Bashayer Dhahi Alshamsi

ID: H00295891

English Language Teach BAS

Research Project

EDU 4503

Research Paper

Word Count: 6289

H00295891 1
Using Storytelling to Improve Fifth Graders Writing Skills in the

UAE Private Schools

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Abstract

This inquiry action research was conducted in one of the UAE’s private schools. It aimed to

investigate the effectiveness of integrating storytelling with various strategies to enhance

students’ writing skills. In this study, six participants of different levels were practicing the

process writing approach along with the different strategies to scaffold their writings. The

research was conducted through two semesters for 13 weeks. The data collection tools

included artifacts, checklists, interview, surveys and field notes. It showed that the

students have developed their writing skills specially grammar and punctuation. Also,

group work and journal writings impacted the learners’ ideas generation skills. Through

this research, writing classes would become much entertaining for the learners which will

result great writers.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................................6
1.1 How I came with the topic?............................................................................................................ 6
1.2 The purpose ................................................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Research problem .......................................................................................................................... 7
1.4 Research questions ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.5 Research site and participants ....................................................................................................... 8
1.6 Definition of Terms ........................................................................................................................ 9
Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................................................ 10
2.1 Theoretical frame work ................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Relevant past Studies ................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 Summary of the studies ............................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 3 Research Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 14
3.1 Action plan/ procedures .............................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 4 Implementation .................................................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 5 Findings .................................................................................................................................................... 22
5.1 Data analysis ................................................................................................................................ 22
5.2 Findings ....................................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 33
Summary of the findings .................................................................................................................... 33
Future research ................................................................................................................................. 33
Limitation of the study....................................................................................................................... 34
Reflection on Learning ....................................................................................................................... 34
References ..................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Appendices .................................................................................................................................................................... 39

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Appendices Description
Appendix 1 An action plan that was created to follow during the research
implementation.
Appendix 2 First journal of the field observation section.
Appendix 3 Second journal of the field observation section.
Appendix 4 Third journal of the field observation section.
Appendix 5 Interview questions that was created during the first term.
Appendix 6 Artefact that represent the publishing stage.
Appendix 7 Artefact that explains the editing stage.
Appendix 8 Artefact that describe the group discussion (brainstorming).
Appendix 9 The checklist that was created during the second term and three
samples.
Appendix 10 The survey that the students were exposed during the second term.
Appendix 11 The Ethical Consideration form that was provided for the
participants’ parents.
Appendix 12 Samples of the students’ work during the descriptive writing
strategy.
Appendix 13 Sample of a student’s work in the summarizing strategy
Appendix 14 Samples of the students’ journal writing.
Appendix 15 Students while using the paragraph Hamburger organizer.
Appendix 16 A sample of a student’s survey.
Appendix 17 A student using mind map to write.
Appendix 18 Students’ work during the Editing stage with the sample.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Learning language goes through several steps and it contains four main areas which are

reading, listening, speaking and writing. This study focuses on the writing skill. Writing is

an observable skill that requires second language learners to produce tangible materials. In

general, writing is the back bone for the teachers to check the students’ knowledge level of

vocabulary and grammar (Harmer, 2004).

Moreover, the study is based on using storytelling to scaffold the learners’ writing abilities.

Storytelling is a method that helps the learners to communicate, express thoughts and

share ideas (Friday, 2014). In my perspective, I believe that each student has the right to

share and tell what they want and it could be implemented through writing.

1.1 How I came with the topic?

As a non-native English speaker, I faced some difficulties to learn and practice English

language and writing was my main concern. After becoming a student-teacher, I started

observing the students in all ages noticing that they still have the issue of solving writing

problems. Thus, I wanted to know why the students are disliking writing. Moreover,

whenever children are writing, they carry a message that they would like to deliver

through putting words together and represent their feelings (Chamberlain, 2016).

Therefore, I thought about combining stories with the writing to improve students’ writing

skills.

