school, Layla's writing skill level was

30

ranked low to middle. This ranking was established using stanine scores, which divide

standardized test scores into one of nine intervals. Here, stanines 1-3 are considered

below average or low, stanines 4-6 are considered average or middle, and stanines 7-9 are

considered above average or high. On her most recent standardized test, Layla performed

in the fourth stanine (26%) for "writing mechanics" (middle) and in the third stanine

(21%) for "writing concepts and skills" (low) when scaled against her peers. Layla's

teachers requested that she complete supplemental summer work in order to further

practice reading and writing skills (between fifth and sixth grades). Tn report card

comments, her sixth grade teacher praised Layla's work in the vocabulary program and

asked that she apply these skills and "use more effective word choices" in her original

writing. The teacher identified editing and proofreading as areas for improvement and

mentioned that Layla was having difficulty "turning in our more frequent, smaller

assignments in a timely fashion."

Timothy

Timothy was a twelve-year-old, Caucasian, male student in the sixth grade. He

described his race as "mostly European" and listed Scottish, Dutch, French, and

Cherokee as known backgrounds. Tim offered information about his religion as well:

"We go to church... Presbyterian." Tim joined this community "in the second grade," so

he was enjoying his fifth year at the school. He had previously attended private schools

in the south: preschool in Florida, kindergarten in Texas, and "a joined class of first grade

and second grade" for two years in North Carolina. Tim's parents were married: his

mother was a homemaker, and his father was an administrator at the school in which this

study was conducted. Compared to the other students in this school, Timothy's writing

31

skill level was considered high. On his most recent standardized test, he performed in the

ninth stanine (96%) for "writing mechanics" (high) and in the seventh stanine (81%) for

"writing concepts and skills" (high) when scaled against his peers. In report card

comments, Tim's sixth grade Humanities teacher called him "a skilled writer" and

praised his writing and thinking skills alike. She described how Tim had been successful

"in responding to complex assignments with thorough detail while maintaining [his]

strong writer's voice." She also complimented his ability to "synthesize different

understandings." This teacher selected classroom focus and attention to assignment

details as areas for improvement.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth was a twelve-year-old, Caucasian female in the seventh grade. She

described her ethnic background as "German, English, and maybe Hungarian" This

study was conducted during Elizabeth's first year in the school. She was a new student

who had previously attended both public (grades four and five) and private (Preschool-

grade three and grade six) schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Elizabeth's

parents were married. Her father and mother both worked in local private schools, as an

athletic director and a college counselor, respectively. Compared to the other students in

this school, Elizabeth's writing skill level was middle to high. On her most recent

standardized test she performed in the seventh stanine (80%) for "writing mechanics"

(high) and in the sixth stanine (71%) for "writing concepts and skills" (middle) when

scaled against her peers. In report card comments, Elizabeth's current seventh grade

English teacher praised her work habits and writing content early in the year and

commented, "... more accurate proofreading would yield even stronger work." Later, her

teacher described ways Elizabeth demonstrated "detailed writing and careful revision" in

her work. She also mentioned Elizabeth's use of "clear language, vivid sensory imagery,

and powerful metaphors and personification" in poetry and "accuracy, thoroughness, and

excellent insight" in literature-related writing endeavors. Elizabeth earned As in seventh

grade English.

Troy

Troy was a thirteen-year-old, African-American, male student in the seventh

grade. Troy had been a part of the school community for eight years, since kindergarten.

His parents were married: his mother was a social worker, and his father was a former

car salesman who was unemployed at the time of this study due to chronic health issues.

Compared to the other students in the school, Troy's writing skill level was low. On his

most recent standardized test, he performed in the second stanine (9%) for "writing

mechanics" (low) and in the first stanine (1%) for "writing concepts and skills" (low)

when scaled against his peers. Troy's seventh grade English teacher brought attention to

his academic difficulties by sending home a progress report early in the school year. In

it, she asked that he "follow directions more carefully and provide more detailed

responses in his written work." She encouraged him to "submit his homework on time

and complete all parts of it thoroughly." In report card comments, she described his

writing as "becoming clearer and more organized." She praised his "good content" and

"vivid language" and suggested he pay more attention to proofreading, especially in the

areas of "transitions between thoughts and correct writing mechanics." Troy earned C

and B grades in English.

Jorja

Jorja was a thirteen-year old, Chinese-American, female student in the eighth

grade. Jorja came to this school when she began sixth grade, so she had been a part of

the community for going on three years. Jorja attended private schools in China from

kindergarten until halfway through her third grade year. At that time, her family moved

to the Northeastern United States. Jorja attended a private school nearby for the second

half of her third grade year through the fifth grade. Jorja's parents were married. She

said that her father was an architect, and her mother was a "law consultant." Compared

to the other students in her grade, Jorja's writing skill level was middle to high. On her

most recent standardized test, she performed in the ninth stanine (99%) for "writing

mechanics" (high) and in the sixth stanine (68%) for "writing concepts and skills"

(middle) when scaled against her peers. In report card comments, Jorja's eighth grade

English teacher stated, "Your writing is quite sophisticated, especially in your vocabulary

choices, which add interest and depth..." She highlighted thesis statements and

conclusions as areas in need of improvement. The teacher noted Jorja's ability to

respond to both poetry and prose with sensitivity and emotion. Jorja earned As in eighth

grade English.

Joshua

Joshua was a fourteen-year-old, Caucasian, male student in the eighth grade. He

described himself as "white" and explained, "My mom is Russian; my dad is Austrian

and Russian." Josh was a long time member of the school community. He arrived in

kindergarten and had been attending for nine years. Joshua's parents were divorced. His

father was a "senior vice president" at a pharmaceutical company, and his mother was a

clinical trials director at a medical research facility. Compared to the other students in

the school, Joshua's writing skill level was middle. On his most recent standardized test,

he performed in the fourth stanine (34%) for "writing mechanics" (middle) and in the

fifth stanine (59%) for "writing concepts and skills" (middle) when scaled against his

peers. In report card comments, Joshua's eighth grade English teacher wrote, "1 am

particularly impressed by the caliber of your writing." She also used the words "mature"

and "sophisticated" to describe his voice and style. She praised both his expository and

creative writing, explaining that Josh's writing pieces succeeded at demonstrating his

understanding and captivating his audience. She praised his word choice and revision

efforts and mentioned meeting day-to-day deadlines as a weakness in his work. Josh

earned A grades (A and A-) in eighth grade English.

Data Collection

Interviewing and observation were the principal methods of data collection used

in this study. Documents were collected to supplement these sources. A researcher's

journal, a field notebook, and mechanical recording devices were used to assist in the

process. Data collection took place over six months (January-June) of one academic

year. I deliberately chose each of these approaches because they contribute to the design

of the study intended to explore middle school students' perspectives on writing and

motivation.

Interviewing

Tn order to reveal student beliefs about academic writing motivation, interviewing

was the central method of data collection. Interviews were semi-structured events

utilizing open-ended questions with subtopic checklists. Such a format allowed me to

uncover participants' views and perspectives and respect the ways in which responses

were framed and structured (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Interviews were audio taped

and transcribed shortly after each session. They took place after school hours, in a quiet,

semi-private location such as the library or a classroom.

Interviews were conducted combining the General Interview Guide approach and

the Standardized Open-Ended variation (Patton, 1990); major questions guiding each

interview were carefully worded and prepared beforehand, and open-ended subtopics for

individual exploration were listed below them. This mix of methods both encouraged

consistency in the data set (participants were asked the same essential questions) and

allowed participants "room" to make meaning themselves.

At least three formal interviews were conducted with each participant. Suggested

by the work of Seidman (1998), such a structure allowed participants to fully explore the

experience being discussed. The three-interview format gave these middle school

students the opportunity to explain the context of their feelings, communicate the details

of their experiences, and reflect upon the complex relationship between motivation and

writing. Attributes of the interviewing process also encouraged credibility. Interviewing

more than one middle school student in this fashion allowed me to connect experiences

with writing and motivation and check comments against one another. Conducting the

interviews in a natural setting helped "to reflect the reality of the life experiences of

participants" (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982, p. 43) as well.

The first formal interview followed a classroom observation and began by

reviewing the events of the lesson I visited and the student's motivation for writing in

that setting. Conversation also sought to clarify description of the participant's current

experience with writing. Subtopics included inquiries about the current English or

36

Humanities teacher, student/teacher relationship, teacher feedback, classroom structure,

etc., in order to uncover student perspectives on present levels and types of motivation for

writing.

The second interview explored participants' past experiences with writing and

related motivation. General questions included probes designed to guide adolescents as

they looked back at their first memories of writing and described the purpose for the

activity and feelings connected to it. Participants were asked to recall early academic

forays into writing and convey the circumstances. Finally, the middle school students

talked about ways their motivation for writing had changed over the years.

During the third formal interview, I asked the students to look through and

describe the contents of their up to date writing portfolios. Participants discussed the

different writing tasks involved in producing these pieces as well as their writing

motivation. Students were asked to choose and defend their "best" pieces, the pieces they

were most motivated to write, and the pieces they were least motivated to write, among

others. Finally, students described their "dream writing assignments."

According to Seidman (1998), "the three-interview structure incorporates features

that enhance the accomplishment of validity" (p. 17). In this study, I conducted multiple

interviews with participants based on such a design. This practice placed participants'

comments in context, and the prolonged process allowed students to check themselves as

they worked toward communicating an experience or perception over time. Furthermore,

the structure helped me to better understand the participants' views.

Observation

Drawing from case study research methodology, I supplemented student accounts

of current writing experiences by observing instruction in practice. According to

Merriam (1998), such a design "is employed to gain an in depth understanding of the

situation and meaning for those involved" (p. 19). Over the course of five months,

January through May, I observed each student engage in three or four writing lessons in

his/her English or Humanities classroom. Observations occurred between interviews so

that participants could describe, clarify, and qualify classroom events. In order to

schedule observations, T checked in regularly with participants' teachers and asked to

observe "writing lessons" or "writing activities." Through observation, T was able to

document and better describe complex actions and interactions in the educational setting

(Marshall & Rossman, 1999) and establish context for student views.

During each observation, I wrote detailed, concrete field notes illustrating the

events of the writing lesson. 1 configured the field jottings in such a way as to assist with

later data analysis. The format used a "split page" style with one column for descriptive

and one column for reflective jottings. The former provided space for information such

as times, teacher actions, student responses, order of events, description of classroom and

materials, and parts of the lesson. The latter allowed room for items such as my

perceptions of overall student engagement, questions about curriculum or instruction, "I

wonder" statements, possible reasons for observed behaviors, and talking points to

include in the next interview. As soon as possible after each observation, T transformed

the field jottings into formal field notes by typing a coherent narrative to describe the

lesson's events. I used the following headings to organize my field notes: physical

layout, lesson activities (timeline of events focusing on teacher talk, teacher actions,

student talk, and student actions), who was involved, objects, sequence notes, emotions,

what was accomplished, writing, and specific notes on the participant being observed. In

addition, I wrote overall impressions, summaries, and methodological notes in the

researcher's journal after each observation.

Document Collection

In order to supplement interviewing and observations, I collected and analyzed

original documents. During classroom observations, I collected handouts and/or

transcribed teacher notes from the board. T used these artifacts in addition to my field

notes in order to compare students' accounts of current writing instruction with my own

perceptions. During the third interview, participants talked about the pieces in their

current writing portfolios. They evaluated the quality of each piece and described their

levels of motivation for writing each one. In order to create documented evidence of the

process, 1 photocopied the original student work as well as the assessment sheets or other

written feedback provided by their teachers. Merriam (1998) asserts that these types of

"documents are a reliable source or data concerning a person's attitudes, beliefs, and

views of the world" (p. 116). Later, I was able to compare student and teacher

perceptions of written work quality. I used student commentary paired with this

information to investigate ways interest and/or motivation affected writing process and

product. In addition, I compared students' descriptions of task characteristics, and their

reactions to them, to original assignment documents. Including excerpts of authentic

writing in the data collection process was another way to honor students' voices in this

study.

As one verification procedure, (Creswell, 1998), triangulation was employed.

Here, 1 refer to methodological triangulation, the use of multiple methods in the

examination of participants' perceptions. Mathison (1988) proposes, "it is a technique

which provides more and better evidence from which researchers can construct

meaningful propositions about the social world" (p. 15). In this study, I examined middle

school students' perspectives on writing and motivation using data collected through

interviews, observation, and document analysis. With multiple methods, I collected

corroborating evidence from different sources (Creswell, 1998) in order to shed light on

this issue.

Data Analysis

Marshall & Rossman (1999) define data analysis as "the process of bringing

order, structure, and interpretation to the mass of collected data" (p. 150). In this study,

data analysis involved the close examination of classroom observation field notes,

interview transcriptions, and authentic documents in order to answer the research

question, What do middle school students say motivates them to write? I engaged in this

complex procedure by following a sequence of four systematic steps.

The first step of completing and ordering the data set included the initial stages of

organization. I transcribed the tape-recorded interview sessions into a printed collection

of participants' words in order to better prepare the data for formal examination Audio

tape recording (and transcribing) interviews helped to secure validity. This allowed data

to be preserved and available for possible reanalysis (Marshall & Rossman, 1999) and

assures readers that the authentic voices of middle school students have been heard.

Field jottings were changed into field notes, a word-processed, organized, narrative

40

version. All data documents were then organized chronologically in a single accordion

folder. This file was photocopied twice. Then, the data set was grouped two alternate

ways. One file was arranged by method with interview data, observation data, and

documents separated into three folders. The other data file was grouped by case with

separate folders containing all of the data collected for each of the six participants.

The second step in data analysis involved organizing, reducing, and describing the

data. Data reduction included "cleaning up" transcripts to weed out unrelated talk and

removing seemingly irrelevant information from the master file (e.g. a random document

handed to the researcher during a school visit, a spontaneous "conversation" during an

interview that does not contain connected issues); these data were moved to a separate

file to allow for easy access, if necessary.

In order to describe what middle school students say motivates them to write, the

data needed to be examined from multiple vantage points. Therefore, 1 read each of the

three file configurations many times in order to "get to know" the data. Throughout this

step of the process and beyond, 1 wrote memos to track and document my thinking

strategies. Miles & Huberman (1984) describe this tool as a "regular log" or diaiy that

tracks what was actually done during the operations of data reduction, display,

conclusion-drawing, and verification" (p. 28). Writing research memos aided in

decision-making during data analysis and provided concrete evidence of it afterward.

After reading through the data sets multiple times, I began to label the data by

writing notes in the margins. First, I simply named each chunk of data with a category to

identify the topic; "task" and "teacher" are examples. Second, I went back through my

margin notes and labeled smaller bits of data within each category with more specific

41

codes, such as "open-ended" or "strict." During this step, I created and maintained a

working list of codes, which named and defined each one. 1 used this list to go back over

interview transcripts, field notes, and documents in order to ensure consistency. Finally,

1 reread interview transcripts to qualify codes as positive (+), negative (-), or neutral

(neu.). These symbols indicated the way a student was discussing each subject in terms

of writing motivation. Consider the following interview transcript excerpt as an example.

When asked what frustrates him when writing for school, Joshua responded, "When I'm

given a finite set of barriers, borders, limits, I don't like that." Initially, I labeled this data

chunk as "task" because Josh was describing a writing task characteristic. During a

second reading, I labeled it more specifically as "limits," using a code I had already

established and defined. Finally, another reading resulted in the qualification of "(-),"

indicating that limits had a self-reported negative effect on Joshua's writing motivation.

In order to completely describe the data and prepare for the investigation of

patterns and themes, I created a "case checklist" report for each participant. I used

research questions, data collection methods, and components of motivation to create the

following headings: teacher, classroom, writing instruction, past writing experiences,

tasks, efficacy, focus, effort, independent writing, observation notes, document notes, and

other. To write the observation and document notes, I checked students' comments about

their current classrooms and assignments by comparing them to field notes and document

analyses, and I wrote summaries of my impressions. Under each remaining heading, I

organized interview data by code. I went back through each interview transcript and

recorded each coded comment using the symbol, a descriptive phrase, and the

interview/line numbers. For example, I organized Jorja's comments about prewriting

42

exercises under the "writing instruction" heading as follows: "(++++) prewriting

exercises (helps with reports 1:293, help her focus 1:352, aids with essay writing 1:469,

prewriting best way to keep focused 3:423)" This entry indicates that Jorja brought up

the topic of prewriting exercises four distinct times, three times during our first interview

and once during the third, and that all four comments communicated positive writing

motivation.

Interpretation, the third step in this process of analysis, involved trying to examine

the data set from different perspectives in order to make meaning. One approach was to

consider each participant case as a separate story. Another method included searching for

commonalities across the separate experiences of all six participants. Creswell (1998)

names these techniques within-case and cross-case analyses, respectively. The goal of

this step in analysis was to locate patterns in the data.

In the first stage of interpretation (within-case analysis), 1 created case summaries

in order to describe and interpret myriad data. Looking at the data collected from each

participant and focusing on contextual variables that may have impacted each case

individually (Merriam, 1998), I worked toward condensing the information into six rich

reports. I read through the coded data and the case checklists and listed the main

components each participant had chosen to explore and describe in her/his interviews. I

looked for direct answers to the research questions for each participant and identified

other areas s/he had decided to include in her/his construction of meaning. T organized

topics with themes and used students' own words to support my description and

discussion.

43

Cross-case analysis was the second step of interpretation, during which I

attempted to discover the bigger picture or the shared story within the collected data. In

order to accomplish such a feat, I looked for patterns in the data and grouped codes

together in search of larger issues. 1 sought to "build abstractions across cases"

(Merriam, 1998, p. 195). During this process, I used the case checklists to create cross-

case frequency lists and locate direct quotes from participants. I used the study's specific

research questions to structure a description of subjects that four or more of the six

participants had chosen to explore in interviews.

Finally, data analysis concluded with the presentation of the findings. During this

phase, I constructed a narrative with which to communicate the data. Because I chose to

combine the characteristics of a basic qualitative study with methods of case study, I

included intensive, holistic description, interpretation, and understanding in the form of

themes (Merriam, 1998). Having investigated the perspectives of young writers

themselves, I included participant quotes throughout. I used the data collected from six

adolescents (combined and individually) to explain what motivates middle school

students to write. I presented, from these students' perspectives, how past writing

experiences, student perceptions of teachers and classroom environments, and the

qualities of the writing task itself affect academic writing motivation.

Validity

Creswell and Miller (2000) describe validity procedures as strategies used by

researchers to establish the credibility of a study. Creswell (1998) also uses the term

verification procedures and recommends that qualitative researchers use at least two of

them in each endeavor. In this study, I utilized several techniques in order to safeguard

validity: triangulation; rich, detailed description; a multiple-interview structure in a

natural setting; and audio recording.

Triangulation was the first validity procedure to be employed. Here, I refer to

methodological triangulation, or the use of multiple methods in the examination of

participants' perceptions. Mathison (1988) proposes, "it is a technique which provides

more and better evidence from which researchers can construct meaningful propositions

about the social world" (p. 15). In this study, I investigated middle school students'

perspectives on writing and motivation using data collected through interviews,

observation, and document analysis. The use of multiple methods allowed me to find

corroborating evidence from different sources (Creswell, 1998) in order to shed light on

this issue. In this way, the data were crosschecked, and themes were verified.

Creswell and Miller (2000) assert, "another procedure for establishing credibility

in a study is to describe the setting, the participants, and the themes of a qualitative study

in rich detail" (p. 126). This action serves to contextualize the people, places, and issues

examined by the researcher. It is the writer's goal that readers will take away a clear,

focused, narrative account that better allows them to understand a setting or situation. I

believe that the fourth and fifth chapters of this dissertation provide a detailed enough

description to allow the reader to make sense of the setting and demonstrate that the

conclusions drawn were based on the collected data.