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1.2 The purpose

The aim of the current study is to investigate the benefit of using storytelling in improving

students’ writing skills. It focuses on how writing stories can enhance fifth graders’ writing

skills in the UAE private schools.

1.3 Research problem

First problem that ELL students face is following the writing phases. Writing is a complex

process that goes through multiple phases such as remembering, selecting, organizing, etc.

(Brewster, Ellis & Girard, 2002). As a result, students might struggle in reordering their

ideas to start their writings. For elementary students, they transfer the sensible thoughts

into a written form (Tompkins, 2012). Therefore, allowing the students to describe visual

materials would help the students in constructing their own writings.

Second, when children reach the stage of transferring thoughts into a written form, their

mind start to get confused. The main reason of this confusion that the students’ lack of

comprehending the differences between spoken and written languages (Peregoy & Boyle,

2008) which lead to spelling and grammar errors. As a solution, encouraging young readers

allows the students to differentiate between the written and the oral languages.

Last problem which I observed during my teaching is related to the students’ grammatical

understanding. Building sentences is a challenge for both older and young learners,

especially, second language learners. Hence, they have many mistakes in the sentences

which effect on their writings. By allowing the students to write regularly through daily

journal, students might develop their writing skills. In this phase, the teacher plays an

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essential role in correcting the students. Harmer (2004) claims that the teacher should

know how to react to the students work and intervene with it in a proper way.

Utilizing the above strategies with the extra methods that are discussed in this paper,

students are going to enhance their writing abilities and skills. Through combining the

teaching methods with storytelling and the different writing approaches, teachers can

provide students with massive knowledge that scaffold their learning process. In writing,

the teacher plays four different roles as assistant by providing help, being available,

evaluator by tracking the work and lastly editor by reorganizing the lost pieces (Harmer,

2004).

1.4 Research questions

This research is based on one major question and 2 backup questions that are going to be

answered throughout the paper:

▪ Does storytelling effects on the fifth graders writing abilities?

➢ How will the process writing approach improve the students writing

abilities? And

➢ What kind scaffold does the fifth graders need to improve their writings?

1.5 Research site and participants

This research was conducted in one of the UAE’s private schools and the school followed

the American curriculum. Choosing the participants was based on the students scoring

record, MST (mentor school teacher) consultation and observing their performance. In the

first day, the students had a small writing task which was analyzed to discover their skills

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and abilities. In total, the research was performed on six participants who were fifth

graders and between 10 to 11 years old. They were categorized into three levels, high,

average and low achievers. All the participants’ first language was Arabic except one

participant which her first language was Spanish.

1.6 Definition of Terms

Storytelling: it is a way that people share stories either personal or imaginary.

Descriptive writing: it is a kind of writing where students describe pictures or events.

Process approach: an effective approach for writing and it follows five stages.

Scaffolding: supporting the students in the necessary time.

Mind map: one of the brainstorming methods that helps students to organize their

thoughts.

Peer review: allowing colleagues to check the work done.

Errors correction: the ability to check mistakes in a text.

Activities: the methods that the tasks are delivered in.

Interesting topics: enjoyable tasks that engages the students.

Instructional patterns: different work patterns that teacher uses to apply activities

(group, pair and individual).

Genre approach: an approach that provides models and samples for the students.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

When it comes to teaching writing, several approaches are used to scaffold the learners’

writing abilities. One of the well-known approaches in teaching writing is the process

writing approach. I would explain this approach with the alignment of the use of scaffolding

in each phase. Following it with five peer checked articles related to my action research.

2.1 Theoretical frame work

The process approach was developed throughout the years till it reached five structured

stages and it includes brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and publishing (Tompkins,

2012).

The first phase is the brainstorming where the students prepare their thoughts and

organize them before writing (Tompkins, 2012). After creating the writing plan students

will write their first draft. In the drafting stage, the students are putting their ideas into the

paper as a first sample (Peregoy, Boyle & Cadiero-Kaplan, 2008). The third phase is

revising which could be done through peer reviewing or self-reviewing. The work is

checked now by focusing on several areas of writing such as grammar, punctuation,

organization, etc. additionally, this stage is vital to avoid writing mistakes (Peregoy, Boyle

& Cadiero-Kaplan, 2008).

After hunting the errors, an editing phase comes in. In this phase, the writing is going to be

improved by erasing the mistakes that were found previously (Tompkins, 2012). Lastly, the

students publish their work and share their final results with the class (Tompkins, 2012).

Assessing students in all these stages is essential especially in the correction phase. It

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would help the students to follow the right track and avoid mistakes (Peregoy, Boyle &

Cadiero-Kaplan, 2008). Additionally, using genre approach to scaffold the students would

make the drafting stage easier. Genre approach is meant to allow the students to examine a

perfect model as a guide for the writing (Dirgeyasa, 2016). Genre and process approach

together can be used to help the students in organizing and find out the writing structures

that are required for storytelling.

2.2 Relevant past Studies

The following summaries are related to several methods that I could use in my action

research. It includes impacts of digital stories, scaffolding, descriptive writing, peer

reviewing and the use of genre approach.

Several studies have shown the effectiveness of using storytelling to enhance young

learners writing abilities. Through using storytelling, students’ writing become much

comprehensible and fluent. As it was shown in Yamac and Ulusoy (2016) allowing the

students to write stories as if it was a diary, helps the students in developing their

sentences structures along with the writing organization. Similarly, Alkaaf (2017) proved

the usefulness of storytelling on the students brainstorming abilities. In the study, the

learners believed that through using storytelling, their ability of creating ideas improved.

Also, it indicated their enhancement of vocabulary knowledge.

As I claimed before, writing goes through several phases that needs to be consisted. By

operating the process writing approach, learners will have a clear and organized plan to

follow while writing. As the process writing approach includes five different stages the

significant effectiveness of the strategy is wide. As it was indicated in Bayat (2014)

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research which used the process writing approach, students demanded that their writing

expressions was enhanced along with reducing their anxiety of writing. Likewise, Faraj

(2015) study, showed that following the process writing approach phases, helped the

students who had difficulties and minor problems with grammar. Also, it enhanced their

ability of expressing their ideas and thoughts into the paper and they could create

comprehendible writings.

As the process approach contributes a reviewing phase, researchers focused on describing

the benefit of implementing peer review strategy and the teacher scaffold during the class.

By allowing the students to read their colleagues writing, students can develop their

understanding of writing. As in a study that was created by Loretto, DeMartino and Godley

(2016), the students who reviewed several writings, developed their ability of giving

feedbacks at the same time extracting ideas for their own writings. In addition, a study by

Bayat (2014) which used the process writing approach showed that the amount of writing

errors reduced due to the editing and peer reviewing stages.

Indeed, students might not be able to spot all the writing problems, therefore, teacher’s

intervene is necessary. As the teacher observe the students’ work and provide extra

attention to their writings, students will be able to produce better writings. Faraj (2015)

claimed that scaffolding the students while they are writing, enhances their awareness of

their weaknesses which helps in improving their writing abilities by improving their

mistakes.

As a teacher, making use of different writing strategies along with the storytelling strategy

could create different impacts on the students learning acquisition. In a study (Suriyanti &

Yaacob, 2016) that aimed to provide the teachers with extra knowledge about the

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descriptive writing, they used a strategy of creating models and providing the students

with vivid words that support their writings. Consequently, the students understood the

criteria and provided better work. To add to this strategy, I investigated about the

effectiveness of the genre approach. Findings out of Viriya and Wasanasomsithi (2017)

study showed that the students’ developed their understanding of grammar, word choice

and sentence structure. However, it was not a sever change but they enhanced through the

period they practiced the genre approach.