According to Seidman (1998), "the three-interview structure incorporates features

that enhance the accomplishment of validity" (p. 17). In this study, I conducted multiple

interviews with participants based on such a design. This practice placed participants'

comments in context. The prolonged process also allowed participants to check

45

themselves throughout the process as they communicated an experience or perception to

the interviewer. As well, the structure helped the researcher to better understand the

participants' views.

Other attributes of the interviewing process encouraged credibility. Interviewing

more than one middle school student in this fashion allowed me to connect experiences

with writing and motivation as well as check comments against one another. Conducting

the interviews in a natural setting also helped "to reflect the reality of the life experiences

of participants" (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982, p. 43). Finally, audio tape recording (and

transcribing) interviews helped to secure validity. This allowed data to be preserved and

available for reanalysis (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Using excerpts from the data

record throughout assures readers that the authentic voices of middle school students

have been heard.

46

CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS

This chapter reports the results of the investigation through the use of two forms

of analysis. First, I share individual outcomes by presenting summaries of the six case

studies. These summaries are the result of within-case analyses of multiple sources of

data and describe academic writing motivation for each of six adolescents in terms of the

topics they chose to discuss. Second, I reveal results from the cross-case analysis in

which I disclose significant similarities among participants' data.

The first section describes the perspectives of the six participating middle school

students on academic writing motivation. Each of the case study summaries is structured

as follows. I start by introducing each participant with an excerpt from his/her

description of the "dream writing assignment." This is followed with a brief discussion

of the adolescent as both an academic and an independent writer, a summary of his/her

views on elementary vs. middle school writing, and a description of the participant's

writing classroom in relation to this study. Next, I turn to the overarching research

question guiding this study, What do middle school students say motivates them to write

for school? Using evidence from the multiple interview and observation process, I

present the topics each student raised with the most frequency and depth and discuss

these through the use of themes.

The second section highlights commonalities across the six cases. I structure this

section by revisiting the three specific research questions that guided this study:

According to students 'perspectives, how do past writing experiences shape motivation?;

How does student perception of teacher characteristics and/or classroom factors affect

writing motivation'!; and According to middle school students, what kinds of tasks

motivate students to write? For each question, I detail the issues that are evident in most

or all of the participants' personal constructions of academic writing motivation. In

doing so, I am able to convey those aspects of the construct that are shared across the

participants' conceptions of school-based writing, and, hopefully, am able to draw

tentative conclusions as to their motivation across their academic writing experiences.

Within-Case Analysis: Six Case Summaries

Layla

"[My dream writing assignment] would be probably a free write, story

write. You could just create. And you could send it into a publisher! And

the pages could vary. It could be small pages! It could be big pages! [In

class] we would be thinking about ideas... telling other people our ideas.

Then we would be thinking about what would be in the story: what the

story would be, who we would want to send it to, what company. Maybe

the next day we would take a trip to the public library. Then we could

look up the publisher or look under 'learning how to publish.' Then, of

course, we would come back, and we would write... [for] an unlimited

amount of time!"

Layla was a twelve-year-old sixth grader whose teachers believed needed to

improve her writing skills. She did not engage in a great deal of independent writing

outside of school. Layla looked at her past writing experiences as stepping-stones. She

48

believed elementary school was a time "to learn how" to write while middle school was

for "expressing" and "learning your style." Layla assumed that academic writing would

become increasingly challenging in the coming years and planned to "just put more effort

in." According to observation data, her sixth grade writing classroom was very student-

centered, with lots of movement, varied activities, and multiple configurations of

interaction; the setting was characterized by high energy and high engagement. Layla's

young teacher was working to improve classroom management skills, but her students

obviously adored her and wanted to please her.

Over the course of multiple interviews, Layla chose to initiate and explore various

topics as she constructed her personal academic writing motivation story. The conditions

and characteristics she discussed most frequently and with the most depth are as follows:

• being able to relate or connect to a writing topic or task,

• perceived difficulty of the task,

• establishing enough background information with which to write,

• parental involvement with school writing,

• helpful or useful writing tasks,

• creative or open-ended writing assignments,

• free writing,

• time to write,

• collaboration,

• authentic writing purposes or products,

• tedious or repetitive tasks, and

• being inspired to write by another piece.

For Layla, a student who did not often engage in independent writing outside of

school and who had been told she needed to improve her writing skills, three themes

seemed to be tied closely to what motivated her to write for school: the accessibility of

the task, support, and reasons for writing.

Accessibility of the Task

First, in order for Layla to be optimally motivated to write for school, the writing

task had to be accessible. Several characteristics contributed to this task trait. For Layla,

school writing was accessible when she could relate to it, when it was engaging, or when

it was manageable.

Being able to relate to the writing topic. Layla said she immediately becomes

excited about writing for a school assignment when she feels she "can relate to it." For

example, she described a time when inspiration struck as soon as her teacher introduced a

task to which she felt she could relate: "1 had ideas for it in my head, and even if 1

wanted to, I could write more pages." Being able to relate to the writing topic provided

Layla with an entry point into a difficult process. She described writing activities as

"fun... if they are about certain things that people can relate to easily." When Layla

imagined her dream writing assignment, she insisted that students would write about

"what we related to." On the other hand, when Layla and I were looking through her

writing portfolio and 1 asked her which task she enjoyed writing the least, Layla selected

a particular piece because the perspective was one to which she had difficulty relating.

Finally, Layla said she put more effort into an assignment when she "connected to it."

When Layla perceived academic writing as more accessible, she enjoyed assignments

more and tended to devote more time and care to their completion. Relating to the

writing topic contributed to this accessibility.

Open-ended/creative writing tasks. An open-ended task also motivated Layla to

write for school. Layla believed "fun," creative, or open-ended writing tasks were

accessible, and therefore, engaging. She said she put more time and effort into her

writing when it was "fun" and declared that she "really wants to" write for school

assignments "if there is a creative part to it." Layla described being motivated by having

a starting point and being able to "go with it." Open-ended assignments presented Layla

with less of a risk of being wrong, and this motivated her to write. She shared many

examples of these types of tasks. Her dream writing assignment was creative and open-

ended: "It would be a free write, a story write. You could just create." She mentioned

being motivated to write a story for math class. "I liked it because I could express."

Finally, Layla found the open-ended nature of free writing engaging and motivational.

When asked what she would change about her current writing classroom, she exclaimed,

"More free writing!" She explained that "when people have to write about a certain

topic," it limits expression because then they can only use "... half of the ideas that are in

their head." Layla believed that during free writing, "we can get all the big ideas down."

The unrestricted nature of these types of tasks motivated Layla by providing access

through freedom and allowing for individual expression.

Manageable writing activities. Layla was motivated to write for tasks she

perceived as manageable. Throughout the interview process, she expressed being less

willing to write for "hard" tasks and more engaged when writing felt "easy enough."

Layla said that just the right level of challenge motivated her: "It makes me think that I

51

am going to put more effort into it then." Overall, she was motivated when she felt "able

to" complete a writing assignment. For Layla, the condition that most contributed to this

feeling was having "a lot of information." She described one assignment as manageable

"because we took notes on certain things, and we talked about certain things." She

described another as less enjoyable because "I didn't write a lot down during [the video],

so it was hard to write about it at home." Layla expressed a similar frustration, which she

encountered while writing about a subject when she had no prior knowledge of it: "Some

things 1 couldn't really get, 1 couldn't write about, because 1 would have to describe it...

Certain things, when you just see a picture of something, or hear about it, sometimes you

can't really describe it." Building background knowledge on a subject before writing

about it was an important step for Layla. Having "enough information" kept Layla

motivated to persist during the long "I-Search" project: "I read five books... I watched

two movies... 1 found two articles, and... 1 talked to [the teacher]." Layla was motivated

to write for some tasks because she felt prepared with supporting details with which she

could build her expository composition. She needed to feel moderately challenged and

sufficiently prepared in order for the writing task to be optimally motivating.

Support

Support was another recurring theme in Layla's account of academic writing

motivation. She explored numerous ways feeling supported helped motivate her to write

for school, both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, Layla appreciated and felt

supported by time to write, opportunities for collaboration with peers, and using models

of good writing for comparison and inspiration. Outside of the classroom, Layla named

her mother as a supportive, and motivating, factor.

52

Time to write. When asked what could make her classroom a better place, Layla

suggested more time to write. She felt that class time devoted to writing was helpful

because not everyone had another quiet place to "get ideas down." Layla spoke fondly of

an elementary school teacher because "we just did a lot of writing in her class." She said

she would change her current writing classroom by having "a lot more writing." In

addition, her dream writing assignment would include "an unlimited amount of time" to

write. Layla felt supported, and therefore motivated, by ample time to engage in

academic writing because the practice increased her perceived level of competence.

Collaboration. Layla also felt supported during collaborative writing activities in

the classroom. She said she was motivated during "small group work" as it provided

time for discussion and the sharing of ideas. Layla believed that peer editing helped her

writing more for the exposure to the work of other people her age than for the feedback

she received from her peers. She also enjoyed writing with a partner "because for some

reason it is easier for me to talk to someone." Layla explored this idea of writing as

communication again when she described being motivated to write for "written

conversation," an activity during which reading partners engage in a silent, pencil and

paper dialogue about their book: "we get to talk to other people without really talking."

Finally, Layla's dream writing assignment included time devoted to idea exchange as a

pre-writing activity involving peers. Mixing conversation with composition and

incorporating peer interaction into academic writing activities provided scaffolding for

Layla's writing efforts. Therefore, working with classmates during the writing process

motivated Layla.

53

Using models. Layla brought up using a model or being motivated to write by

another piece several times in multiple interviews. She mentioned assignments

developed from writing prompts based on original poems time and time again. In one,

the teacher read a humorous poem that alternated lines from both the students' and the

teacher's perspectives. Layla was assigned to "add onto" that poem. In another, the

teacher guided the class as they examined several pieces for poetic elements. For this

assignment, Layla was asked to choose a poem she liked and to imitate the author's style

and techniques in an original piece. Because she had the support of "something to start

from," Layla felt motivated to write. "I actually had ideas going when the teacher was

reading the actual poem." Layla felt more confident when she was able to use a model as

a springboard or a means of comparison; this element of support compelled her to write

for school.

Parental support. Layla mentioned her mother as a supportive element outside of

the classroom. She said her mother kept her focused when writing for school. "She

always reads over my work, and she reads it aloud to me. And she tells me the things 1

need to improve... Even if it's annoying, it's a good thing to do." In this example,

Layla's mother supported her focus level by scaffolding revision efforts and modeling

good editing practices. Layla also talked about ways her mother helped her to write

about topics when she had limited experience with them. For instance, when she had to

write about Roman architecture, her mother drove her around town pointing out real life

illustrations "on actual buildings. We looked at the public library..." Another time,

Layla's mother helped her complete a piece called "What Would Buddha Do?" by role

playing with her daughter and answering questions as if she were Buddha. This helped

54

Lay la write about "what the Buddha would do or what the Buddha would tell you to do."

By helping Layla to build background knowledge about writing topics and connect

writing activities to real life, her mother supported Layla's academic writing efforts. The

sixth grader commented, "My mom makes me work a lot harder." Layla described her

mother as a person who helped support her writing and improve her skills; these activities

made Layla feel more competent and confident, and therefore more motivated, to write

for school.

Reasons for Writing

A final theme in Layla's responses involved her perceptions of writing purposes,

Layla was motivated to write for school when activities were related to skill development

and when writing occurred for an authentic purpose or resulted in an authentic product.

Overall, she put more effort into "helpful" writing assignments and preferred "real" ones.

Helpful/useful writing tasks. Layla revealed her motivation to write for helpful or

useful writing activities. Layla said she persisted with "long," "boring," "repetitive," and

"hard" writing tasks only if she felt they would help her improve her writing skills. For

example, she recalled a time when an elementary teacher guided her through a multiple-

draft writing process. Although she called it both "long" and "annoying," she stated that

the activity was "worth it in the end." When the purpose for writing was skill

development, Layla worked hard to maintain motivation. Layla also felt it helped her to

advance her writing skills when she received feedback and used it to make corrections.

For instance, Layla described writing in conjunction with her science fair project. She

said she submitted her report, piece by piece, to the science teacher, who made

corrections and asked questions "in the margins." Layla felt the task was challenging

(because it was "a technical kind of writing") and time consuming ("it was a very long

procedure"), but she deemed the overall experience "good because it improved... our

writing." Lay la was more likely to persevere during academic writing tasks she

perceived as helpful and/or related to skill development.

Authentic writing. Layla felt more compelled to write for authentic assignments.

Such writing tasks connected learning to real life or reached an audience other than the

teacher. For example, Layla described being motivated to write for "real" writing

assignments in history class, ones that she believed connected history "with modern

times" or "to the real world." Layla valued these meaningful connections and was

engaged when writing about them. Having a real audience and creating an authentic

product motivated Layla to write for school as well. She often spoke favorably about

assignments she was able to share closely with peers or pieces she would ultimately

submit to the school literary magazine or writing contests. Layla also discussed a time

when she wrote a poem about her family and knew her relatives would read it. She

talked about putting significant time and effort into the piece because she wanted to

"represent them" well. Finally, when asked to design her dream writing assignment,

Layla insisted upon an authentic audience, "you would send it into a publisher... a real

company!" and an authentic product, "a finished book!" Writing for genuine purposes

made assignments more enjoyable to Layla and increased her effort levels during the

writing process,

Timothy

"You know how for senior project you don't really have any classes or

anything? I guess [my dream writing assignment] would be kind of like

56

that... In [English] class, you just work on whatever you want... We would

write about whatever you want to write about, and 1 don't think 1 could

finish a book in a month... but I think I'd still have something good

enough... They would leave the project entirely up to us, but at the end of

each week, they would look at it, marking our progress, saying how we

work as an individual."

Timothy was a twelve-year-old student in the sixth grade, and his teachers

described him as "a skilled writer." Outside of school, he said he often wrote "for fun;"

he kept a writer's notebook, maintained a journal, attempted to write in the styles of

favorite authors, and had been writing "stories" since at least the second grade. Although

Timothy described elementary school writing as less complex, "more fun," and more

light-hearted than middle school writing, he felt competent as an adolescent writer and

proud of his advanced vocabulary. Observations revealed Timothy's writing classroom

as a place where differentiated instruction, built-in choice, well-designed lessons, and

varied activities were common. Although his teacher was respected and experienced and

focused on explicit writing instruction, her students' energy, engagement, and focus

seemed inconsistent.

During the multiple-interview process, Timothy explored various topics related to

his motivation to write for school. He most frequently mentioned and discussed deeply

the following topics:

• free writing and freedom,

• time to write,

• perceived utility of a task,

57

• writing about a topic of interest,

• repetitive or "busy work" writing,

• parental involvement,

• open-ended or creative writing assignments,

• teacher feedback,

• the level of challenge involved in a writing task, and

• limitations imposed by certain assignments.

For Timothy, an accomplished writer who often chose to compose independently

and felt quite capable writing for many purposes, three themes seemed to be connected

with his motivation to write for school: freedom in the writing experience, meaningful

writing topics and tasks, and touchstones of support.

Freedom

Perceived freedom motivated Timothy to put more effort into assignments, to

better focus on them, and to enjoy them more. Timothy spoke often of free writing as a

favorite writing activity. Limits made him feel frustrated, but creative or open-ended

assignments were seen as enjoyable as they allowed for student direction and feelings of

ownership.

Independence. Timothy named perceived freedom as the most important

motivator in his academic writing endeavors. He felt competent as a writer and enjoyed

the playful side of writing. Close examination of interview data uncovered many

instances of Timothy discussing "freedom" in different contexts; examples follow. After

going through his current writing portfolio and discussing the year's pieces, Timothy

expressed a desire for more writing assignments in which "you just do whatever you want

58

to do." In a discussion about effort and persistence in school writing, he said he tended to

"focus the most on... the most freedom-filled assignments." Timothy talked about times

he was especially inspired by academic writing tasks and stated, "Also, what makes me

really want to write is how much freedom the piece allows." When asked to describe his

dream writing assignment, he championed a project defined by student choice and

independence: "We would write about whatever you want to write about... in whatever

genre... you can just write what it inspires you to write." For Timothy, being able to

explore writing of his own accord was extremely motivating.

Free writing. Timothy raised the subject of free writing time and time again. He

named it as his favorite Writer's Notebook activity "because then you can just write

about whatever you want" as well as an enjoyable homework assignment: "If it's free

writing, I'm like, 'Oh, Yay!' and then I can stay-when I get home-I can stay up forever

having a good time free writing." Timothy said he enjoyed free writing because the

liberty of the format relaxed him during composition: "I don't really get frustrated."

When asked what one thing he would change about his current academic writing

program, Timothy requested "more free writing." He discussed enjoying the opportunity

to explore his thoughts, to be less serious, and to be more creative during free writing.

Limitations. Timothy reported feeling "frustrated" by the absence of freedom in

school writing assignments. He named "limits" as a detractor of writing motivation.

Timothy felt he could not produce his best writing when he was restricted by "too much

format" and deemed writing assignments "annoying" when they were too structured. He

elucidated, "You just want to get them over with... if she gave us a formatting sheet that

said, 'you have to do this, with this in it, and it has to look like this.'" Timothy explored

59

the negative effects of limits on poetry in particular: "you can't really tell someone how

many lines to have. Otherwise, it just gets pretty bad." Timothy needed writing tasks to

be somewhat flexible in order to find them enjoyable and inspiring. In an interview

following a classroom observation during which his class wrote about an assigned topic

in their Writers' Notebooks (rather than participate in free writing), Timothy explained,

"it wasn't like I thought it was boring, but, yeah, I guess I was less engaged." Finally,

when asked what kinds of assignments he wished his class would do more of before the

end of the school year, Timothy described several tasks involving freedom and remarked,

"but I hope she would just let us write about it instead of giving us a whole rubric thing."

Overall, he discussed feeling stifled by requirements, formats, and limits on his writing.

Open-ended/creative writing tasks. Not surprisingly, Timothy described tasks for

which he was motivated to write as open-ended or creative. He appreciated being able to

incorporate multimodalities into his school writing; for example, he identified assigned

retellings with sketches as "engaging" and a creative story mapping exercise as "fun."

Generally, he preferred open-ended writing activities "when the teacher says, 'think of

where you can take this."' Timothy enjoyed wilting for open-ended tasks because "even

if she gives us a topic, you still have the time and space to do your own stuff." A desire

for open-ended writing was also evident in Timothy's description of his dream writing

assignment: "they would leave the project entirely up to us." It seemed important to

Timothy that writing teachers (and the tasks they assigned) recognized students as

capable writers and allowed for a reasonable amount of autonomy.

Meaningful Writing Activities

60

Perceived freedom was not the only quality of a writing task that was motivating

for Timothy. A writing assignment also had to be meaningful in order for him to see it as

engaging and worthy of his best efforts. Timothy described meaningful tasks as being

useful and helpful activities or as ones involving topics of personal interest. Meaningless

writing tasks included ones through which writers learned nothing, writing for no real

reason, busy work, and punitive writing assignments; Timothy did not recognize such

activities as worthwhile.