2.3 Summary of the studies

Gathering the ideas from all these resources gave me the opportunity to think of a way that

I can integrate different ideas for my research. In Yamac and Ulusoy (2016) study using

diary impacted the learners writing which encouraged me to include journal writing in this

study. Faraj (2015) research drew my attention to the importance of scaffolding the

students in all the process writing stages in indirect way to make sure they are following

the right procedure.

By looking at the ways that Suriyanti and Yaacob (2016) modeling strategy, I got learnt the

essential use of modeling and providing words that helps the students in their writings.

The stage of peer review in Loretto, DeMartino and Godley (2016) encouraged me to think

about different ways that my students can use peer review to develop their work. Also, I

understood that learners understand each other writings because their language is simpler.

Lastly, Viriya & Wasanasomsithi (2017) study acknowledged me about the proper use of

genre approach in the class by utilizing the reading sessions with them.

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Chapter 3 Research Methodology

My research is an action research where an investigation process is followed to answer a

question through a practical procedure (Macintyre, 2000). It starts with a problem that

needs to be solved by conducting a real practice and collecting evidences to evaluate and

draw conclusion (Macintyre, 2000). Therefore, I decided to depend on the action research

procedure to accomplish my writing research. By using action research, I had the ability to

practice my research in real life and improve what is necessary. I followed Macintyre’s

research cycle (See Figure 1) to organize my thoughts.

(Figure 1)

Following Macintyre research cycle, established a stable base and procedures to implement

the research. He stated that we should follow a soled procedure that starts with a topic

which needs to be investigated. The topic should be discussed with others, researched in

resources and lastly, forming questions that guides the research. Then, the researcher

should start focusing on a specific problem that’s need to be investigated (Macintyre,

2000). After narrowing the topic and choosing it, I selected some key words that would

help in searching and finding my needs. Indeed, to find the best strategies, I formed several

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questions that lead the implementation. Creating questions work as a guide to keep the

researcher in the right track (Macintyre, 2000). Later, I got back to all the previous

thoughts and started diving in the literatures. By looking through different literatures,

researchers establish a steady academic background and support their ideas with proved

researchers’ investigation (Macintyre, 2000). Going through the cycle, I put in my mind

several strategies that would help me in applying my research. Then, evaluating the

effectiveness of them, creating conclusion and further recommendation for the research.

The above procedures were all applied before starting the actual practice. After organizing

all the required materials and readings from literatures, then the researcher starts getting

into the field. In the classroom, collecting data comes first. Macintyre (2000) argues that

data collection must be gathered from different participants who have different abilities to

compare the practice results. Following different methods in collecting data helps in

extracting valuable findings (Macintyre, 2000). With the different gathered data, the

researcher starts recording and studying the information to indicate the improvement

(Macintyre, 2000). Those data should be represented in a visual form that can be referred

to when necessary. Last step is creating the thesis where all the collected notes and

observations are dragged into a paper that the reader can fully understand (Macintyre,

2000).

3.1 Action plan/ procedures

The research was conducted in a private school for two terms by applying several

strategies (See Chapter 4)and collecting data. First term all the strategies were conducted

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and persuaded to the second term. However, second term, journal writing was emphasized

along with the genre approach. The reason behind it, is to investigate the learners’

improvement in writing and the changes that happened after the previous term. A planner

was created to ease up the implementation procedures (See Appendix 1).

Participants were selected during the first week of the first term where a writing task was

given to evaluate their abilities. Field notes and observations took a place in the first week

as well. After selecting the participants, all the strategies were applied. They were

introduced within groups first to allow discussions and building knowledge. Collaborative

work allows the students to socialize and get back the parts that they might miss during the

class (Peregoy & Boyle, 2008).

The process writing approach was the first strategy to apply to acknowledge the learners of

the writing procedures. Brainstorming and revising stage where accentuated due to their

essentiality. An interview based on the process approach was conducted before the

strategy to know the students’ perspectives. It helped in preparing the activities for the

upcoming weeks.