Helpful/useful writing tasks. A writing task with perceived utility was a

motivating factor for Timothy. He said he would persist with a boring, repetitive, or

difficult writing task if it were useful or helpful. For example, even though "when it's

time for written conversations, I feel like, 'here we go again,'... I think that written

conversation is kind of cool because it forces you to think more and that makes you make

predictions and stuff." Because the process resulted in more advanced thinking about a

book, Timothy was willing to persevere. On the other hand, Timothy did not find

"useless" writing tasks engaging. He chose a movie summary/response piece as the

"least enjoyable" writing assignment in his portfolio because "I felt like I didn't learn

anything." Writing for real reasons, including writing to learn, was important to

Timothy. He wrote reluctantly for tasks about which he queried, "Why do I have to do

this again?" and did not put maximum effort into activities he described as "What a waste

of time!" Timothy was quick to dismiss "busy work" writing: "it is to get us to focus

more or whatever, [but] there is a more interesting way to do it." Timothy put effort into

tasks he perceived as worthwhile and halfheartedly completed ones he did not.

61

Topic of interest. Topics of interest motivated Timothy to write for school. He

put extra effort into research writing endeavors through which he learned about subjects

he liked or selected himself. For example, Timothy described being assigned his

"number one choice" for a research topic and consequently finding the writing process

engaging and rewarding. He said he focused more for school writing "on topics that I

like or find interesting." From his portfolio, Timothy chose his persuasive speech and his

I-Search project (two very complex and demanding projects) as the most enjoyable

writing tasks of the year: "They were interesting topics, so even though T had to work a

lot, they were just fun." Finally, Timothy explained that he "really wants to" write for

school when he is "interested enough in the subject." Overall, Timothy demonstrated

dedication to the writing process when he was asked to write for meaningful tasks and

about relevant, interesting topics.

Touchstones of Support

Although "freedom" was the theme Timothy chose to mention the most, his

overall construction of writing motivation was one that required a framework with

specific conditions. He said he was optimally motivated when a more knowledgeable

other set up flexible parameters for a challenging writing endeavor. He described

motivating encounters with adults as times when he could work independently knowing

he had the opportunity to seek support. Parental involvement, teacher feedback, time to

write, a high level of challenge, and accountability emerged as motivating factors. These

touchstones of support motivated Timothy to write for school.

Parental support. Timothy raised the topic of parental support many times over

the course of the interview process. For example, Timothy often spoke of drafting

62

pieces, either independent creative writing endeavors or assigned academic pursuits, and

bringing them to a parent for suggestions: "I worked a lot on it... I gave it to my dad, and

he thought I should change some stuff, so I did." Tim always engaged in revision

following the feedback sessions he described and was usually satisfied with the end

results. When talking about the process he used to write his persuasive speech, chosen as

a "best" piece from his portfolio, Timothy emphasized the impact of parental

involvement. "I spent a lot of time on the writing... the first draft, and then I read it to my

parents. And then my mom said it focused too much on global warming. So, then I went

back and rewrote it, and then T kept on having to rewrite it. And then finally, T was

finished and I liked it." Timothy believed this writing process approach, paired with

occasional and specific praise from his parents, helped to improve his writing skills over

the years. He recalled writing stories on his father's computer as a second grader. His

parents "told [him] that they were really good," offered ideas for refinement, and allowed

young Timothy to work on his own. He concluded, "Well, it kind of encouraged me to

keep writing. And so, since 1 did that, then 1 guess 1 got better... i guess it made me a

better writer." Timothy detailed a specific parental support system, which motivated him

to write.

Support in school. Timothy described a similar situation as one that would

motivate him to write in school. He believed that the touchstones of support he needed

from his teacher in the academic setting were time to write, a challenging task, feedback,

and accountability. Timothy thought that the best way to improve one's writing skills

was "you just write more" and wanted more opportunities and time to write in class. He

expressed feeling frustrated when he did not have enough time to complete an assignment

63

well or when he procrastinated. Some things Timothy would change about his current

writing classroom included having more time to write and writing more regularly about

self-selected topics with chances to receive teacher guidance and feedback. Timothy

described his dream writing assignment as including plenty of time to write and regularly

scheduled meetings with the teacher to discuss progress and receive suggestions.

Timothy preferred specific teacher feedback such as "she'll tell us, 'you can make it

better by... '" In addition, he stated a need for accountability in order to compel him to

finish a piece. Timothy recounted dozens of stories he had begun to compose

independently and never completed, "I can't finish a [piece] unless it's for homework or

something." He mourned all of the "chapter ones" he had written and wished for a

classroom experience that would force him to craft a "finished book." The final feature

of Timothy's optimally motivating writing environment was a high level of challenge.

Put off by any writing task he deemed boring, repetitive, rote, or "busy work," Timothy

preferred complex writing activities. He said that challenging assignments ("ones that

are hard") increased his focus during writing: "Because if it's a ton of work, I'll know

that I have to get it done, so I just focus on it a little more." Timothy also discussed being

interested in, investing time and effort into, and learning more from writing assignments

with a high level of challenge. Timothy described a motivating writing classroom as one

in which the teacher held students accountable for challenging writing activities and

provided them with class time to write and explicit feedback during the writing process.

Elizabeth

"I think [my dream writing assignment]'d be like a bunch of little things.

Like maybe just write about whatever is on your mind. Or write about a

64

dream you have or something. Or it has a statement, and you have to

write something on it. Or you would write about your favorite thing in the

world. Or maybe your least favorite thing in the world. You could take a

book and then read it and say what you thought... Or you could pick a

favorite story and change it completely so that it is in a real-life

version... in modern days."

Elizabeth was a twelve-year-old seventh grader and new to the school. A quiet

girl who would occasionally jot down her feelings or private thoughts, she wrote mostly

because she "had to." Elizabeth described elementary school writing as simple, easy, and

"effortless," and believed it was much more teacher-controlled than middle school

writing. She listed her present purposes for academic writing as answering questions,

elaborating, "relating to your life," giving opinions, and supporting them. Elizabeth said

middle school writing required "lots of revising," thinking, and persistent crafting. She

felt she wrote "enough in school," and chose to occupy her very limited free time with

TV or reading. According to observation data, Elizabeth's writing classroom was highly

structured and the mostly teacher-led activities were often followed by opportunities for

individual student work. Teacher-student interaction was very limited, and student-

student interaction was somewhat limited and very teacher-controlled. Unlike the writing

classrooms of Layla and Timothy, which involved a great deal of conversation and

movement Elizabeth and her classmates sat in assigned seats and rarely moved from

them during very quiet class periods.

As Elizabeth participated in the multiple-interview process, she talked about

numerous topics related to academic writing motivation. The ones she raised the most

often and discussed in most detail were the following:

• being able to relate and/or connect to the writing topic,

• writing about a topic of interest,

• writing assignments that allow for opinion and reflection,

• having enough information or background knowledge to write about a topic,

• open-ended writing assignments,

• tedious or repetitive tasks,

• time to write,

• fun or engaging tasks, and

• choice.

Topic really mattered to Elizabeth, a quiet student who, despite her shyness, had

much to say during interviews. Elizabeth was motivated when she was personally

invested and involved in the writing process. Three themes emerged from her interview

data: Elizabeth was optimally motivated to write for school when she cared about or

connected to the writing topic or task, when she felt competent completing the writing

assignment, and when she could contribute something personally to the writing process

or product.

Connections

Connections helped Elizabeth maintain writing motivation. Elizabeth said she

was able to establish connections by relating to the writing topic, writing about a topic of

personal interest, or "caring about" academic writing tasks. When Elizabeth felt she

66

could relate to a writing topic, she enjoyed writing more, could focus better, and put more

effort into her work. She said she wanted to write for school and wrote more when

assignments involved a topic of interest. Elizabeth was more engaged when she cared

about writing assignments or perceived them as fun or novel.

Being able to relate to the writing topic. Time and time again, Elizabeth brought

up, and returned to, the subject of being able to relate to the writing topic. Elizabeth said

she focused better on academic wilting when it involved a topic to which she could

relate. Overall, she felt her English teacher did a good job of providing such

opportunities: "T can somehow connect to most things she does." Elizabeth also said her

focus level changed depending upon whether she could connect to the writing prompts or

tasks. She felt she was more focused on writing tasks she could relate to and less focused

when writing about topics she had not personally experienced, felt no connection to, or

had no opinions about. When asked what made her try her hardest when writing for

school, Elizabeth again discussed connection: "If I feel a certain way about the

topic... like if 1 think a lot of stuff on it... if 1 have a lot to say." Elizabeth said she did not

put forth her best effort "if I don't really care what I'm writing about." "Just being able

to relate to it" made all the difference in the world to her.

Not being able to relate to the writing topic. Elizabeth mentioned specific times

during her school years when an inability to connect with or relate to writing tasks

interfered with her writing performance. She said it was more difficult to write when she

could not relate to prompts and sometimes did not even attempt such endeavors.

Elizabeth described academic writing as "least enjoyable" when she could not relate to

the topics at hand. She discussed in detail an instance in which a past teacher had asked

the class to write a piece from the perspective of a young person living in poverty. Even

though her class had studied a novel exploring such themes, Elizabeth found the activity

"hard" and the experience "miserable" because she had "never been in poverty."

Although she eventually completed the exercise, Elizabeth was not happy with the

results: "I couldn't relate to it, and it probably wasn't that accurate because I had no clue

what I was writing about." In separate interviews, Elizabeth described her feelings when

writing about a topic with which she could not relate as "being forced to write" and as

"weird" when writing about something she had never experienced. During a review of

her current writing portfolio, Elizabeth said the pieces she least enjoyed writing included

when "it was something hard to get into." She discussed two different writing

assignments she found difficult and not engaging because she did not connect to or have

anything in common with the literary characters they involved. Elizabeth felt that school

writing was most difficult "when 1 don't have an opinion on it" and wanted more writing

assignments she could "connect to." Caring about and connecting to the writing topic

was crucial for Elizabeth's academic writing motivation.

Topic of interest. Closely tied to connection, writing about a topic of interest was

also important to Elizabeth. She spoke frequently and positively about such writing

tasks. Elizabeth said she felt less frustration when she was writing about a topic of

interest: "sometimes, if I really like the topic, then I can write a lot." She said she

enjoyed writing for school when it involved a topic of interest. For example, "T like

writing about good books." Elizabeth also described academic writing as "fun" when it

involved a topic she "liked." When looking through her writing portfolio, Elizabeth

chose a piece as the most "fun" to write because it discussed poems she enjoyed. Her

68

favorite Writer's Notebook prompt involved reflecting upon a "good" book. Overall,

Elizabeth said she wanted to write for school "when it is a fun thing to write on." In

addition to providing enjoyment and engagement, Elizabeth believed that writing about a

topic of interest could affect the quality of a piece as well. She chose a reflection piece in

her portfolio as one of her "best" and defended her choice by saying her writing turned

out well because she "had interest in the books" about which she was writing. Writing

about a topic of interest motivated Elizabeth.

Engaging writing tasks. Elizabeth also cared about academic writing when she

perceived the task as fresh and unusual. She said she was highly engaged when writing

for "fun" assignments. One such activity she described was "collecting" poetry prior to

writing it: "We had to collect poetry that was metaphorical and had personification in it,

and two that we liked, and one to borrow a line from..." Elizabeth enjoyed leafing

through anthologies, completing a poetry scavenger hunt, and being exposed to a wide

variety of work. Later, she talked about the poetry writing that followed the collection

process and also described it as appealing: "... fun to write the poems... it was kind of fun

just because I didn't always know where I was going with writing all the time... I just

kind of chose bizarre combinations and stuff." Elizabeth enjoyed being innovative in her

own writing. Another "fun" writing task Elizabeth detailed was a Writer's Notebook

exercise her class completed in order to practice metaphor. "You had to write, 'Like a

, I am ___.' Some of the things were like: 'Like an iPod, T am full of songs.'"

Elizabeth enjoyed this task because it seemed "kind of random" at first but elicited some

"deep" writing later. She said she was also engaged by the prompt because it felt

unexpected. Elizabeth was personally compelled to write well for "fun" assignments and

69

enjoyed completing them. Novel tasks provided another way for her to connect with

academic writing.

Tedious or repetitive writing tasks. On the other hand, Elizabeth was less

motivated to write for assignments she perceived as "not fun" or "boring." She qualified

such endeavors as "tedious" or "repetitive." During her writing portfolio walk-through,

Elizabeth named several assignments as the "least enjoyable" for this reason. She did not

enjoy composing a "headline poem" because it was "tedious" to cut words from

magazines in order to complete the assignment. She felt the cutting and pasting process

interfered with the creativity necessary for poetry writing. Once the novelty had worn off

a writing task, Elizabeth found it frustrating: "I didn't love the written conversations, just

because we did so many of them. I just got tired of them, tired of writing them."

Elizabeth enjoyed writing back and forth to her reading partner for two or three

exchanges. After four, she felt she "couldn't think of stuff to write" because "we'd said a

lot." "Overkill" was a negative trait Elizabeth mentioned often as she discussed her

academic writing motivation. Although she enjoyed writing her poetry project overall,

Elizabeth said she would improve it by "maybe not writing so many poems." After

writing "twelve poems or something," she was less engaged with the writing tasks,

occasionally felt frustrated, and began putting forth less effort as the project progressed.

Elizabeth found it difficult to connect to or care about tedious or repetitive tasks and was

consequently less motivated to write for them.

Competence

Competence was another theme in Elizabeth's construction of her personal

writing motivation story. In order to be motivated to write for school, Elizabeth needed

to feel competent. Several factors contributed to her perception of competence including

time to write in school and having enough background information about the writing

topic. Elizabeth believed that writers should be sufficiently prepared for writing tasks

and therefore academic writing should feel "easy."

Adequate preparation. Elizabeth referred to "easy" writing both positively and

negatively. Close examination of the data, clarifies that she was not motivated by simple,

mindless writing tasks. In fact, she classified these as "boring," completed such tasks

quickly and superficially, and didn't "try as hard" when an assignment was "too easy."

When Elizabeth said repeatedly that she "like[d] easy assignments," she was referring to

writing tasks for which she felt suitably prepared. Clear directions and teacher

expectations made Elizabeth feel more competent, and therefore motivated, when

writing. She mentioned the benefits of a written "directions sheet" accompanied by the

teacher's oral explanation and an opportunity for student Q & A during class. Elizabeth

also felt writing was "easy" when she was given quiet time to think about the topic and

plan her piece during class. That way, "1 already know what 1 am going to write on it... 1

have it planned in my head, so all I have to do is write it out." Perceiving a writing task

as manageable helped Elizabeth to feel competent as she wrote for school.

Time to write. Time to write was another motivating factor that contributed to

Elizabeth's feelings of competence. She said she was more likely to put true effort into

her school writing when she was given class time to write, think, and discuss. On

multiple occasions, Elizabeth lamented her very busy after school schedule. She felt

these extracurricular activities limited the time she could spend writing and admitted she

didn't "try very hard... if I really just want to get the assignment done." Elizabeth

71

enjoyed the class time her teacher provided for independent work (often pre-writing

exercises and drafting). She felt these built-in work session opportunities helped her to

better structure her writing, and she wished her teacher would provide even more of

them. On the other hand, Elizabeth criticized her English teacher's classroom

management style because it ultimately affected her ability to write well: "She wants you

always to be working, but sometimes you are just thinking, and that gets hard."

Classroom observations support this comment. "The atmosphere is one of order and

structure" (excerpt from observation summary); "The teacher seems...to want to get

things done" (excerpt from field notes). Elizabeth mentioned her teacher's "rush, rush"

style several times in reference to returned written work. "When we get everything back,

it goes right into our portfolio, and we don't have enough time to look at it first... so we

don't get to see our feedback." Elizabeth also regretted that she was unable to ask peers

questions and discuss writing ideas in the "too quiet" classroom. Class time devoted to

writing, including both quiet periods for independent work and opportunities to discuss

writing and ideas with peers, helped Elizabeth to feel more competent, and therefore

motivated, to write for school.

Information or background knowledge about the writing topic. Elizabeth felt

competent and motivated to write for school when she had sufficient information about

the writing topic. She said "just knowing about it" helped to keep her focused when

writing. Having personal experience with a writing theme or topic, "like having a

memory about it," also helped Elizabeth to focus on her literature writing assignments.

In addition to improving focus, having enough information caused Elizabeth to enjoy

writing for school and put more effort into writing tasks. She enjoyed writing for such

72

assignments because she felt more "able" to do so: "then it's about something I know a

lot about or could write a lot about." Elizabeth explained that when she "knew a lot"

about a topic, she would put extra time and effort into making sure she fully represented

her understanding. Elizabeth found it difficult to write about "confusing" topics. For

example, when Elizabeth felt she had no prior knowledge about a writing topic, she was

frustrated when asked to write about it: "If I don't really know a lot about it, then I can't

always write it." Feeling she had enough information about a writing topic increased

Elizabeth's perception of competence, motivated her, and helped her to persist during

academic writing.

Contribution

Contribution was the third theme evident across Elizabeth's interviews. She was

more motivated to write for school when she was able to affect the writing process in

some way. Elizabeth said she enjoyed writing and wrote well when she was able to

reflect and/or express her opinion. She preferred open-ended or creative writing tasks,

put more effort into challenging ones, and enjoyed assignments involving student choice.

Open-ended'creative writing tasks. Elizabeth preferred open-ended or creative

writing tasks because they allowed her to personally contribute to the writing process and

product. Elizabeth explained that she was more engaged during such writing activities

and remarked generally, "T like it to be open." She enjoyed being given a starting point

and asked to "go from there." Writing tasks were more appealing to Elizabeth, and she

put more effort into them, when they allowed for personalization. She discussed the

summer reading assignment she chose over the traditional book review: "we had to write

what the characters felt, or how it felt to be them." Even though it was a complex

73

assignment, Elizabeth chose to rewrite a chapter of her book from the first person point of

view because it allowed her to "get into" the writing in multiple ways. Elizabeth also

enjoyed the open-ended aspect of most Writer's Notebook prompts; for example, she

preferred to write when "[the teacher] doesn't say you have to write this much, she just

says explore your thoughts and stuff." Elizabeth liked to be a stakeholder in her school

writing. Being allowed to explore creatively was one way she could realize this role.

Reflection and expression. Elizabeth was inspired to write for school assignments

that were reflective, persuasive, or expressive in nature. "1 enjoy it if it's something you

can put opinion in." She was more engaged when writing tasks allowed her to

communicate her personal feelings and thoughts about a subject. On several occasions,

Elizabeth talked about how much she enjoyed "writing about good books." Book

reviews were a way she could share her insights about literature with others. In addition

to being "fun," Elizabeth felt that reflective assignments encouraged her to write well.

When asked to choose the "best" pieces from her writing portfolio, Elizabeth first

selected a piece in which she had reflected upon and responded to various authors' quotes

about poetry. She felt it showcased some of her best writing because she "reflected a lot

on them, in the writer's notebook." Afterward, she put time and effort into revising her

writing in order to make her thoughts and opinions clear for readers. When asked what

kinds of writing she wished she did more of in school, Elizabeth replied, "sharing your

opinion and stuff." Elizabeth explained that she didn't always have an opportunity to her

express her opinions in real life and that school writing provided such a chance: "I think

a lot... but I don't always, say it, so..." Finally, Elizabeth described one of her dream

writing assignments as involving reflection and opinion, "You could say what you

thought in an essay." Putting her thoughts and feelings into school writing assignments

motivated Elizabeth to write because she was able to contribute personally.

Choice. Writing tasks involving student choice allowed Elizabeth to contribute to

the process and therefore motivated her to write for school. She preferred assignments

with choice, perceived them as "fun," and was more focused when writing for them. For

example, Elizabeth discussed book partnership projects her class had completed on two

separate occasions during the year. She said she was more engaged during the second

project and believed she produced better writing pieces for it as well. Elizabeth didn't

think this improvement happened as a result of practice. She said, "This time T liked it

more just because we got to choose the book that we liked instead of [being assigned

one]." Elizabeth preferred writing prompts and Writer's Notebook exercises with

choices. One enjoyable aspect of the poetry project, a task she described as "fun," was

choosing "random" topics for her original poems. Student choice was also embedded in

Elizabeth's dream writing assignment; she described several open-ended writing

scenarios "you could pick." Being able to contribute by making decisions that affected

the writing process inspired Elizabeth to write for school.

Troy

"[My dream writing assignment would be] to write a movie! Yeah, that

would be fun, because to write a movie script, you have to find a lot of

characters, and you get to make things up. And 1 love making characters,

so that would be fun, too. And finding a setting would be fun. And then

actually filming it would be quite fun... I just think the whole experience

75

would be fun, not even just the writing, but the writing mostly. Writing on

your own and then saying, 'Oh, 1 wrote that!'"

Troy was a thirteen-year-old seventh grader. Although he felt he was an "above

average" writer and that his skills were "improving," standardized test scores and teacher

grades/comments ranked him as one of the weakest writers in his class. Troy viewed

academic writing as a means to develop necessary proficiencies and compared the

process to building a house. He explained that elementary school writing "was the base,

and then now middle school writing is where you are really putting on the bricks and

everything, like making the frame..." In elementary school, he wrote because his

teachers told him to, but Troy wrote more independently as he grew older. Inspired by

the books of Anthony Horowitz, he used them as a model to write some adventurous

vignettes. Later, he and his friends collaborated to write and produce original

screenplays "for fun." Troy described middle school writing as more "strict" and

deadline-oriented but still professed to like it "a lot." Troy was in the same writing class

as Elizabeth. Observations of him revealed the same type of classroom, very teacher-

centered and businesslike. One field notes exceipt reads, "There was no interaction, only

direction and completion."

Over multiple interviews, Troy constructed his account of academic writing

motivation. During the process, he brought up these topics most frequently and in detail:

• being able to relate to the writing topic or "writing about me,"

• perceiving the writing task as fun and engaging as opposed to boring or repetitive,

• creative or open-ended writing assignments,

• writing tasks paired with visual or kinesthetic activity,

76

• writing pieces based on models or inspired by original works,

• independence in writing,

• time to write and think,

• engaging in prewriting exercises, and

• helpful writing tasks.

Characteristics of writing tasks and writing instruction proved most important to

Troy. Overall, he was optimally motivated to write when the task sparked his personal

interest and when support structures were available to him as a student writer. Three

themes emerged from Troy's interview data: Troy was motivated to write for school

when he found the writing task appealing, when he perceived the writing activity as

student-centered, and when he felt supported during the writing process.

Appealing Writing Tasks

Troy said he was most engaged in the writing process when he found the task

appealing. When writing for fun, engaging, or novel assignments, Troy felt he wrote

well, maintained focus, put forth extra effort, and enjoyed completing the work. He said

he focused well for and enjoyed writing creative or open-ended assignments. A writing

activity that included a visual or a kinesthetic aspect was also appealing to Troy.

Engaging writing tasks. Troy was motivated to complete a WTiting task he

perceived as fun, engaging, or novel. He believed this task characteristic helped him

maintain focus: "Well, if it's a fun assignment, then it's easy to stay focused." Troy tried

his hardest when activities seemed novel to him; he called these "different kinds of

assignments." Although Troy said he didn't usually "want to" write for school, he said,

"it really just depends on the assignment, if I like it." Troy talked about how he would

77

"just know" if the writing assignment would be motivating or "fun" as soon as the

teacher explained it. Two writing activities he described as "fun" were completing "the

poetry project" and "writing the short story." During a portfolio review, Troy selected

his short story as his "best" piece and defended his choice with the fun factor: "Because 1

liked writing that. That was fun to do." Troy felt he could persist during a fun writing

task and was able to produce higher quality writing as a result.

Open-ended/creative writing tasks. A creative or open-ended writing task was

also appealing to Troy. He described such activities as times when the teacher would

give his class a starting point and allow them to "go anywhere with it." For example, he

enjoyed writing a "borrowed line poem... That was really cool because you have this line

and you basically make your poem around it." This exercise appealed to Troy because it

was open-ended. Writing a short story motivated Troy with its creative writing nature:

"you could pretty much put in anything, except for 7 or you, but the creative part, you

could put anything. It could be in school. You could make it happen in regular class, but

anything! So, that was fun." Troy especially enjoyed how "we get to make up our own

characters, totally." Troy compared the short story writing process to the way he and his

friends engaged in at-home literacies when they wrote, acted, and filmed mini-movies

"for fun." "We start with making up characters." Academic writing that resembled an

activity' Troy and his friends chose to do in their free time motivated him to write for

school.

Visual or kinesthetic components. Throughout multiple interviews, Troy

mentioned motivating activities that integrated visual or kinesthetic aspects into the

writing process. From examining illustrations to building a scale model replica of a

78

research subject, these endeavors helped Troy to engage with writing. When discussing

how much he enjoyed completing the poetry project, Troy gave the following example of

an appealing aspect: "One of the books [I used] was I Sing America. That book I liked a

lot. There were a lot of cool poems in there, and illustrations helped you really imagine,

so you could see where you were in the poems." Looking at pictures helped Troy to

connect to the content of the poetry and ultimately write his own poems. Troy enjoyed

another activity in the poetry project for its tactile nature and visually stimulating form:

"And the headline poem where you cut up words and pieces from magazines was really

fun, too. Because of not only the words you cut out, but the way they are shaped. Maybe

one is really small. One is huge. It was a cool experience." Troy talked about using

visuals as a means to bolster comprehension. He mentioned how helpful it was for him

to sketch the layout of the neighborhood in To Kill a Mockingbird: "It's good knowing

where everything exactly is in the book so you can see." Finally, when listing motivating

writing assignments from the past and in other disciplines, Troy always described

multimodal tasks. He talked about drawing illustrations to accompany his elementary

school writing, creating a "little tile project" in conjunction with writing a family mosaic

poem in sixth grade, building a theater for his Humanities I-Search project, and creating a

replica "of what a house would look like" for his history project on "architecture in the

1850s." Troy felt the visual and hands-on activities helped to get him interested in the

subject at hand, better understand the content, and become more involved in the writing

portion of the learning pursuit.

Student-Centered Writing

79

A second theme in Troy's interview data involved student-centered writing

activities. When Troy believed that the writing activity was connected to him in some

authentic way, he was more motivated. Troy felt he could write more easily and

elaborate more fully about topics to which he could relate, especially those he could

connect to his past personal experiences. Troy was inspired to write for school when the

assignment allowed for some sort of student control or direction. He also spent more

time on writing tasks he perceived as helpful or useful.

Being able to connect to the writing topic Troy was motivated to write for school

when he felt personally connected to the topic. He described such assignments as fun and

enjoyable. For example, he often brought up Writer's Notebook assignments when

discussing school writing he "liked." While reading To Kill a Mockingbird and exploring

the relationship between characters Scout and Jem, Troy's teacher asked the class to

connect this dynamic to their own lives: "we had to write one about a role model for us."

Troy chose to write about an adult he knew through an extracurricular activity: "so I

wrote about her, and it was really fun." He found the journal exercise enjoyable for its

personalized nature and believed his classmates valued it for the same reason:

"Everybody felt it, so we were looking at who we look up to." Troy frequently discussed

finding it "easier" to wTite "when it is about me." He felt competent writing for any

prompt that allowed him to connect literature to his own past experiences, "about

something that's happened to you." He based his short story characters on people from

his own life and mentioned being inspired to write outside of school in response to

certain life events. Troy explained the ease with which adolescents write about

themselves: "Usually her questions are about us, which really helps us, I think as a class.

80

It really puts us in the position of, 'Oh, well. This is writing us. It's really easy to write

about.'" Troy described how it felt to write about topics to which he could relate: "I

think connecting to questions like that, they really, they can really make a light bulb go

off. It's like, 'Oh!' And you just start, and you keep going off of what you have, and just

elaborate off of that, and you just keep going." For reasons like these, Troy said he

always completed writing assignments to which he felt a personal connection.

Student-driven writing endeavors. Another way a writing assignment felt student-

centered and appealing to Troy was when it allowed for some student direction. Troy

illustrated this task trait with the following example: "The poetry project was a lot of

fun, actually. Yeah, it was really independent... you could look in any book, really, that

you wanted to." Troy appreciated having a bit of control over a process he initially found

overwhelming. Because the assignment allowed for self-direction, he was able to locate

interesting sources and was motivated to persist in the subsequent writing task. Troy

talked about wanting to complete homework more when the teacher presented a flexible

schedule for students to follow: "what I think was good was [the teacher] assigned us to

read chapters five, six, and seven by Thursday, so we can do it at our own pace... I think

that is good because some nights you are able to read a lot more than you are other

nights, and then you can read more. You want to, and you will." Troy brought up this

characteristic again when discussing another appealing writing task, "with the short story

assignment, she left it to us... she said this part's due on maybe Wednesday of next week,

so we had that whole time. If we didn't feel like doing it one night, then we could do it

the next night. And it's a really good pace." Troy appreciated the way his teacher

acknowledged the fact that writing is a complex and personal process and designed some

81

assignments to reflect this complexity and allow for student control. Finally, when Troy

described his dream writing assignment, he specified a very independent endeavor with

flexible deadlines. Being able to control part of the process motivated Troy to write for

school.

Helpful/useful writing tasks. Troy was more likely to put time and effort into

writing tasks he perceived as helpful. Even when such activities were not "fun," Troy

pushed himself to write when he believed it would help him to understand better or learn.

He raised the example of the note-taking sheets assigned for each chapter of a class

novel: "we have characters and setting and that stuff, which is helpful.. .things like that

really help when you stop and are thinking, 'Oh, where? What just happened?' That will

help." Although this writing task was not creative or personal, Troy perceived its

function to be student-centered, and thus, appealing. When Troy was discussing a

reflection essay he wrote for English class, he cast it in a favorable light because it had

helped him to think more deeply about a topic: "That kind of stuff... it brings it out, like

when you are writing it down or typing it up, you actually find stuff that you didn't even

know. You know? So that kind of stuff works." Troy didn't "mind" writing tasks he felt

would advance his thinking or facilitate his learning. He mentioned examples from other

content areas as necessary and useful. Troy put effort into such writing tasks because

"they will help because we learn stuff from them." Troy felt that helpful writing

activities were connected to him in an authentic way and was consequently more

motivated to complete them.

Support

82

Support was the third theme in Troy's academic writing story. In order to be

properly motivated, Troy liked to know that certain structures were in place to assist him.

He valued quiet class time set aside for students to think and write. Troy felt more

competent when larger writing assignments were supported by guided prewriting

exercises. He also preferred writing pieces based upon a model or inspired by another

original work.

Time to think and write. Troy felt supported by the class time his teacher

allocated for quiet thinking and/or writing. He described the mood during such occasions

as "it's like we have our own separate time. That really helps us, too.,. we're calm and

everything... we take time, and we actually really think" and how it helped him to write,

"And when they say, 'OK. Let's write about this,' that's still fresh in your mind,

and... it's really, really easy to write about it. I find." Thinking seemed to act as planning

for Troy and facilitated drafting for him later. Troy was more motivated to write for

homework assignments when he had been given time to begin them in class. "That

fifteen minutes... really helps because then, when you get home, you are kind of in the

middle. It's like: 'I know where to go. I got started on this.' Like when a train gets

started, it keeps going." Troy was not merely compelled by the head start; he seemed to

experience the benefits of a mental momentum. Writing a short story was also an

enjoyable activity for Troy, due largely to the amount of time the teacher devoted to the

process. He appreciated the class time she designated for planning, drafting,

conferencing, and revising. He believed that the writing time made the complex process

more manageable and more feasible. When Troy chose his short story as his "best"

writing piece of the year, one reason he gave for the success of the narrative was the time

83

he spent crafting it. Finally, when imagining his dream writing assignment, Troy

stipulated a long-term project with plenty of class time to plan, write, and revise. Time to

write helped Troy to engage and persist during the writing process.

Pre-writing activities. Troy identified prewriting exercises as supportive and

motivating writing activities. Initially daunted by the idea of composing an entire short

story, Troy discussed how his teacher employed prewriting exercises in order to make the

process more manageable. His class spent several days jotting ideas in their Writers'

Notebooks about setting, character, and plot: "What was really, really good to me was

we took a lot of time to make the character first, our main character... We took two days,

all of the class period, and we would just write about it. We would bullet things, qualities

that we wanted. We would erase some of them and add different ones. And then we

moved onto setting." By utilizing the user-friendly format of bulleted lists, character and

plot development appeared more attainable to the young writer. These practices

influenced Troy so much that he also included them in his description of a dream writing

assignment. Troy felt supported, and therefore motivated, by guided prewriting

activities.

Using models. Writing pieces based on a model or inspired by an original work

motivated Troy because the practice provided structure and support. For example, Troy

talked about writing a borrowed line poem "where we took a line from a poem or from a

book and you write off of that." He was glad the borrowed line poem was the first

writing task in the poetry project. Because it was "somewhat easy," Troy was

encouraged to continue his poetry writing efforts in earnest. Another assignment that

Troy named as one of his "best" and one of the "most fun," was when his class read "The

Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and then wrote a short piece about their own secret lives.

Troy enjoyed this writing task and believed it inspired some of his best work "because it

was fun to use what he wrote and then transform it into my own.'' Troy described these

activities as "fun" and motivating because they promoted a feeling of competence in him

by supplying a starting point or furnishing a frame of reference for his academic writing

endeavors.

Jorja

"[My dream writing assignment] might be about something about yourself

that no one else knows or a hidden talent or something.., Or if [the

teacher] asked us if there was one moment in your life when everything

changed... And another one would probably be something about childhood

memories... It's because those are kind of the most important times that I

can recall, with the most things that have affected you. And because it's

something about me that is different than other people."

Jorja was a thirteen-year-old student in the eighth grade who felt she "did no real

writing" until she moved to the United States from China in the third grade. She looked

back positively on her academic writing memories from third and fourth grade when she

participated in waiter's workshop and numerous creative writing endeavors. Jorja

described elementary school writing as more "free" and broad and recalled how teachers

allowed for more mistakes. She said middle school writing was more content-oriented

and "much more restricted" with regard to topic and length. Although she reported

being more excited for school writing in the third grade "because it was new," Jorja felt

she worked harder in middle school because she wanted to do well. She also mentioned

new writing topics and reasons such as real world issues and expression of feelings:

"There's much more meaning behind it, 1 think." Jorja often chose to write

independently: she kept a journal, gave poems as gifts, and spent time experimenting

with her skills and style. Observations represent Jorja's writing classroom as quite

traditional, mostly lecture-based. Student engagement came and went; although there was

clear evidence that students understood class content, they were not always overtly

invested in learning activities and pushed against the teacher-centered model.

During the multiple interview process, Jorja raised numerous topics as she

communicated her living phenomenon of academic writing motivation. The issues she

brought up most repeatedly and explored with detail follow:

• open-ended or creative writing tasks,

• helpful or useful writing assignments,

• rote and repetitive tasks (as opposed to fun and engaging ones),

• time and opportunities to write in class,

• writing assignments with clear guidelines,

• free-writing and/or freedom built into assignments,

• writing about topics of personal interest,

• choice,

• being encouraged to write by interaction with peers, and

• writing based upon a model or being inspired to write by an original work.

Jorja felt quite competent as a writer. She expressed a very clear picture of the

features she required from an academic writing program in order to be optimally

motivated. Three themes became apparent as Jorja constructed this compelling picture:

86

freedom, meaningful writing topics and tasks, and teacher and classroom characteristics.

She described a very specific writing setting in which she would most want to practice

and improve her skills.

Freedom

Freedom motivated Jorja to write for school. She enjoyed school writing the most

when tasks were creative or open-ended. Jorja desired more free writing in her program.

She also enjoyed writing more and wrote better when there was choice in the writing

assignment.

Open-ended/creative writing tasks. Jorja's favorite writing tasks were creative or

open-ended. Jorja believed the open-ended nature of these activities affected both her

focus while writing them as well as the quality of the end product. She felt she focused

best when writing to an open-ended prompt, when "there is just one question or one thing

that you have to write about, and then the rest is just basically you're on your own, so you

can write about whatever you want." Jorja believed her writing turned out superior when

working with an open-ended assignment: "1 usually do better when there is a topic, but

not so specific. You can do whatever you want with it." Looking back on her past

writing experiences, Jorja recalled her favorite elementary school assignments; they

included using science content to craft a creative story about an animal, participating in a

writer's workshop to write narratives, and rewriting endings to books. During a review

of her current writing portfolio, she named two activities as "most fun," writing poetry

for homework "because she gives you an idea, and you make it your own" and creating a

symbolic mask to represent elements from Romeo and Juliet because "I like it when

there's lots of creativity in the project." Although Jorja stated adamantly, she would

87

"never not do" a school writing assignment, she enjoyed open-ended activities the most

and said they made her "really want to write."

Independence. Jorja spoke frequently about freedom in writing. She felt she was

a mature, skilled writer and wanted her teachers to acknowledge her competence by

allowing for more student autonomy: "when you get to the eighth grade, your writing

becomes much more independent." For this reason, she was motivated by writing

projects where "we were figuring it out" and offered the following advice for teachers:

"you definitely have to let the students write it for themselves." "Limiting" writing

assignments frustrated Jorja: "sometimes you want to write it on your own, and there's

all these restrictions, about the length. If it's too short or too long, you have to add

unnecessary stuff or take stuff out that you really like." She felt teacher's length

requirements were often arbitrary and counterintuitive to the creative writing process.

Jorja spoke several times about wishing she could participate in more free writing in

school. She reminisced fondly about the free writing activities she completed regularly in

elementary school. Jorja wished her eighth grade English teacher used the Writers'

Notebooks more, especially for free writing. When asked what makes her really want to

write for school, one of Jorja's responses was when "you have the freedom to write about

whatever you want." Opportunities to demonstrate her self-sufficiency motivated Jorja to

write for school.

Choice. Closely related to freedom, choice was a recurring topic in Jorja's

interviews. She enjoyed this year's poetry project because "we could pick whatever poet

we wanted." Jorja found the eighth grade poetry project experience appealing because of

the built in choices: "we wrote our own poetry. We picked the different poems out of

88

the books we found" to use as models. Jorja also appreciated the effect it had upon her

writing: "the poet 1 researched, Nikki Giovanni, 1 liked her style a lot, so now my poetry

is in a much different style. She actually inspired me to keep a poetry journal now."

Jorja believed having choice in a writing task helped her to write more skillfully. When

asked to choose her "best" writing piece of the year, she chose an essay related to the

novel Of Mice and Men. She selected the essay because of the choice involved: "She

gave us four options, and I chose what I thought was the most challenging one." Given

the choice, Jorja pushed herself to explore advanced themes and ultimately craft an

exceptional piece. On the other hand, she talked about the opposite effects on her

writing, in the absence of choice: "If [the topic] is kind of being forced, and I have to

write something I don't really want to do, then I can hand in a really bad piece." Being

able to make choices in her school writing improved Jorja's quality of writing, helped her

to focus, and provided enjoyment.

Meaningful Writing Activities

Meaningful writing topics and tasks motivated Jorja to write for school.

Interested in advancing her knowledge and skills, Jorja put extra time and effort into

writing activities she perceived as helpful or useful. She was inspired by "fun,"

engaging, or novel writing tasks and said the least enjoyable kinds of academic writing

were "boring," rote, or repetitive. Writing about topics of interest also established a

meaningful connection for Jorja.