Later, students started describing pictures to know how to show characters’ emotions and

actions. By visualizing the given concepts teachers can refer to it to remind the students of

their use because it is saved in the learners’ long-lasting memory (Ryan, n.d). Also, the

students were exposed to different stories to summarize. We began with oral summary

then moving to written. This strategy helped the students in knowing how stories are

structured and understand the story requirements. Relating to this strategy, the teacher

provided a written story to integrate the genre approach in the lessons.

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After collecting the students’ products, a checklist was used to prepare the remaining

weeks focus. Through the data, I found that the students need to practice peer editing

strategy to help in correcting their work. Once more, group editing sessions were

implemented and then moving into individual to evaluate the students’ abilities.

In the second term, daily journal writing was added to the previous strategies. Since the

students acquired the writing procedures knowledge, they were going in the evaluating

stage in which it compares between the first and second term. Also, the students were

encouraged to read more stories to allow them in developing their story writing schema.

This time, the interviews were replaced with surveys to mark the students’ thoughts about

the strategies. Also, to track the writing development, extra checklists were provided.

3.2 Data Collection Tools

Collecting data is essential in any research because they present the later conclusions.

According to Lankshear and Knobel (2004) data are used as evidence in the researched

where the collected information is mainly interrupted to answer the research questions.

They could be collected through three main methods, spoken, written and observed. In this

research, five different data collection tools where utilized which were field observation,

interviews, checklist, artifacts and a survey.

Field Observation

Field observations are the quickest method to measure the students’ abilities and skills

through tracking their work during the class (Macintyre, 2000). It was the first data

collection that was conducted to help in selecting the participants of the research. Also, it

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was used to look through the students’ performance during the two terms and especially

while applying the strategies (See Appendix 2, 3, 4). However, the students’ engagement in

the class is not the same as they write. Therefore, the notes were based on the students’

interaction with writing through their groups and individually. The field notes where

written according to three areas school, class and the participants’ engagement.

Interviewing and Survey

Interviewing is a procedure that allows the researcher to interact and investigate the

interviewee knowledge about a specific topic (Mears, 2012). Conducting interviews

identifies how the students process their writings. It was used during the first term where

questions of the interview were mixed between open-ended and yes and no questions (See

Appendix 5). In the second term, the interviews were replaced with the surveys to allow

the students to reflect upon their process.

The survey was based on three main aspects, process writing approach stages, storytelling

and group work (See Appendix 10). By using the survey, I identified the students’

preferences and understood some of their thoughts which helped in generating effective

teaching techniques. The survey indicated that the students still not active toward peer

reviewing. Therefore, the research focused more in this stage to help the students in

developing their feedback skills.

Checklist and Artifacts

The artifacts that were collected from the students were their written work and picturing

the students while working (See Appendix 6, 7, 8). To hunt the students’ problems in

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writing, a checklist was prepared based on 5 main areas, punctuation, capitalizing,

grammar, sentences organization and spelling (Appendix 9). After collecting the students’

work, each participant paper was tracked using the checklist for three times. Using the

checklist helped in looking at the common problems that the students mostly face while

they are writing. It showed that each level has different problems which were vital to be

emphasized. The problems that was spotted during the first term have decreased but low

achievers still had some problems in grammar.

3.3 Ethical considerations

Applying researches should not be hidden and the people who are involved have the right

to know where their information is going to be shared with. I prepared 6 ethical

consideration papers for each participant to deliver it to their parents and they were

written in both languages Arabic and English (Appendix 11) this paper was given to the

students during the first week. I made sure to include my research topic and my

willingness to enhance the students’ writing skills. Also, I included a part that protects the

students’ privacy. Indeed, I informed the parents that the learners’ work is going to be

shared within three people who are my instructor, my mentor teacher and I.

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Chapter 4 Implementation

This research indicates several strategies which were aligned with the storytelling method

to enhance fifth graders writing skills. Using the process approach as a main strategy is not

enough to foster the learners’ writing abilities. Therefore, it was integrated with other

strategies which are descriptive writing, reading stories, summarizing, writing journals and

Paragraph Hamburger.

4.1 Descriptive writing

Using descriptive writing took a place in the both terms. In the first lesson, the students

were asked to draw pictures and write sentences related to it (See Appendix 12). Then,

they were provided with different pictures to write about, which limited the writing and at

the same time made it various. Students can represent vocabulary and grammar through

utilizing pictures which can be beneficial for writing as well (Harmer, 2004) Lastly, the

students started writing without visuals which was an imaginary writing. I believe in

building the students’ knowledge gradually therefore, this procedure was used. The

students became familiarized with writing and became engaged. All the work was collected

as artifacts.

4.2 Reading stories and Summarizing

Reading and summarizing were integrated where the students had to read several stories

and write a small summary to show their understanding (See Appendix 13). Summarizing

is method that allows the writer to catch the vital aspects of the reading (Freedman, 2012).

The reading method is considered as a model writing where the students can evaluate and

absorb writing techniques which is considered as a genre approach teaching. Scrivener

(2005) claims that allowing the students to view the models, helps them in establishing a

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base for their own writing. Even though, the strategy was used in the first term, in the

second term it was drilled more because of its benefits.

4.3 Writing journals

This strategy was inspired by one of the previous studies that I have read. The study

(Yamac & Ulusoy, 2016) implemented a daily diary writing with students which supported

their story writing. Therefore, daily journals have taken a place in this research. The

participants were exposed to different topics each day which were simple and fun to write

about (See Appendix 14). This strategy was created in the second term only since the

school had provided a daily fifteen minutes session to allow the students to write. Through

this method, the students enhanced their writing skills along with their interest in

storytelling writing (See Finding 4). Using checklist, the journals were checked in different

periods to seek the learners’ development.

4.4 Paragraph Hamburger

The idea of this strategy came after I implemented a process writing approach lesson with

the students. Most of the students did not have the ability to brainstorm through mind

maps which made me search in the internet for an alternative. The Paragraph Hamburger

was an idea which I found on Reading Rockets website. It works as a planner that is fun to

create and utilize (See Appendix 15). This organizer was conducted at the last day of the

first term and I continued to be used it in the second term.

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Chapter 5 Findings

5.1 Data analysis

(Figure 2)

After collecting the data, they go through analyzing phases where it is managed and

decoded. In this research, Creswell spiral data analysis method was utilized to draw the

research findings.

According to Creswell and Poth (2007), when the data are analyzed researchers prefer to

go through different loops rather than depending on the liner approach which is solid

(Figure 2). Using the different circles that are provided in the loops allows the researchers

to refer and analyze the findings and comprehend it. When the data are gathered

organizing and managing comes first.

Each data collection is saved in a folder that is easily accessed. Later, the data are coded by

using open and axial coding through writing memos and key words that describes the data.

Then, the memos gets into a categorizing phase where the unnecessary or repeated ideas

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are deleted. Lastly, the findings are going to be represented in a visual form that makes it

comprehendible (Creswell & Poth, 2007).

(Figure 3)

Moreover, to simplify my work, I followed the seven steps analysis that were developed by

Creswell. After collecting all the data, I ordered each of them in one folder without

considering the participants’ levels. Then, reading each datum and drawing general margin

notes about them. The third process is the most vital phase where I started decoding each

note in depth. Decoding is a synthesizing stage that answers several questions and making

sense of them (Creswell & Poth, 2007).