Helpful/useful writing tasks. Jorja believed completing writing assignments she

perceived as helpful or useful was worthwhile. Therefore, she was engaged during these

activities and put extra effort into them. Jorja described short, teacher-led writing lessons

89

as useful. She talked about a series of mini-lessons, leading up to the more independent

poetry project, through which her teacher introduced various poetic forms and

techniques: "I think that the topics were really good, and it improved our poetry."

Another time, Jorja's teacher outlined the structure and style of a critical piece of

literature analysis: "That helped a lot because I think I had to review and get back into

how to write an essay properly." Jorja felt these targeted talks, involving examination of

models and followed by independent student writing endeavors, were valuable activities

because they clarified her thinking and focused her efforts. Jorja discussed putting more

time and effort into helpful writing tasks "because I'm more interested in it...after

learning something for so long, and then writing about it, that really helps. After you've

studied a whole book or studied a whole topic and then writing something about it at the

end is much more meaningful." The examples she gave were cumulative writing

assignments through which she could synthesize ideas and demonstrate understanding:

"I liked writing that essay because it was kind of combining the two subjects, and I think

1 could show my teacher that 1 had learned how to write a certain way." Jorja was always

eager for more opportunities to improve her writing skills. Her favorite Writer's

Notebook activity was responding to poetry because she felt the exercise translated into

personal growth: "you can put it into your own poetry, so that's definitely the most

helpful." Not quite satisfied with her teacher's use of the Writer's Notebook medium,

Jorja offered some advice, including more useful prompts: "try to think of topics that

would actually help [students'] writing." Compelled by chances to practice and improve

her writing skills, Jorja was motivated by useful writing tasks.

90

Engaging writing tasks. Jorja was driven to complete writing tasks she found fun,

engaging, or novel, but she resisted those she perceived as boring, rote, or repetitive.

Over the course of three interviews, Jorja gave examples of "fun" writing assignments

including writing original short stories, creating an object to symbolize a story element,

and writing a letter of reflection to a past teacher. She enjoyed these projects because

they were "interesting," "new," and/or "different." Jorja talked about times when such

motivating writing tasks spilled over into independent writing experiences: "if I've done

something in school that T really enjoy, I'll probably go home and try to use that skill."

Jorja was eager to practice her writing skills in fresh ways, so she was motivated by novel

writing assignments. On the other hand, Jorja was discouraged by writing tasks she

believed were boring, rote, or repetitive. She was extremely reluctant to write when the

prompt called for mere recall or summary. Jorja called this type of writing "least

enjoyable" and wished repeatedly for "less of it" in school. Jorja "detested" the times her

English teacher would ask the class to write in their Writers' Notebooks about what they

had done over Spring Break, for example. She said, "it was just restating, 'we did this,

and we did that.' It wasn't really reflecting or giving opinions." Jorja talked about how

she "always hated field trip writing," when elementary teachers would ask students to

write down what they had seen, heard, and done on their trip or over the weekend. She

qualified her continued hatred for the practice of "recalling:" "and if you read five

different people's, they all sound the same!" Jorja did not believe these writing tasks

were meaningful; therefore, she was not motivated to write for them.

Topic of interest. Jorja was able to establish a meaningful connection to a writing

task if it involved a topic of interest. She believed that writing about a topic of personal

91

interest made the process more enjoyable, pushed her to put more time and effort into the

task, and ultimately increased the quality of her writing. When discussing her childhood

experiences with academic writing, Jorja said, "I liked [writing] as long as I liked the

topic, but if 1 didn't like the topic, 1 hated it so much." As an eighth grade writer, Jorja

didn't feel completely polarized by the writing topic but still believed it affected her

effort and engagement. She explained that when she was writing about a topic she did

not really care about, it was more difficult to initiate writing and to persist with the task:

"It can take so long if it is not a good topic." During another conversation about writing

effort, Jorja explained, "I will definitely try harder if it's an interesting project" She also

believed that interest affected her quality of writing: "If I like the topic, then I think I can

be a good writer." Jorja was more engaged in the writing process when she felt

"inspired," and writing about a topic of interest provided this motivation.

Teacher and Classroom Characteristics

A third theme in Jorja's writing motivation story encompassed teacher and

classroom characteristics. Jorja said she was motivated by class time and opportunities to

write, and she wanted more. She discussed being frustrated by writing assignments with

unclear guidelines. Jorja said she wrote well when she based her work on a model of

good writing or was inspired to write by an excellent original piece. Finally, she was

often encouraged by the work of her peers and desired a classroom that allowed for more

student participation and interaction.

Time to write. Jorja believed that writers need time to write in order to think,

draft, practice skills, and craft good pieces. She was motivated by teachers who provided

class time for writing and assigned tasks with "enough time" to complete them to the best

of her ability. The portfolio pieces Jorja selected as her "best" were ones she was able to

spend time creating and revising. Jorja talked about the ample time her seventh grade

English teacher had devoted to "learning how to write and practice writing" and believed

it had improved her writing skills tremendously. For example, "we talked about how, in

the introduction, that there should be a strong sentence that really engages the reader.

And she gave us like two nights of homework just to think of that one sentence." Jorja

wholeheartedly declared that writers improve by writing: "lots of opportunities to

write... that helps a lot." On several occasions, she mentioned how she wanted "to

actually get more writing assignments," Jorja felt she was at a certain place in her

writing development where she had mastered the basic skills and desired authentic ways

to practice them in a structured learning environment.

Clear writing guidelines. Jorja presented herself as a capable, confident writer,

but one thing that frustrated her when she wrote for school was unclear guidelines. Jorja

expressed dismay with her current English teacher multiple times for this reason. She

gave general examples as well as writing-related ones. Jorja complained that her teacher

failed to announce due dates for certain homework assignments (or supplied conflicting

ones) and provided vague expectations for quizzes and tests. Jorja sighed, "It's like

sometimes she's on a completely different page than we are." Jorja explained that it is

harder for her to focus during the writing process when "you're not really sure how

you're supposed to exactly do something." She wished her teachers would provide an

explicit starting point and reasonable boundaries, so that she could feel grounded and "go

from there." Jorja named "clear guidelines" as the factor that kept her most focused

when writing for school. She clarified with an example: "And I like it when a teacher

93

prints out a whole rubric so that you know what is expected." Jorja believed a rubric, an

assignment sheet, or a list of requirements helped her to "stay on topic" when writing and

also allowed her to add personal touches to the task or the project, knowing she was

elaborating but working within "the actual topic." She mentioned using teacher-created

rubrics or topic sheets to fashion outlines or other prewriting tools to guide her writing.

Jorja said she needed her teachers to state clear expectations in order to be properly

motivated to compose.

Using models. Jorja enjoyed writing and wrote well when she based her work on

an exemplary model or was inspired to write by an interesting piece. Throughout the

interview process, she shared numerous instances, which occurred both in school and at

home. Jorja detailed one independent writing experience during which she was inspired

to write by a book her mother gave her. It included "really weird and strange poems.

And actually right after that, I wrote a poem..." Jorja was moved to write when she was

exposed to new tones and forms of writing. She said she was especially compelled by the

author's imagery and attempted to recreate some of his techniques with topics of her

own. In school, Jorja was motivated to write by the works of famous authors as well as

other students' writing. She enjoyed her eighth grade poetry project because she got to

explore and write in the style of a poet whose approach differed much from her own: "it

was really successful because her poetry was much more casual than I thought poems had

to be." Jorja believed that looking at the work of others not only expanded one's horizon,

but it also helped to improve writing skills directly: "I think just reading actual poems or

reading actual other pieces of work helps a lot." She stated a desire for teachers to

provide more opportunities to work with models: "I think instead of assigning us a topic,

giving us a piece of writing that will inspire it by itself." Jorja brought up a motivating

experience, when her teacher shared a poem by a former student: "We also read a poem

that a past student had written, and it was really good!...and it improved our poetry, I

think." Jorja enjoyed exposure to many examples of good writing, often felt inspired to

write by them, and believed her writing improved as a result of the practice.

Student-centered classroom. Jorja was also motivated to write by the work of her

classmates; therefore, a more student-centered writing environment appealed to her.

When discussing her current English teacher and classroom, Jorja often criticized its

teacher-led or teacher-centered format. She described it as lecture-based, "most of the

time she is telling us something, and then we really do the work for homework." Jorja

declared that this model "can get a little boring." Later, she articulated how "it's hard to

stay focused, especially when she's been talking for a while because the class is never

really talking." Jorja revealed the absence of a conversation as the deficient feature of

this teaching style, "she doesn't really involve the class enough to make them come up

with the ideas." Jorja contrasted her current classroom with her seventh grade English

class, in which students often worked in small groups to explore concepts. She enjoyed

the way "the kids would always teach each other." Jorja felt her writing, as well as her

focus, would improve if her teacher allowed for more student interaction in the

classroom. She often spoke about "being inspired by your fellow students." As

previously mentioned, Jorja appreciated reading the work of others. She included the

work of her peers in this statement: "Some of their poems were really powerful... and I

think that inspires me," because it showed her that writing masterfully was an attainable

goal. She was motivated when she observed her peers putting effort into school writing:

95

"actually watching other students... and if they are working hard,... I'm going to work

harder." Jorja even said that she put more effort into her own writing for school when

she was pushed to excel by the writing performance of others. She said this was

especially helpful when she was not yet satisfied with a piece she was drafting: "Like if

you are not really happy with yours, but you followed all the requirements, but you see

another person who... has this huge thing and was really inspired, you're like, 'Oh, I

could try harder.'" Jorja was motivated to write in a setting where students worked

together and shared during the writing process.

Joshua

"[My dream writing assignment would be] writing more poetry! Or

writing a song... Brainstorming. And then just jump right into

writing... To do it for a month, a month and a half... [Class] would be

independent writing time... You know, obviously, the teacher would edit,

so some peer editing, too. So, just kind of an independent situation,

checking in with each other. That would be so cool. You could possibly

end up with a song catalog or a book of poetry. Yeah, that would be cool-

a song catalog!"

Joshua was a fourteen-year-old student in the eighth grade who enjoyed being

perceived as unique and mature. Joshua said he felt "indifferent" about writing in

elementary school and believed it was only basic skills training. He thought middle

school writing was more advanced, independent, and reflective. While he only wrote as a

child because he was "told to," Joshua enjoyed writing as an adolescent and often did so

to express himself. He began journaling in the fifth grade when his parents "finally

divorced." Joshua s "venting" led to writing poetry, and as an eighth grader he also

wrote original songs. Observation data reveal Joshua's writing classroom to be a place

where student writing and thinking were truly valued. Each classroom visit began with

the teacher returning a piece of student writing with written feedback. The teacher

guided classroom discussion by asking open-ended questions and allowing for a real give

and take. Expectations seemed high in the comfortable, interactive classroom.

Over the course of the multiple interview process, Joshua discussed many issues

as he shared his academic writing motivation narrative. During his construction of

meaning, he spoke most often and in detail about the following topics:

• freedom or independence in writing,

• fun/engaging/novel writing tasks vs. boring/repetitive/rote ones,

• motivating teacher traits,

• limits or constraints,

• writing about a topic of interest,

• having time to write in school,

• open-ended or creative writing,

• being able to relate to the writing topic,

• the effect of peers on writing and effort, and

• choice.

Described as "mature" both by himself and by his teachers, Joshua valued

autonomy. A competent writer preparing to enter high school. Josh spoke often about

independence and was quick to voice his opinions and provide specific support for them.

Three themes emerged from Joshua's interview data: freedom, connections, and support.

97

While he referred to freedom most often, transcripts also reveal that Josh needed

connections and support in order to be optimally motivated to write for school.

Freedom

Freedom was an essential component of writing instruction for Joshua. He

enjoyed free-writing exercises and felt he could think better and write more when an

assignment allowed for independence. He was frustrated by limitations on his school

writing. Joshua said he wrote better for open-ended or creative writing assignments. He

also preferred writing tasks with choice,

Free writing. As he talked about his academic writing motivation, Joshua

returned to the topic of freedom on numerous occasions. He named free writing as his

favorite Writer's Notebook exercise and expressed a desire for more free writing during

school. Joshua liked how free writing allowed him to explore his thoughts organically

and fluidly: "1 can go from one topic to another..." and "go off on a tangent and do

anything." Josh stated how he could write easily and abundantly during free writing,

"When I'm writing, I'm usually just so wrapped up in what I'm writing... if it's fun, like

the free write, that, I could go on forever. I could do that for a while." He believed that

the unrestrained nature of the exercise permitted him to step back, not worry about

restrictions and format, and just let thinking and writing happen.

Independence. Joshua also spoke about writing-related freedom in general: "T like

a lot of independence." He enjoyed writing more when he felt his teachers trusted him to

put forth effort and write well. Joshua appreciated his eighth grade English teacher's

style for this reason, "She gives us a lot of independence, which is good" and recalled a

past teacher, who had also given him room to write, with fondness, "It made me feel

98

good. I could do what I wanted to." When describing his dream assignment, he detailed

a project involving "independent writing." Josh believed that he could think more deeply

and manipulate a topic more genuinely when the writing task was independent "because

it gives me freedom to think, more freedom to write." Joshua was proud of his individual

style and his writing voice, and he wanted to be able to express them freely during

academic writing.

Limitations. While freedom motivated Joshua to write for school, limits caused

him to be less engaged. He explained that strict guidelines and formatting made writing

"boring." He said he needed "space" to feel inspired to write: "Fewer restraints, and T

am happy." When browsing through his writing portfolio, Joshua named an analytical

essay on Of Mice and Men as the "least enjoyable." He felt the essay prompt was overly

specific and too limiting; as a result, he described the writing process for that assignment

as "difficult." During another conversation, Josh explained how a writing task that is

overly formatted and has too many limits is "less enjoyable and more frustrating." He

provided a colorful example of such a writing activity: "You know, if they're telling you

it has to be three pages, and it has to be on dogs in show biz, and it has to be four

paragraphs... and you have to include at least six examples, I mean, come on." He

summarized, "When I'm given a finite set of barriers, borders, limits, I don't like that."

Joshua was less motivated to write for school when he felt the assignment was too

restrictive. He said this characteristic caused him to enjoy writing less, to experience

frustration during the writing process, to perceive the task as difficult, and, ultimately, to

write more poorly.

Open-ended/creative writing tasks. Joshua was motivated by open-ended or

creative writing tasks because of the freedom they provided. Joshua considered these

types of assignments to be most enjoyable and felt he wrote better for them. When

choosing his "best" pieces from his writing portfolio, Joshua indicated both his short

story and his summer writing response. He believed that the open-ended nature of these

tasks helped them to turn out to be "well written." For the short story, his teacher

allowed him to be quite creative with his choices for setting, characters, and conflict.

Consequently, Josh was able to compose a unique narrative of which he was very proud:

"T think it's very different." For Joshua's other "best" piece, he was asked to "write the

next chapter" for Animal Farm, a book he read over the summer. He believed the "wide

open" assignment allowed him to write freely and showcase his skills. When Joshua

talked about his dream writing assignment, he described an open-ended, creative

endeavor in which students would write original collections of poems or songs. Joshua

articulated his preference for an open-ended writing task, "I like it because I have

freedom, with limits, 1 guess." He appreciated when teachers supplied a starting point or

a direction and allowed adolescent writers to take it from there. Joshua felt that he could

do his best thinking and produce his best writing for such a task.

Choice. Choice was another motivating factor for Joshua. He responded more

positively to "assignments with strict guidelines" when student choice was built into the

process. Joshua gave his "poetry project" as an example. He enjoyed the structured

writing endeavor because he was able to choose his subject: "she gave us a list of poets

that we could use... I suggested Bob Dylan, and she told me I could use him... I was

really happy about that." Being able to make a decision in a controlled situation helped

100

Josh to engage with the process. During his portfolio review, Josh designated a creative

writing assignment for Of Mice and Men as the "most fun." Being able to make several

choices for this task, "we had to pick three things," made it entertaining. Joshua related

choice to freedom, "1 just like independence about what I want to write about," and found

writing tasks with choice more enjoyable.

Connections

Joshua was invested in school writing to which he felt he could connect in some

way. Interested in establishing his individual identity as an adolescent, Josh needed to

see a bit of himself in writing topics and tasks. Joshua was more engaged when he could

relate to the writing topic on a personal level. He enjoyed writing about topics of interest

and felt he could do so with ease. Josh also felt connected to writing assignments he

perceived as fun or engaging as opposed to boring or repetitive.

Being able to relate to the writing topic. Motivated by connections, Joshua said

he was more interested in school writing when he could relate personally to the topic. He

enjoyed Writer's Notebook prompts that elicited "response to an event and personal

experiences." Joshua said he felt no frustration when composing such pieces since

"personal experiences are easy to write about because, you know, they happened to

me... it's easy to write." He enjoyed writing to express his feelings and opinions and felt

comfortable doing so in these journal entries. Joshua said he could write for longer

periods of time when the topic connected to his personal life: "You can just write for a

while about it." Josh was "bored by" seemingly disconnected or isolated writing

assignments such as literary character analysis essays confined solely to textual evidence

discussion. He felt such tasks were inaccessible and remarked, "I'd like it to relate more

101

to me or one of my other friends or my parents or something much more intimate."

Joshua revealed how he preferred to write about"... something that pertains more to us as

students." Personal connections motivated Joshua to participate in school writing

endeavors because they helped him feel close to the subject matter.

Topic of interest. Joshua identified another way he could connect to academic

writing; he was driven to write about topics of interest. Joshua was excited to write about

things he "liked." This caused him to feel engaged and remain focused during the writing

process. Josh believed he put more effort into writing about a topic of interest and ended

up writing better in the long run. For example, during the portfolio review, Josh

explained that two of his "best" pieces turned out well because they were about topics of

interest. When asked what makes him put more effort into writing assignments, he

discussed connection to the topic. Josh said he would "try harder... if it's something I

really like, something 1 enjoy." Topics of interest seemed to motivate Joshua by

initiating a cycle of effort and focus, which culminated with high quality writing.

Engaging writing tasks. Joshua also felt connected to writing tasks he perceived

as fun, engaging, or novel. Joshua enjoyed writing for "fun" assignments; he described

how the novelty of a task could capture his attention and make him smile. It was about

more than having fun for Joshua, though. When discussing these engaging writing tasks,

he spoke most often about his focus and effort. He explained that the amusement helped

him to concentrate on the writing process and even increased his writing stamina: "If I

think it's fun, I could do it forever." Josh said he devoted more time and effort when "I

enjoy the writing." Overall, he did not seem to mind exerting the mental energy

necessary to persist during academic writing he perceived as fun. Alternatively, Joshua

102

did not enjoy school writing he thought was boring, repetitive, or "busy work." On

several occasions, Joshua raised the specific example of "analysis writing." Whether it

occurred in a science lab report or an English literary essay, Joshua resisted analytical

writing because of its formulaic nature. He described it as both "boring" and "grueling."

His reactions to this type of writing differed, but they were never productive. Sometimes,

Josh rushed when he felt the writing task was repetitive: "if it's analysis, I just want to

get done as fast as possible." Other times, he experienced difficulties with focus and had

trouble maintaining his efforts. Joshua also had problems with school writing exercises

he believed were repetitive or not useful. For example, he did not put forth his best effort

for one writing task because "I really had the feeling it was filler." Josh also felt his

focus and effort levels dipping during multiple exposures to the same content or format,

which he described as "doing the same thing over and over" and "a little overkill." Fun

or engaging writing tasks helped Joshua feel connected to, and therefore motivated for,

school writing.

Support

Although Joshua regarded freedom as a motivating factor, he also required

support in order to be fully invested in and engaged by academic writing. He cherished

time to write during class and felt it led to skill development. Joshua was motivated to

write for a supportive teacher with specific qualities. Finally, he believed his peers

provided a support system as he wrote for school.

Time to write. Joshua said he was motivated to put more effort into his school

writing when teachers devoted class time to student planning, drafting, and revising. He

appreciated this support and believed it helped him to expand his skills as a writer.

103

During the portfolio review, one reason Josh gave for choosing his short story as a "best"

piece was related to the time allotted for writing during class, "1 just worked forever on

that." He explained how he was able to revise more deeply because his teacher had

dedicated three full weeks of class time to the writing process. Joshua detailed his

extensive revision process: "I really didn't feel it was developed enough at first, so I

went back and completely cut everything and rewrote most of it." These efforts were

self-directed. Given the luxury of plenty7 of time to write, Joshua took the initiative to

labor, persist, and ultimately improve his piece. In a different interview, when asked how

he improved his writing skills in general, Joshua replied, "...if 1 really want to improve

them, I just write. It's just the best way to improve them. Practice makes perfect."

Joshua connected writing, and the time to do it, directly to skill development. He also

discussed needing more time to think and write when "sometimes I just really have to

wrap my mind around a topic." Joshua's dream writing assignment also included ample

time to write. Joshua believed that writing took time and effort to do well. He was

motivated when teachers acknowledged this fact by supporting developing writers with

plenty of opportunities to write, especially during school.

Teacher traits. Joshua identified a certain type of writing teacher as a supportive

and motivating force. Joshua described his current writing teacher (and two past

teachers) as possessing characteristics that inspired him to work hard and write well.

Although he also described his current teacher as "a really loving, kind person," "funny,"

and "not that strict," it was another set of descriptors that he linked to his writing

motivation. Because his teacher clearly valued writing, Joshua explained how "you

really want to" write well for her. Joshua was motivated to write for a teacher who was

104

enthusiastic about writing in general and "passionate about poetry" in particular. He felt

validated as a writer by his teacher because "she really wants us to express our feeling,"

and she allows for student independence in writing. Finally, a teacher who helps students

develop their writing skills was motivating as well. Joshua elucidated, "1 feel that since

she...tries to teach us as much as possible about writing, I feel like it's my duty to really

write for her because it's what she really wants out of us." A supportive teacher

motivated Joshua to put time, thought, and effort into academic \vriting.

Peer support. Joshua named his friends or peers as the final feature of a support

system that kept him motivated to write for school. "Group effort" helped him to stay

focused during class and writing projects, and a bit of friendly competition among pals

pushed him to put more effort into his writing. Joshua talked about the way he and his

peers engaged in an ongoing battle to prove who is the best: "It goes everywhere from

grades to girls to sports." He described the rivalry as good-humored, but spirited. Joshua

said it affected his focus in the writing classroom: "It's going to sound funny, but my

friends are the ones that help me because they're not talking, so I'm not talking. And

when I'm not talking, they're not talking." It also influenced his classroom participation.

Josh revealed a game he and his friends played during class discussions of literature or

poetry. He and two friends vied to see which one could assert the most insightful, most

"intense" comment during class. Joshua said his peers were one thing that made him

"want to write" for school: "I'm competitive, so I want to know I can do better than

some of my friends." Josh and his friends occasionally shared their writing with one

another, and they always shared their grades. "Yeah, just making sure and always one-

105

upping the other person." This was one part of a support system that helped Joshua put

extra effort into academic writing.

Cross-Case Analysis

Throughout this investigation, discussions with the students have focused on three

research questions: (1) According to students' perspectives, how do past writing

experiences shape writing motivation? (2) How does student perception of teacher

characteristics and/or classroom factors affect writing motivation? (3) According to

middle school students, what kinds of tasks motivate students to write? This section

responds to these questions by presenting those topics that appeared across four or more

of the six cases. Even though interviews were semi-structured and markedly open-ended,

significant similarities emerged among participants' construction of meaning regarding

the phenomenon of academic writing motivation.

According to students 'perspectives, how do past writing experiences shape writing

motivation?

As the participating students explored their past writing experiences, three

commonalities emerged from the data: elementary writing experiences were seen

primarily as a means of skill development; middle school academic writing, on the other

hand was viewed to be a more serious venture; and, finally, reasons for academic writing

changed in middle school. In this section, T summarize students' shared discussion points

regarding skill development and the evolving tone of academic writing. Further, 1

present the ways participants related writing purposes to writing motivation.

Skill Development

106

Throughout this study, the six participants' construction of past writing

experiences included the belief that skill development was the primary reason for writing

in elementary school. They each differentiated between elementary and middle school

writing by stating that the former was simpler and sometimes even mindless. This

understanding developed as part of their exploration of overall experiences with

academic writing, and they categorized themselves as developing writers participating in

an ongoing process.

Each of the young writers seemed to regard elementary school writing purely as a

basic skills learning experience. For example, Joshua believed he participated in

elementary school writing solely to "learn how to write," and Jorja said her early

experiences acted principally as preparation for middle school writing. The simplicity of

early academic writing was emphasized in each of the student accounts. Timothy

recalled, "Elementary school teachers... would just... have word walls and word lists and

stuff. You would learn the words." Troy depicted elementary school writing as "kind of

like baby steps writing, like preparing us... like getting the basic paragraphs down... kind

of forming the base for writing." Lay la shared memories of simple workbook exercises

and described them as repetitive and rote; she qualified, "I felt like it was boring."

Elizabeth portrayed early academic writing as undemanding: "It was really easy. I really

didn't have to put any effort into it, and I still did well on it." Mostly, these adolescents

viewed past writing experiences as stepping-stones leading to current and future

endeavors. Looking back. Lay la said, "It just got a little more advanced each year."

Joshua contemplated the present: "It's just a step up of what we did before." These

107

young people perceived the development of writing skills as a continuum and positioned

themselves "in the middle" of it.

Increasing Stakes and Changing Tone

Five of the six students also discussed the more serious nature of middle school

writing and the higher stakes associated with it. They tended to recall elementary school

writing as "more fun" and essentially lighthearted. Touching briefly upon the difference

between the self-contained elementary classroom and the departmentalized middle school

model, several participants classified current writing experiences as "more strict." They

also recognized that writing at this level required "more work." However, statements of

negative writing motivation did not accompany these observations.

Participants portrayed the transition from elementary to middle school writing as

a natural progression. Several of them shared examples of "silly" writing topics they

recalled from grammar school, which they contrasted with their current, content-heavy

endeavors. For example, Timothy explained the difference between elementary writing

homework ("it was only from the one teacher on one thing, and it was always fun") and

middle school writing homework: "But now, it's a bunch of stuff on a bunch of different

stuff, and it's not always fun." Despite the change in tone of academic writing activities,

he believed maturity helped him to meet the increased expectations: "it forces you to be a

little more serious... 1 guess nothing really is different except its length and what is

required of it. You are smarter now, too, so it's not harder." Jorja's comments also

addressed a shift in expectations, "I think writing in elementary school, they don't really

expect you to write a certain way or include things that you've learned or not to make the

grammar mistakes or punctuation mistakes," but she added, "nowadays it's kind

108

of... there is a topic they want you to write on, and there's a certain length it has to be,

and... it's much more restricted." Troy also described the strict nature of middle school

writing: "it kind of narrows down on you." He added, "The deadlines make it a little bit

harder." Elizabeth and Joshua made similar comments. Although these young writers

believed middle school writing was more structured and necessitated greater effort than

elementary writing, they did not say that these differences negatively impacted their

writing motivation.

Writing Reasons and Motivation

Even though most of the young writers looked back fondly upon "silly" or "easy"

writing assignments from grammar school, each of them mentioned an evolution of

academic writing reasons and revealed how they were more motivated to write as middle

school students. They asserted a recent investment in academic writing. Ultimately, the

adolescents said they were inspired to write for the more complex and personal tasks

middle school afforded.

Each of the students stated a shift in academic writing reasons. They talked about

a movement from compliance to self-regulation when they compared elementary and

middle school writing motivation. Elizabeth explained, "I wrote because the teacher said,

'Write.'" Timothy said he wrote for elementary school tasks because he "had to."

Joshua echoed the theme of obedience as impetus: "T was pretty indifferent... the teacher

told me to do this, and that's what I would do." Troy also followed directions blindly for

elementary school writing, for these reasons: "I thought it was just an assignment really.

I didn't really think about it that much... I just kind of thought of it as homework, you

know?" Jorja believed that some grammar school writing exercises were too simple to

109

merit real effort: "It was like one worksheet and that was it. So, I could get it done in five

minutes, on my way home from school. 1 rarely did it." The students seemed to be

saying that their "mindless" efforts reflected the simple writing tasks they were asked to

complete.

Adolescents in the study said they were more motivated to write for middle

school because the writing reasons and tasks were more complex and allowed for

individual expression. In elementary school, they copied the teacher's style in order to

practice conventions; in middle school they were exploring their own styles as they

answered open-ended questions, elaborated on ideas, related topics to their own lives,

stated and supported their own opinions, and expressed themselves. Layla explained,

"when you're in elementary school...you're learning how to write a certain style, and

when you get into middle school, you are trying to write in a different style." As writing

reasons evolved, so did student action. For example, participants said they were more

engaged in middle school writing; therefore, they put more time and effort into it.

According to Jorja, "It's much more about people, and it's bigger, more serious themes

than how pretty the sun looks or something. It's much more about feelings and emotions

and expressing those kinds of things... There's much more meaning behind it, I think."

For reasons such as these, Elizabeth said she began to work harder to craft good writing:

"in middle school, T try to make all of my writing really full and flowing." Joshua

articulated, "Writing in elementary school, T was indifferent. Middle school, now I

feel... I like it. I got to do it, but I want to do it. I feel it's a way for me to express myself

and vent." Participants found middle school writing endeavors more engaging; therefore,

they invested more of themselves into the process.

110

How does student perception of teacher characteristics and/or classroom factors affect

writing motivation!

As the adolescents in this study discussed both their past writing experiences and

their current writing classrooms, they identified three main areas that related to

motivational features. Cross-case analysis revealed significant similarities, which are

illustrated below, across students' descriptions of teacher traits, general classroom

characteristics and specific elements of writing instruction.

Teacher traits

Close examination of the six cases yielded two teacher traits that were either

evident in most or all student accounts. All six participants discussed how "nice" or

"caring" their teachers were. Additionally, five of the six talked about the importance of

a teacher being "strict enough." Surprisingly however, these adolescents linked only one

of these factors to writing motivation.

Kindness. Each of the young writers in this study chose to discuss how "nice" or

"caring" their teachers were. Some raved about the wonderful instructors in their

classrooms. For example, Layla declared her teacher was "a very good person," and

Joshua commented his was "also a really loving, kind person." Despite these comments,

students did not make an explicit connection between perceived teacher caring and

writing motivation. For example, Troy tactfully described his teacher's disposition as

"not really that nice." As he further explained, "Either way, really, to me, writing for her

is fine." In fact, some of the adolescents rejected the notion that a teacher's personality

could or should affect one's writing style or effort. According to Joshua, "It's not like

I'm writing a love letter to [my teacher] or anything." Elizabeth said she didn't really

I l l

think about who the teacher was when she was writing for school. Instead, she wrote to

an unseen, nonjudgmental audience. She felt that since "mostly stuff we do is not

intense, really," she was quite comfortable writing for her English teacher, regardless of

personality. Although a teacher's kindness was important enough to include in their

academic writing narratives, participants in this study did not directly connect this trait to

motivation.

Classroom management. Five of the six participants also raised the issue of their

writing teachers being "strict enough" and went on to discuss this in connection to

motivation. Timothy, Layla, and Joshua all believed their teachers had achieved a

reasonable balance in this area and said it helped them feel motivated to write. Timothy

provided the following illustration: "[she's] not strict, but kind of... she's never like,

'You'd better not do that. I want you to sit one inch over' or anything, but sometimes

she'll say, 'I don't think you two should sit next to each other' or 'Would you quit

talking?' So, she's not mean." Joshua explained how this trait helped "to keep us on

track as much as possible." Elizabeth and Jorja both felt their teachers failed to

demonstrate the right balance of "strict enough" and talked about ways it affected writing

motivation. Elizabeth felt her teacher might be a little too strict, "She's probably the

teacher who likes us most quiet," but Elizabeth expressed mixed feelings when talking

about the effects on her writing motivation. She did appreciate the quiet time her teacher

devoted to in-class writing, often enjoying being able to start a writing assignment in

class as it helped her to persist with the task at home. At other times, however, Elizabeth

felt her teacher kept the classroom too quiet. Elizabeth said she was more engaged in

writing assignments when given the opportunity to discuss ideas with peers and missed

112

this feature in her current classroom. On the other end of the spectrum, Jorja believed her

teacher was not strict enough. Jorja discussed how students in her class were often

"fooling around in the back or talking." She wished her teacher took more control of the

situation so that class discussions could run more smoothly, she could take better notes,

or she could concentrate more fully on writing endeavors. Participants discussed how

"strict enough" teachers maintained a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning in

general and writing in particular.

Classroom Characteristics

Cross-case analysis revealed two classroom characteristics present in most of the

students' interview data. Five of the six adolescents mentioned noise level and ways it

affected writing motivation. Further, the same five talked about the impetus of an

"interactive" writing classroom.

Interaction. Five students raised the topic of an "interactive" classroom as a

motivating factor. Timothy explained it this way: "I mean, it's not like you are just

sitting there and watching. It's more [like] you can interact with her and stuff." Student

interaction with the teacher, student interaction with peers, and student participation in

construction of meaning made the participants who discussed it feel more motivated to

write for school. Jorja discussed the negative aspects of a teacher-centered classroom.

She felt it was more difficult to become and remain engaged when the teacher relied

heavily upon lecture and did not involve students in the generation of ideas. Further,

Jorja was more invested in her writing when she had come up with the content herself or

worked in small groups with peers to discuss ideas or plan writing. A classroom in which

students were actively involved in learning motivated these students to write for school.

113

Noise level. Like an interactive classroom, a quiet one also had the potential to

help keep these adolescents motivated to write; five of them brought up the topic of noise

level. Participants found it difficult to remain focused during writing when distracted by

noise. They felt they wrote best in a moderately quiet setting. Troy believed his focus in

English class was "better than when I write for other classes. I think that's because of

the... attitude of the room... if s just calm in there." Timothy believed a quiet classroom

helped him to engage and persist in writing. He talked about a past teacher who would

play classical music at low volume as the class composed. Timothy felt this practice kept

him from "talking to [his] neighbors" and helped him remain focused on his writing. He

named "quietness" as the factor that kept him most focused during writing and believed it

helped him to write more as well. Students in this study valued a quiet (but not overly

restrictive) classroom environment as a motivating trait. Participants maintained that

both interactive aspects and quiet time to write were necessary at different times and that

these two classroom features complemented each other in regards to writing motivation.

Elements of Writing Instruction

Investigation across all six cases generated four facets of writing instruction

present in most or all student accounts of academic writing motivation. All six

participants introduced the topics of time to write and teacher feedback as motivating

instructional features. Five of the adolescents brought up peer editing and related it to

writing motivation while four of the young writers suggested prewriting exercises as part

of a motivating writing program.

Time to write. Each of the students in this study raised the notion of time to write

on numerous occasions during the multiple interview process. When asked questions

114

such as "What would you change about your current writing classroom?" participants all

desired more time and opportunities to write. Many wished they could spend longer

amounts of time on the writing units they completed. Most said they would add more

writing assignments to the curriculum if they had the chance. All of them wanted

teachers to devote more class time to the writing process.

Close analysis of the data revealed several reasons for this desire, and they

involve skill development, effort, anxiety, and focus. Adolescents in this study believed

the best way to improve one's writing skills was, as Timothy phrased it, to "just write

more." They felt they could become better writers by completing meaningful, scaffolded

writing activities as often as possible. These included structured writing activities during

class, free writing in and out of school, and "assigned" writing for homework. Students

said they put more effort into writing endeavors when they felt they had sufficient time to

complete them and believed their high quality writing pieces were a direct result of

extended time to write. Several students brought up their busy after school schedules as

secondary reasons for wanting more time to write in school. Elizabeth, for example, was

a competitive athlete who valued being able to get started on writing assignments in

school. Troy echoed her perspective; he believed that starting to write in class, even just

brainstorming or planning a piece, allowed him to focus better on the task as he

completed it at home, Layla and Jorja both felt less anxious about writing when they

were able to develop a writing plan during class and ask questions of the teacher before

beginning to write independently. Overall, participants were motivated when teachers

acknowledged academic writing as a demanding activity and provided ample time for it

in their classrooms.

115

Teacher feedback. All six participants named teacher feedback as an element of

motivating writing instruction. They believed that receiving teacher feedback and acting

upon it was a critical process, which ultimately improved writing skills. Troy said,

"Actually, how 1 improve my writing skills is 1 ask my teacher, 'Well, how should 1 make

this better?'" All of the students valued teacher feedback. They believed it gave them

direction and helped them to persist as they wrote. Many students in this study voiced a

desire for more teacher feedback, especially during the writing process. Jorja elucidated,

"1 really like it when you hand it to the teacher and they hand it back because... 1 think

they can help a lot, make it much stronger." She wanted more opportunities to receive

teacher input and felt feedback was useless when it consisted of "comments on the final

copy... and a grade." Students expressed a preference for specific feedback. For

example, Timothy was driven to write when his teacher provided specific, action-oriented

feedback: "She'll tell us, 'You can make it better by... '" Elizabeth explained exactly

how specific she needed feedback to be in order to be motivated to write: "... not exactly

telling us what quote to use, but telling us if something wasn't good.. Just so then you

know how to fix it, and then we'd still have to use our brains to make it better, but we'd

know it was wrong, so we'd have to do something to change it." Participants were

motivated by specific teacher feedback as it helped them to direct their writing efforts.

Peer editing. Five of the six students in this study also discussed peer editing and

its link to academic writing motivation. They believed that the peer editing process

contributed to an improvement of writing skills for various reasons but discussed its

limitations as well. Layla described peer editing as a beneficial part of the writing

process: "[it] really helps... I read the comments. I try to improve by thinking of the

116

comments." Troy concurred and discussed how a second or third set of eyes always

facilitated the writing process: "some people would have caught this, another person

would have caught that... Peer editing is really good to me." Troy also mentioned how

revising with classmates is often more efficient than "waiting around for the teacher." In

addition, students discussed peer editing in terms of perspective. Layla said, "it shows

me things from other people's view." Like Troy, she realized that readers often see

things differently than writers. Elizabeth enjoyed the perspective she gained herself as a

peer editor: "I want to know what other kids are writing." Several of the participants said

they occasionally viewed the work of other students as models of good writing and took

advantage of this aspect of the peer editing process. While students found peer editing to

be useful and engaging, they also described its benefits as limited. Joshua said, "It can

only go so far." Jorja explained how it "depend[ed] on your partner." She pointed out

that some students only corrected spelling and grammar mistakes. Regardless, Jorja

believed peer editing was an important part of a student-centered writing classroom. She

advised teachers to include it in their programs, "1 think peer editing, too, would help,"

and elaborated with an example, "writing responses on someone else's sheet... and [you]

give [yours] to other people, and they write responses back." Students in this study

enjoyed the control peer editing allowed them, the time it provided to interact with

classmates, and the way it helped them to become better editors of their own writing.