Lastly, my interpretation started and I looked through the common problems that the

students had and the amount of development they reached after applying the strategies

(Vosloo, 2014). Through previous steps, I came up with 5 findings that I am going to share

in the finding section. By consequently following the steps, I was able to understand and

solve my concerns about the research. Also, it allowed me to reflect upon my work,

enhance and prove it.

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5.2 Findings

The following finding refers to before and after applying the strategies and it contains the

data collection findings. Through the qualitative analysis or qualidata, I did some

observational documentaries to create sense and compare between the findings (Arthur,

2012). It describes how using storytelling aligned with methods used helped in developing

the students’ writing abilities.

1.Storytelling encourages young learners to write and enhances their writing

interest

Writing the field notes showed that the school did not have that much focus on writing

skills until the last a few weeks. Even with the lesson plans that was offered, they did not

provide special classes that allow the students to apply the writing skills. As a result, the

students lived a way from writing which made them less interested in it. Through the

different activities and strategies that were used to implement this research, students’

perspectives changed. They became involved with the different topics that were presented

in the class which proved the impacts of storytelling.

When looking at the results (See Table 1), it shows that storytelling allows the students to

express their thoughts and ideas in a written way. Therefore, they could write without

hesitating. Using stories as a part of students learning curriculum showed that students

tend to write in areas that makes them represent what they really want to share. Even for

the low achievers, being around them and listening to their ideas revealed that they carry

ideas but transferring it is the problem. Thus, having the teacher always around is essential

for this level.

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 Students’ Abilities High Achievers Average Achievers Low Achievers

Amount of work Were able to finish Were able to finish Were not able to

finish in one class finish

Asking for help Not asking for help Asking for help Not asking (teacher

regularly around to help)

Being engaged High level of High level of Not engaged

engagement engagement

(Table 1)

Moreover, the survey conveyed that learners are more interested in storytelling and they

believe that it helps them in writing. One of the students claimed that her reason of loving

storytelling is mainly to make young children happy (See Appendix 16). Other students

believed that storytelling is fun to do which made them interested in writing. However,

some students believed that writing is hard either it was stories or any other kind of

writings.

2.Using a writing organizer improved students’ coherence and cohesion in writing

Through applying the process approach with the learners while they were writing their

stories, there was a sever difference in the writing. The students performed much better

than not using it since they had the ability to organize their work before and after they

write. All the stages helped the students in correcting and provide ideas for their writings.

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 Types of students' brainstorming

17%
Using visuals to
brainstorm
Using mental
brainstorming
83%

(Chart 1)

Through looking at the students rating in the survey and interview, the students were not

caring about the brainstorming stage and they were not representing their thoughts in a

visual form (See Chart 1). In the first term, the students were asked to brainstorm through

using mind maps (See Appendix 17). Unfortunately, the students were not interested to use

this kind of brainstorming. Therefore, the second term involved the Paragraph Hamburger

strategy which was more effective than the mind map (See Chapter 4). As a result, the

students developed several writing skills which are shown in Table 2.

Areas High performance Mid and Low performance

Sentence use
Sentence organization
Errors in writing
students
Used more complex and
advance sentences
Clear organization and
connected thoughts
No mistakes in writing
(Table 2)
Simple sentences but still
need improvement
Clear organization and
connected thoughts
Still have some errors in
writing.

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Also, by using brainstorming (Organizer) the students used the full stops effectively which

was a major issue for all the levels. After being exposed to the idea of creating organizer,

the writing coherence and cohesion made the text much comprehensible and reduced the

vague sentences. The students started using references and developed their sentences

through using conjunctions.

The brainstorming focused on having three main areas in writing which were what, how

and why. By using this way, the students will put together the essential words they are

going to use in their first draft (Bowkett, 2010). Dividing the story writing through those

questions helped the students developed better writing organization skills. The mid and

low performance students used simple sentences to in creating stories. Whereas, high

achievers created more complex sentences (Table 2).