Prewriting exercises. Four study participants put forward the topic of prewriting

exercises as a component of motivating writing instruction. Students declared such

activities made writing tasks feel more manageable and consequently increased writing

efficacy. Prewriting exercises also helped these adolescents maintain focus and persevere

117

during the writing process. For example, Troy's class took time to plan short story

elements in their Writers' Notebooks before beginning to draft. He believed these

prewriting exercises helped him to take control of the complex short story writing process

and ultimately produce a high quality piece. Elizabeth remarked how completing

prewriting exercises made her "want to write... when I think about what I am going to say

before I write it." In addition, she believed they made her feel more focused while she

wrote. Jorja also maintained that prewriting helped her to focus during academic writing

endeavors: "it helps... so that you know where you are going." Joshua's dream writing

assignment included extended time for "brainstorming." Adolescents in this study found

prewriting exercises motivating because these practices helped them to initiate, persist,

and succeed.

According to middle school students, what kinds of tasks motivate students to write?

The students in this study had much to say about the types of academic writing

they found motivating. Moreover, a cross-case analysis of the data presented numerous

similarities among these task traits. All of the participants raised the following topics

when discussing motivating writing assignments: freedom, "fun" or engaging activities,

open-ended or creative writing tasks, the ability to relate or connect to the writing topic,

writing about a topic of interest, useful or helpful writing exercises, and choice. Further,

five of the six cases named the amount of information or background knowledge one has

about the topic, writing to reflect or express opinion, accountability for the task, and

authentic writing activities as being essential to academic writing motivation. Finally,

four of the students discussed using models, challenging tasks, and informal writing as

motivating.

118

"Free " or Independent

Each of the study participants brought up the subject of "freedom" in academic

writing and spoke about this motivating task trait at length. Students expressed a desire

for more freedom in assigned writing activities and more opportunities for free writing in

their Writers' Notebooks. Layla insisted that she and her peers had "a lot of ideas in their

head[sj" and that free writing allowed them to "get the big ideas down." The middle

schoolers said they were motivated to write for school when tasks provided clear

directions but allowed for student autonomy. Students were invested in activities they

described as "independent," "student-driven," or "self-directed." Young writers in this

study declared freedom in writing tasks helped them to feel more focused and less

frustrated during academic writing. They said they "wanted to write" for these tasks and

tended to write more for them. All of their dream assignments allowed for student

autonomy or freedom.

"Fun " or Engaging

All six participants raised the topic of "fun" or engaging writing tasks as they

constructed their personal narratives of writing motivation. These students described

"fun" writing tasks as "different," "interesting," novel, and/or enjoyable; on the contrary,

activities were not fun or engaging if they were "boring," "tedious," "repetitive," "busy

work," or "formulaic." Students said they completed these latter tasks quickly and with

less energy because they did not find them stimulating. On the other hand, they were

"really into" writing activities they perceived as fun. As a result, the young writers felt

they wanted to write for these tasks, put more time and effort into them, maintained focus

during the writing process, and ultimately produced pieces of better quality.

119

Open-ended or Creative

Each of the adolescents in this study named open-ended or creative writing tasks

as motivating. For example, Timothy shared how it was important for students to have

"space to do your own stuff in academic writing. Similarly, Elizabeth and Joshua found

open-ended writing tasks motivating because they allowed young writers to "explore

[their] thoughts." All of the participants described open-ended writing tasks as enjoyable.

They wanted to write for these types of assignments, felt they were better focused while

completing them, and believed they produced their best writing for them.

Being able to Connect or Relate to the Topic

All six of the young writers in this study believed that being able to connect or

relate to the writing topic motivated them. They described academic writing as "easier"

when they saw a bit of themselves in the assignment; it helped them gain access to the

task. These adolescents declared that writing about a topic to which they could relate was

enjoyable; therefore, they were more engaged during the writing process, kept focused,

put forth more effort, and crafted better writing. Several of the students felt they could

write their best when the task was "about me." It helped them feel they had sufficient

information with which to work or allowed them to express themselves. Timothy

selected a writing piece as one of his "best" because he could relate to the topic and was

subsequently able to convey his voice as a writer: "because I think it describes the most

about me... kind of saying, 'This is how I write.'" In contrast, Elizabeth detailed

motivational issues resulting from not being able to relate to a writing topic. She

described such tasks as difficult, not enjoyable, and "forced." Elizabeth felt she could not

120

write sincerely or accurately in these cases and ended up expending less effort. Being

able to connect to the topics of writing tasks was important to all participants.

Topic of Interest

Each of the students in this study also suggested that writing about a topic of

interest was a motivating task trait. Students said they wanted to work on academic

writing when it involved a topic of interest. Timothy was more focused when writing

about "topics that I like or find interesting." On the other hand, the tasks that both Troy

and Joshua identified in their writing portfolios as "least enjoyable" were those that

involved topics in which they were not interested. Participants found writing about topics

of interest enjoyable, put effort into the process, and believed they wrote more and better

in these instances.

Useful or Helpful

All six students offered the task trait of useful or helpful as motivating. These

adolescents seemed to value writing and worked to develop their skills. Participants ail

said they focused better on useful tasks and put more effort into them. Cross-case

analysis generated an interesting similarity in the narratives: ail of the young writers

discussed at least one specific writing assignment into which they put extra time and

effort, even though they found it unappealing, precisely because they believed it would

improve their writing skills in the long run. Helpful tasks served to keep students feeling

engaged while writing even when the "fun" factor was missing. When asked what makes

him really want to write for school, Joshua replied, "Because I know it will help improve

my skills." Alternatively, students put little time or effort into writing tasks they

perceived as useless. Timothy explained that when a writing task was not directed

121

toward learning, if it was "busy work" or perceived as punitive, he completed it

grudgingly, did not put forth his best efforts and therefore did not usually produce good

writing for it. Elizabeth described useless tasks as frustrating. She discussed one

instance when she "couldn't write" because she kept thinking to herself, "What is the

point of this?" Judging a writing task as helpful pushed students to regulate their

engagement and efforts.

Choice

A writing task involving choice was a motivating factor for all of the adolescents

in this study. Student choice was evident in nearly all of the examples of stimulating

writing assignments they shared. Being able to choose a writing prompt, topic, or format

caused these students to enjoy writing more, engage deeply with the task, and focus better

on the process. For example, when asked how much he enjoyed writing for his English

class, Joshua answered, "1 love it!" and supported his adoration by explaining, "So really,

what she gives us are choices." Jorja believed that choice ultimately improved the

quality of student writing because "when the students can choose what they are writing

about... they really want to do it." Related to other motivating task traits, choice afforded

students some control over the writing process, helped them connect to an assignment,

provided "freedom," and/or allowed students to write about a topic of interest.

Sufficient Background Knowledge or Information About Subject

Five of the six study participants mentioned having enough information or

backgroimd knowledge about the writing topic served as a motivating force. When the

students felt they did not have enough information or background knowledge about the

subject of the writing task, they found it to be confusing, difficult, and frustrating.

Timothy said this condition "would really annoy me... because I don t really know

anything about it." When these writers felt they knew enough about the topic and task at

hand, they found the writing process more enjoyable and put more effort into it. Jorja

said she would "definitely try harder" when her teacher made sure students were

knowledgeable enough to complete a writing task. When asked what he would change

about his writing classroom if he could, Troy had very little to say. He felt his class was

well structured because his teacher "makes it so that we really do get it, and it's in our

brains, and we have it, and she makes sure we know before she assigns us something."

For these students, having enough information about the writing topic made the task feel

more manageable and therefore motivating.

Involving Reflection or Expression of Opinion

Five of the six middle school students named reflective or expressive writing

tasks as motivating. They reported being more engaged with academic writing that

involved thinking deeply about subjects or processes and allowed writers to express

personal beliefs regarding these topics. Joshua identified this compelling trait in his

teacher's writing assignments, "Whether it's our feelings toward the play or whatever,

she really wants us to express our feeling, which I find is really good." Students found

reflective or expressive writing tasks more enjoyable, remained engaged and focused

while writing as a result, and put extra effort into these assignments. Several of the

students also mentioned how these types of writing activities felt easier ("1 always know

my opinion") and more "real" than other types of writing, for example, summaries.

Participants found the individuality such tasks encouraged to be motivating.

Accountability

123

For five of the six young writers interviewed, being held accountable for a task

was also a condition they found motivating. The students suggested deadlines, grades,

and expectations of self and others as factors contributing to perceived accountability.

While these features did not contribute to the tasks being seen as enjoyable, they did

foster student engagement and increase both focus and effort. These middle school

students spoke often about the accountability of a task and its role in directing their

actions. Common comments included "I feel very focused because I know that I'm going

to have to hand it in," "I would be turning it in the next day, and I want to put all my

effort into it," or "it's due tomorrow, so I'd better get it done," Participants mentioned

deadlines most often and discussed grades less frequently. Jorja said that graded writing

occasionally affected her efforts, such as when she put less energy into completing a task

if "you know you are not going to hand it in" or spent more time on a writing assignment

if "it's really important toward my grade." Overall, accountability motivated the young

people in this study by helping them to take action with regards to academic writing.

Authentic

Five of the six participants raised the topic of authenticity as they discussed

motivating writing tasks. Students agreed that they were more motivated to write for

"meaningful" tasks; however, only one of them shared examples of authentic writing

endeavors in their current writing classrooms. (Layla mentioned ways some of her

Humanities assignments connect history to "the real world.") Instead, participants talked

about these compelling tasks as they described their dream writing assignments. In

addition, Jorja spoke fondly about a "writer's workshop" program she had completed in

elementary school, which she perceived as resembling the "real" writing process. Jorja

124

also referred to grammar school writing activities in which students learned vocabulary

from examples "in real life" and how, as a result, "the kids seemed really enthusiastic to

write. They really liked writing." Although these adolescents did not offer many

examples of authentic writing in their middle school classes, they did describe their ideal

writing assignments as culminating in authentic products such as a completed book, a

published poem, a personal song book, or a film based on an original screenplay.

Students seemed motivated to write for real reasons and audiences.

Based on a Model or Inspired by an Original Piece

Four of the six participants discussed writing based on a model or inspired by an

original piece as motivating. Students described such academic writing tasks as engaging

and enjoyable, believed they wrote well for them, and desired more such opportunities in

the classroom. The adolescents in this study revealed how using models to write

provided a structure they could use and personalize. This practice seemed to embody

what the young writers were saying when they asked for "a starting point," something

"you can make your own." For example, after reading "The Secret Life of Walter

Mitty," Troy enjoyed writing about his own imaginary adventures, and like George Ella

Lyon, Timothy crafted an original poem titled "Where I'm From." Students believed that

working with models of good writing helped to improve their skills, allowing them to

explore their own writing styles while emulating authors' techniques. Adolescents in this

study also revealed times they had engaged in tasks like these outside of the school

setting. For instance, participants were inspired to write after reading The Hitchhiker's

Guide to the Galaxy as well as the adventure novels of Anthony Horowitz. Having been

inspired by the work of another, these students were compelled to try an interesting new

125

writing style on their own. Either because of the support or the inspiration they provided,

these middle school students were motivated to write by using other original pieces as

models.

Challenging

Challenging writing tasks were identified by four of the six participants as

motivating. These students found moderately challenging assignments more engaging,

felt more focused during such writing, and put more effort into completing these

assignments. For example, Layla explained that when a task is "a little bit more

challenging... it makes me think that 1 am going to put more effort into it." Elizabeth, and

others, denounced easy or overly simple writing tasks: "I don't try very hard." Overall,

participants found "just the right level of challenge" motivating because it made a task

more interesting, helped them to persist, and pushed them to produce better writing.

Informal

In this study, four of the six young writers suggested informal writing

opportunities provided motivation. Many said they enjoyed writing in their Writers'

Notebooks because of the informality of the practice. Troy declared, "You can just open

them and start writing sometimes. It's not like it's even locked down to English." Jorja

felt she could write more freely in her Writer's Notebook because she knew her teacher

was not going to collect and evaluate it. Others echoed this sentiment and added how

they felt very comfortable writing in such a format because they weren't overly burdened

by writing conventions or length requirements. Elizabeth elucidated, "It's nice just to

write something and not have it be perfect." Although the students in this study valued

structured writing tasks linked to skill development and for which they would be held

126

accountable, they also imparted the motivating characteristics of informal writing and

communicated a desire for more such opportunities in their literacy classrooms.

127

CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, LIMITATIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS

Summary

The purpose of this study was to examine six young adolescents' perspectives on

academic writing and investigate the following fundamental research question: What do

middle school students say motivates them to write? Both within-case and cross-case

analyses of multiple sources of data collected from these diverse participants uncovered

four features that cut across student accounts of writing motivation. Middle school

students were motivated to write for school when writing teachers, classrooms, and tasks

provided connections, support, autonomy, and real writing reasons.

Connections

The present study indicates that middle school students need to feel connected to

academic writing in order to be fully invested. Young writers identified these

connections in both complex systems such as the classroom dynamic as well as through

simple details such as the writing topic. These findings support Oldfather's (1993)

assertion that young adolescents find a student-centered classroom motivating. Students

were more engaged in writing when they were active participants in the construction of

knowledge, when they collaborated with peers during learning activities, and when

opportunities for interaction with both teacher and classmates were abundant. The

writing topic also acted as a connection for young writers. They put more time and effort

into tasks when writing about a topic of interest or completing an assignment they viewed

128

as useful, helpful, or directly related to skill development. Finally, these middle school

students were inspired to write about subjects to which they felt personal connections or

which related to their lives. Connections help adolescents gain access to the complex,

cultural activity of writing.

Support

Findings demonstrate how adolescents need to feel supported as they engage in

the intricate activity of academic writing. Participants identified supportive

characteristics in their writing teachers, classrooms, instructional practices, and tasks.

These results acknowledge Oldfather and Dahl's (1994) identification of classroom

culture as one of the domains of intrinsic motivation for literacy learning. Participants in

the present study revealed a "strict enough" teacher who maintained a moderately quiet

classroom and provided plenty of class time to write as motivating factors. These data

support use of a modern writing workshop model in which teachers, such as Atwell

(1998), facilitate a structured writing curriculum with "regular, frequent time for writing"

and "solitude and quiet, so students may listen to their own voices." The middle school

students in the present study were also driven to write more and better when teachers held

them accountable for moderately challenging tasks. As previous research suggests

(Schunk & Swartz, 1993; Straub, 1997), teacher feedback proved to be a source of

support as well. Finally, findings support the claim that students are more interested and

invested in academic writing when they feel capable (Pajares & Valiante, 2001a). This

study adds to the research literature by detailing specific conditions and practices of

support that middle school students desire. Adolescents felt more competent when they

had access to information, or possessed background knowledge, about the writing topic,

129

when the writing teacher guided structured prewriting activities, and when they used a

model of good writing as a springboard for their own composition. Middle school

students clearly acknowledge that they require assistance as they develop their writing

skills.

Autonomy

The results of this study also reveal that various aspects of autonomy motivate

young writers. Students said that writing tasks were enjoyable if they were perceived as

involving "freedom," and students discussed being particularly motivated to complete

free writing and open-ended or creative writing endeavors. These young writers found the

creativity and individualization such activities afforded appealing and were more likely to

apply time and effort when completing them. In addition, participants were persistent

when carrying out pursuits over which they experienced some control, such as writing

assignments with flexible schedules, independent writing projects, and writing prompts

involving choice. These findings support Miller & Meece's (2001) observation of higher

levels of motivation when students were able to monitor their own progress. Similarly,

Turner (1995) classified "divergent" assignments as motivating. Adolescents have a

strong need for independence and want to practice decision making skills and self-

regulation in the context of academic writing.

Real Writing Reasons

Data from this multi-case study also show that middle school students are

motivated to write for real reasons. Participants worked hard when academic writing was

authentic, engaging, useful, and/or expressive. Unlike previous research (Potter,

McCormick, & Busching, 2001), this study did not find decreasing levels of writing

j

130

motivation in middle school students. On the contrary, these students revealed they were

more motivated to write for the complex and authentic writing reasons middle school

provided. This study illustrates how authentic tasks are an important element of a

motivating classroom structure (Ames, 1992) and link such findings to writing activities

in particular. Students were motivated to write for real audiences and authentic purposes.

In general, research says complex tasks are more motivating than simple ones (Miller,

Adkins, & Hooper, 1993); specifically, middle school students in this study were less

motivated to write when they perceived the task as tedious, boring, rote, repetitive, or

"busywork." Students found useful or helpful writing tasks (especially those associated

with skill development) engaging. This supports previous research contentions that

writing is motivating when it is used as a tool for intellectual or social development

(Geary, 1991; Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001). Moreover, participants declared

(as did Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001) that writing is "real," and therefore

motivating, when students are able to reflect and express feelings or opinions.

Adolescents want to use writing as a tool for thinking and communicating.

Limitations of the Study

This study has two limitations. First, conducting the investigation in a single

school setting restricted the available pool of participants. The school in which this study

was performed utilizes an application process prior to admitting students. Consequently,

the population includes a large percentage of high-achieving students. Although I

sampled for maximum variation in order to collect data from a diverse set of students at

this school, the participants do not represent all middle school students. Descriptions of

131

these students, their teachers and classrooms, and their views on writing motivation may

reflect those of many others, but generalizations are inappropriate.

Second, my role in the school as the literacy specialist and my relationships with

colleagues may have influenced student responses. In order to lessen any student

concerns for privacy, I continually emphasized confidentiality with participants and

began second and third interviews by asking them to check and approve typed transcripts

of the previous one. (Although students were able to revise and sign off on interview

transcripts, their views were not solicited regarding interpretation of the findings, so true

"member checks" (Creswell, 1998) were not conducted.) Finally, even though 1 did not

teach or advise any of the participants during the period of data collection, my position in

the school may have affected the way the students shared their perspectives.

Implications

Despite the limitations outlined above, 1 consider there to be important

implications from this study for middle school teachers, teacher educators, and

researchers.

Implications for Practice

This study not only described six adolescents' perspectives of academic writing

motivation and presented similarities across multiple cases, it also emphasized the need

for middle school writing instruction to be developmentally appropriate and reflect the

true nature of writing in order for it to be motivating. These features proved significant

for the students in this study and reflect best practices in adolescent literacy. As such, the

findings have several implications for middle school writing teachers.

First, middle school students are motivated to write in classrooms designed with

their development in mind. At a unique developmental phase, adolescents are striking

out to explore their independence but still crave security and guidance from their

mentors. Therefore, a structured, supportive, student-centered classroom in which

students take an active role in learning, or more specifically writing, is important. Unlike

many secondary classrooms, in which the teacher often delivers information to students,

writing classrooms in the middle school need to be more interactive in order to be

motivating. To illustrate this point, remember that Jorja was less motivated to write in

her current English class, which was run as a traditional, lecture-style course; "most of

the time, she is telling us something, and then we really do the work for homework... it

can get a little boring." Jorja believed the teacher-led classroom inhibited deep thinking

about the topics they studied "because [the teacher] didn't involve the class enough to

make them come up with the ideas. Instead she would kind of try to get us to guess, but

she would... eventually tell it to us herself." Jorja contrasted this model of instruction

with her seventh grade English class, in which, "all of the students... could write down

their ideas or they could come up with it." Jorja felt this model was more helpful and

engaging "because [the students] would always be thinking...you would be in groups or

we'd discuss it with each other." Possible varied approaches to writing instruction

include whole class instruction, small group instruction, and pair work. Moreover, in

order to motivate middle school writers, teachers should provide accountability and

choice, as well as plan student-driven projects and writing tasks that allow for individual

expression.

Second, middle school students are motivated to engage in activities that reflect

the true nature of writing. Writing is a progression, a socially mediated activity, and a

communicative tool. Therefore, middle school teachers ought to employ the process

approach to writing instruction and design meaningful writing activities. Teachers can

motivate middle school students by devoting plenty of class time to the writing process

(Students in this study believed the way to improve one's writing skills was to write

more. Jorja went on to say, "I don't think there's enough writing opportunities.");

guiding prewriting activities (such as the character, setting, and plot "bulleting" activities

Troy found so rewarding); providing opportunities to collaborate and share writing with

others (Layla believed these activities improved her writing because "it shows me things

from other people's view."); giving specific feedback (Timothy appreciated when his

teacher would "tell us, 'you can make it better by...'"); and scaffolding student efforts

during revision (Elizabeth felt she needed guidance and support during this time "just so

then you know to fix it, and then we'd still have to use our brains to make it better, but

we'd know it was wrong, so we'd have to do something to change it."). In addition,

middle school teachers should assign writing tasks in which students write for many

different real audiences and purposes.

The development of motivational beliefs, values, and goals directly affects how

students attend to a task, direct performance choices, and put forth effort in academic

endeavors. Achieving and maintaining motivation is especially important for adolescents

engaged in the complex task of academic writing. Therefore, middle school teachers

should keep writing motivation in mind as they design and implement instructional

practices.

134

Implications for Teacher Educators

According to Bruning & Horn (2000), "Building lasting motivation to write

requires careful attention to the conditions under which students write." Therefore,

writing teachers must model constructive beliefs about writing and provide students with

targeted strategy instruction in order to be motivating. For example, Joshua was

motivated to write for his eighth grade English teacher, whom he described as

"passionate about [writing], which I appreciate." He later explained, "she always tries to

relate whatever we are learning about in the class that day back to writing...She tries to

teach us as much as possible about writing." University level courses should be designed

for and required of prospective teachers in order to emphasize writing as part of the

middle level English curriculum.

More specifically, teachers' views on writing will most likely affect how they

teach it. Future teachers need to see writing as a useful intellectual and social tool and

communicate this perspective to middle school students. Young writers need to find out

from their teachers that writing is a complex process requiring much attention and effort

but also one in which they can learn to be successful. Teachers need to show students

that they are writers too, devote time in their classrooms to the process, and provide

support for the task. Teacher educators must work to instill these beliefs in prospective

writing instructors so that they will be better equipped to motivate adolescents.

Prospective middle school teachers should be well versed in both the process

approach to writing and in explicit strategy instruction. Universities should require

courses in writing instruction along side those in reading instruction in order to better

prepare teachers to motivate literacy learners. Future middle school content area teachers

would also benefit from writing instruction courses as adolescents write to learn across

the curriculum. Because academic writing is such a complex process and because

motivating students is a critical component of its instruction, middle school teachers'

preparation should be extensive and wide-ranging.

Implications for Future Research

Previous research indicated a decline in the writing motivation of secondary

students (Geary, 1991; Potter, McCormick, & Busching, 2001). However, this study did

not uncover similar findings for these middle school students: participants revealed they

were more motivated to write for the creative, collaborative, and complex tasks that the

increasingly challenging middle school curriculum offered and less motivated to

complete the more rudimentary elementary school writing assignments. Students in this

study looked back at elementary school as a time for "learning the basics" about writing

and "doing what 1 was told." According to Troy, elementary school writing was "the big

base for like if you were building a house. That was the base, and then now middle

school is where you are really putting on the bricks and everything." Participants all said

they were more motivated to write in middle school because they appreciated

opportunities to communicate, to think more deeply, and to express their opinions and

feelings. More research is needed in this area. Investigations need to examine students'

views more closely. Research goals could include locating an approximate time when

motivation levels begin to wane in older adolescents and attempt to identify the possible

causes for such a shift in motivation or those factors associated with it. This shift may

occur at earlier or later points in time for different populations. Therefore, it will be

important for researchers to move forward with the following goal in mind: creating

learning environments that promote engagement for all adolescent writers.

Researchers have studied writing self-efficacy (i.e. Shell, Murphy, & Bruning,

1989; Pajares & Johnson, 1994; Pajares & Valiante, 2001a), goal orientation (i.e. Miller,

Adkins, & Hooper, 1993; Guthrie et al., 1996; Meece & Miller, 1999), and apprehension

(i.e. Daly & Miller, 1975; Daly, 1985; Pajares & Johnson, 1994). More research is

needed to discover how other beliefs about writing are formed. This is an area that

appears to have potential benefits for students. Participants in this study all seemed to

believe that writing is a useful tool for thinking, expression, and communication.

Therefore, they were motivated to write for tasks they believed would improve their

writing skills and persisted in them even when they were difficult or not enjoyable.

Joshua provided a specific example when asked what kinds of writing he wished he did

more of in school; he replied: "As much as 1 hate analyzing things, 1 know 1 need to get

good at it and be better at it, so I guess more analysis (sigh)." When asked what makes

him really want to write for school, he said, "Because 1 know it will help improve my

writing skills." Future research should investigate the conditions under which such

beliefs about writing form and how they relate to motivation as well as the approaches

students take to academic writing.

Another area of inquiry this study examined was how the features of a writing

task affected students' motivation to complete it. Cross case analysis revealed numerous

specific task traits raised by each and every participant as motivating. Further research

could compare these rich task descriptions with other important factors: Are these types

of tasks congruent with skill development? How do they compare to the ones teachers

are assigning in middle schools? Developmental studies of both successful and reluctant

writers in a range of authentic settings are needed to further refine our understanding of

the ways student learning is affected by writing motivation.

REFERENCES

Abbott, J. A. (2000). "Blinking out" and "having the touch:" Two fifth-grade boys talk

about flow experiences in writing. Written Communication, 17( 1), 53-92.

Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 84(3), 261-271.

Ames, C. & Archer, J. (1988). Achievement goals in the classroom: Students' learning

strategies and motivation processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(3),

260-267.

Anderman, E.M., Austin, C.C., & Johnson, D.M. (2002). The development of goal

orientation. In Wigfield, A. &Eccles, J.S. (Eds.), Development of achievement

motivation, (pp. 197-220). San Diego: Academic Press.

Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and

learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive

theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Benton, S.L., Corkill, A.J., Sharp, J.M., Downey, R.G., & Khramstova, I. (1995).

Knowledge, interest, and narrative writing. Journal of Educational Psychology,

87(1), 66-79.

Blumenfeld, P.C. (1992). Classroom learning and motivation: clarifying and expanding

goal theory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(3), 272-281.

Bottomley, D.M., Henk, W. A. & Melnick, S.A. (1998). Assessing children's views

about themselves as writers using the writer self-perception scale. The Reading

Teacher, 51(4), 286-296.

Brand, A.G. (1987). The why of cognition: Emotion and the writing process. College

Composition and Communication, 38(4), 436-443.

Brand, A.G. & Powell, J.L. (1986). Emotions and the writing process. College

Composition and Communication, 38(4), 436-443.

Brophy, J. (1998). Motivating students to learn. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Bruning, R. & Horn, C. (2000). Developing motivation to write. Educational

Psychologist, 35(1), 25-37.

Caissy, G.A. (1994). Early adolescence. New York: Plenum Press.

Cleary, L.M. (1990). The fragile inclination to write: Praise and criticism in the

classroom. English Journal, 79 (2), 22-28.

Cleary, L.M. (1991). Affect and cognition in the writing processes of eleventh graders.

Written Communication, 8(4), 473-507.

Cleary, L.M. (1996). "1 think 1 know what my teachers want now:" Gender and writing

motivation. English Journal, 85( 1), 50-57.

Cordova, D.I. &Lepper, M.R. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning:

Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization, and choice. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 88(4), 715-730.

Covington, M.V. & Dray, E. (2002). The developmental course of achievement

motivation: A needs-based approach. In Wigfield, A. & Eccles, IS . (Eds.),

Development of achievement motivation, (pp. 33-56), San Diego: Academic

Press.

Creswell, J.W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five

traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Creswell, J.W. & Miller, D.L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry.

Theory into Practice, 39(3), 124-130

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-

Bass.

Daly, J. A. (1985). Writing apprehension. In Rose, M. (Ed), When a Writer Can't

Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing Process Problems. New

York: The Guilford Press.

Daly, J.A. & Miller, M.D. (1975a). The empirical development of an instrument to

measure writing apprehension. Research in the Teaching of English, 9(3), 242-249.

Daly, J.A. & Miller, M.D. (1975b). Further studies in writing apprehension: SAT

scores, success expectations, willingness to take advanced courses, and sex

differences. Research in the Teaching of English, 9, 250-256.

Davidson, J. & Koppenhaver, D. (1993). Adolescent literacy: What works and why.

(2nd ed). New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

Eccles, J.S., Wigfield, A., Midgley, C , Reuman, D., Maclver, D., & Feldlaufer, H.

(1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students' motivation.

The Elementary School Journal, 93(5), 553-574.

Elbow, P. (1986). Embracing contraries: Explorations in learning and teaching. New-

York: Oxford University Press.

Emig, J. (1977). Writing as a mode of learning. College Composition and

Communication, 28(2), 122-128.

Emig, J. (1983). The web of meaning: Essays on writing, teaching, learning, and

thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook Publishers.

Erikson,E.H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: W.W. Norton &

Company.

Flower, L. & Hayes, J.R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College

Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387.

Gottfried, A.E. (1990). Academic intrinsic motivation in young elementary school

children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(3), 525-538.

Guthrie, J., Van Meter, P., McCann, A., & Wigfield, A. (1996). Growth of literacy

engagement: Changes in motivations and strategies during concept-oriented

reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 3/(3), 306-332.

Hayes, J.R. (2000). A new framework for understanding cognition and affect. In

Indrisano, R. & Squire, J.R. (Eds.), Perspectives on Writing: Research, Theory,

and Practice. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Hansen, J. (1996). Evaluation: The center of writing instruction. The Reading Teacher,

50(3), 188-195.

Head, J. (1997). Working with Adolescents: Constructing identity. London: Falmer

Press.

Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, arid work in communities and

classrooms. New? York: Cambridge University Press.

Larson, R, (1985). Emotional scenarios in the writing process: An examination of

young writers' affective experiences. In Rose, M. (Ed.), When a Writer Can't

Write: Studies in Writer's Block and other Composing-Process Problems. New

York: The Guilford Press.

LeCompte, M.D. & Goetz, J.P. (1982). Problems of reliability and validity m

ethnographic research. Review of Educational Research, 52(1), 31-60.

Mac Iver, D.J., Young, E.M., & Washburn, B. (2002). Instructional practices and

motivation during middle school. In Wigfield, A. & Eccles, J.S. (Eds.),

Development of achievement motivation, (pp. 333-351). San Diego: Academic

Press.

Maier, H.W. (1978). Three theories of child development. (3rd ed.) New York: Harper

&Row.

Marshall, C. & Rossman, G,B. (1999). Designing qualitative research. 3rd edition.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Mathison, S. (1988). Why triangulate? Educational Researcher, 77(2), 13-17.

McClelland, D.C. (1985). How motives, skills, and values determine what people do.

American Psychologist, 40(7), 812-825.

McLeod, S. (1987). Some thoughts about feelings: The affective domain and the

writing process. College Composition and Communication, 38(4), 426-435.

McLeod, S.H. (1997). Notes on the heart: Affective issues in the writing classroom.

Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. 19-42.

Meece, J.L. & Miller, S.D. (1999). Changes in elementary school children's

achievement goals for reading and writing: Results of a longitudinal and an

intervention study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3(3), 207-229.

Merriam, S.B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S.B. (2001). Qualitative research and case study applications in education.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 5.

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1984). Drawing valid meaning from qualitative data:

Toward a shared craft. Educational Researcher, 13(5), 20-30.

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: A sourcebook of

new methods. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Miller, S.D., Adkins, T., & Hooper, M.L. (1993). Why teachers select specific literacy

assignments and students' reactions to them. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25(1),

69-95.

Miller, S.D. & Meece, J.L. (1997). Enhancing elementary students' motivation to read

and write: A classroom intervention study. The Journal of Educational

Research, 90(5), 286-299.

Murdock, T.B. & Miller, A. (2003). Teachers as sources of middle school students'

motivational identity: Variable-centered and person-centered analytic

approaches. The Elementary School Journal, 103(4), 383-399.

Oldfather, P. (1993). What students say about motivating experiences in a whole

language classroom. The Reading Teacher, 46(8), 672-681.

Oldfather, P. & Dahl, K. (1994). Toward a social constructivist recOhceptualization of

intrinsic motivation for literacy learning. Journal of Reading Behavior, 26(2),

139-158.

Ormrod, J.E. (1999). Human learning, 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ; Prentice-

Hall, Inc.

Pajares, F. & Johnson, M.J. (1994). Confidence and competence in writing: The role of

144

self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and apprehension. Research in the Teaching

of English, 28(3), 313-331.

Pajares, F. & Johnson, M.J. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs and the writing performance of

entering high school students. Psychology in the Schools, 33, 163-175.

Pajares, F., Johnson, M.J., & Miller, M.D. (1999). Gender differences in writing self-

beliefs of elementary school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1),

50-61.

Pajares, F. & Valiante, G. (1997). Influence of self-efficacy on elementary students'

writing. The Journal of Educational Research, 90(6), 353-360.

Pajares, F. & Valiante, G. (2001). Gender differences in writing motivation and

achievement of middle school students: A function of gender orientation?

Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 366-381.

Pajares, F. & Valiante, G. (2001a). Influence of self-efficacy on elementary students'

writing. The Journal of Educational Research, 90(6), 353-360.

Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park:

Sage Publications, Inc.

Perry, N. (1998). Young children's self-regulated learning and contexts that support it.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(4), 715-729.

Perry, N., VandeKamp, K., Mercer, L., & Nordby, C. (2002). Investigating teacher-

student interactions that foster self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist,

37(1), 5-15.

Phillips, D.A., & Zimmerman, B.J. (1990). The developmental course of perceived

145

competence and incompetence among competent children. In R.J. Sternberg & J.

Kolligian (Eds.), Competence considered (pp. 41-67). New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press.

Pintrich, P., & DeGroot, E. (1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning components

of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1),

33-40.

Pintrich, P.R. & Zusho, A. (2002). The development of academic self-regulation: The

role of cognition and motivational factors. In Wigfield, A. & Eccles, J.S. (Eds.),

Development of achievement motivation, (pp. 249-284). San Diego: Academic

Press.

Potter, E., McCormick, C. & Busching, B. (2001). Academic and life goals: Insights

from adolescent writers. High School Journal, 85(1), 45-55.

Renninger, K. A. & Hidi, S. (2002). Student interest and achievement: Developmental

issues raised by a case study. In Wigfield, A. & Eccles, J.S. (Eds.), Development

of achievement motivation, (pp. 173-195). San Diego: Academic Press.

Reynolds, P., & Symons, S. (2001). Motivational variables and children's text search

Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(1), 14-22.

Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. (2001). Those who can, teach. New York: Houghton Mifflin

Company,

Schunk, D.H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational

Psychologist, 2(5,207-231.

Schunk, D.H. & Pajares, F. (2002). The development of academic self-efficacy. In

Wigfield, A. & Eccles, J.S. (Eds.), Development of achievement motivation, (pp.

15-31). San Diego: Academic Press.

Schunk, D.H. & Swartz, C. W. (1993). Goals and progress feedback: Effects on self-

efficacy and writing achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 18,

337-354.

Seidman, I. (1998). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in

education and social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press.

Shell, D.F., Bruning, R.H., & Colvin, C (1995). Self-efficacy, attribution, and outcome

expectancy mechanisms in reading and writing achievement: Grade-level and

achievement-level differences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(3), 386-

398.

Shell, D., Murphy, C , & Bruning, R. (1989). Self-efficacy and outcome expectancy

mechanisms in reading and writing achievement Journal of Educational

Psychology, 81,91-100.

Straub, R. (1997). Students'reactions to teacher comments: An exploratory study.

Research in the Teaching of English, 31(1), 91-119.

Sweet, A., Guthrie, J., & Ng, M. (1998). Teacher perceptions and reading motivation.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(2), 210-223.

Turner, J.C. (1995). The influence of classroom contexts on young children's

motivation for literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 410-441.

Turner, J. & Paris, S.G. (1995). How literacy tasks influence children's motivation for

literacy. The Reading Teacher, 48(8), 662-673.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological

147

processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and word. In A. Kozulin (Ed.), Thought and Language

(pp. 210-256). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Walberg, H. & Ethington, C. (1991). Correlates of writing performance and interest.

U.S. national assessment study. Journal of Educational Research 84(A), 198-203.

Wentzel, K.R. (1997). Student motivation in the middle school: The role of perceived

pedagogical caring. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 411-419.

White, M.J. & Bruning, R. (2005). Implicit writing beliefs and their relation to writing

quality. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30, 166-189.

Wigfield, A. &Eccles, J. S. (Eds.) (2001). Development of achievement motivation.

San Diego: Academic Press.

Wigfield, A., Eccles, J.S., Maclver, D., Reuman, D.A., & Midgley, C. (1991).

Transitions during early adolescence: Changes in children's domain-specific self-

perceptions and general self-esteem across the transition to junior high school.

Developmental Psychology, 27(4), 552-565.

Zaragoza, N. & Vaughn, S. (1995). Children teach us to teach writing. The Reading

Teacher, 49(1), 42-47.

<

148

APPENDIX

Interview Protocol

Interview #1

Research Question: How does student perception of teacher characteristics and/or classroom

factors affect writing motivation?

Interview Questions:

• Tell me about the class I came to observe. (Possible prompts: What were you doing?

What had come before or came after that lesson? How did the class prepare for that task?

How did you participate that day? Tell me about the writing you did that day.)

• Was it a typical writing lesson? Please explain.

• How does the teacher usually "teach writing?"

• In what different kinds of writing do you engage for that class?

• Tell me about some other writing activities you have completed this year.

• How is the class structured on a day to day basis? What is the routine like?

•- How does the classroom structure/routine affect how you feel about writing for this

class?

• How would you describe this teacher's characteristics? (as a person, as a teacher)

• How do these characteristics influence how you feel about writing for this class?

• How do you improve your writing skills in/for this class?

• Tell me about your level of focus when you write for this class?

• Explain the amount of effort and time you put into writing for this class.

• How much do you enjoy writing in this class? Why do you think that is so?

• How do you feel about your writing skills overall?

149

• If you could change something about your current writing classroom, what would it be?

Why?

Interview #2

Research Question: According to students' perspectives, how do past writing experiences shape

writing motivation?

Interview Questions:

• Describe your earliest memory of writing. (Possible prompts: How old were you?

Where were you? Who was there? What were you doing? Why were you writing? How

did you feel?)

• When you were very young, why did you write?

• When you were very young, how did you feel about writing?

• Tell me about the kinds of writing you did in elementary school.

• What do you remember about writing in kindergarten, first grade, second grade... ?

• When you were younger, how did you feel about your writing abilities? Why?

• Tell me about a time/times when you wrote on your own or just for fun.

» How was writing in elementary school different than writing in middle school?

« How do you feel about writing now?

Interview #3

Research Question: According to middle school students, what kinds of tasks motivate students

to write?

Interview Questions:

• Go through your writing portfolio, and pick out your three "best" pieces. Describe each

assignment, and tell me why you chose that piece of writing as one of your best.

150

• Flip through your portfolio again. Which piece was the most fun to write? Tell me about

it.

• Which piece do you think you put the most effort into (energy and time)? Please describe

the assignment and your work process.

• Which piece did you least enjoy writing? Tell me about it. What about the assignment

was not enjoyable?

• What kinds of writing do you wish you did more of in school? Why?

• Whatkinds of writing do you wish you did less of in school? Why?

• In which other class, besides English or Humanities, do you write the most? Tell me

about the writing.

• In general, what keeps you focused when writing?

• In general, what makes you try your hardest when writing?

• In general, what frustrates you when you are writing?

• In general, what really makes you want to write?