3. Group work enhances students’ ideas generation

While applying the strategies, students were first assigned to work as groups and gradually

worked individually. Using collaborative work reflected various benefits but the main

benefit was ideas generating. When the students worked as a group in the brainstorming

stage, they poured out more ideas that was shared by the different minds in the group.

Each member produced at least one idea which showed in the actual writing. By

stimulating the students’ thoughts and ideas together, students will construct their

writings without hesitating.

Before applying group work, students faced difficulty in creating their own writings. Each

participant had different abilities while writing. High achievers and average achievers did

not need any support to write their own writings and they were able to write without

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asking the teachers for clarification. Lower achievers faced some difficulty to start writing

and did not have any clue of what they are required to do (See Table 3).

Participants’ levels/ Generating Ideas Generating Ideas Within a

ideas generating Individually Group

High Achievers Able to produce ideas Able to produce ideas (better

results)

Average Achievers Able to produce ideas Able to produce ideas (better

results)

Low Achievers Not able to produce ideas Able to produce ideas

(Table 3)

After being exposed to group work, the low achievers enhanced their ability of recalling

ideas for writing. Students started to understand the writing topics and they developed

discussion skills. Even when they were not able to produce ideas, they started to gain

thoughts to utilize in their own writings. Through the survey, 29% of the students were not

interested in group work. However, 71% of the students believed that group work helps

them in stimulating writing ideas (See Chart 2).

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 WORKING IN GROUP DURING WRITING
ACTIVITIES

29%
Students who prefer to work
in groups
Students who do not prefer
to work in groups
71%

(Chart 2)

4.Revising phase allowed the students to spot language errors and developed their

feedback skills

According to the process writing approach, students go through a phase where they should

revise and edit their work. Therefore, the students were asked to become correctors during

this phase. Utilizing this method drew the students’ attention to their mistakes since their

work was reviewed by others who can find writing problems. At the same time, the

students who were correcting benefit in recognizing the mistakes and find new ways to

write their own writings (See Appendix 18).

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The survey showed that 80% of the students utilize peer review and believe that it helps

them in spotting their errors. While 20% of the students do not prefer to use the peer

reviewing phase (See Chart 3). The students who avoided the idea of peer review were

mostly the higher achievers. However, after exposing to this phase, they enjoyed the idea of

correcting other students work to help their classmate.

Students Who Allow Peer

Review

20% Students using peer

review
Students not using peer
80% review

(Chart 3)

After collecting all the learners’ work, A checklist was used to compare the writings before

and after using the strategies which represented the enhancement of the students’

performance during the first and the second term. Since the correction method was used in

the first and second term, students developed their ability of error correction.

In the first term, average and low achievers needed teacher support to track the mistakes

of the other students. However, in the second term average achievers could find errors

independently while the low achievers needed the teacher support. Providing the checking

sheet allowed the students to look through the needed areas which clarified their task.

After looking through the latest writings, students’ errors were almost vanished which

showed the effectiveness of peer reviewing (See Chart 4). As it was claimed in Bayat (2014)

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study, peer reviewing reduces the language errors that students face while writing which

proves the effectiveness of revising stage (See Appendix 18).

Amount of Mistakes With and Without Peer

Review
Number of Language Mistakes

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Avarage
High Achievers Low Acievers
Achievers
Students using peer review 0 1 2
Students without using peer
2 3 5
review

(Chart 4)

5. Daily journal writing enhanced students’ verb tense understanding

Journal writing was a strategy implemented in the second term which impacted the

students’ grammar skills. Since all the writing were based on storytelling, the students

were asked to write using the past tense. In the first a few journals, average and low

achievers faced problems in using the correct tenses. Higher achievers were in the safe side

and they did not need extra attention. Observing this problem, made it essential to have

teacher scaffold during the journal writing. As Faraj (2015) stated, scaffolding students is

essential to draw their attention toward their weakness. Through the teacher support and

the daily writings, students understood the usage of tenses which resulted better writing

pieces (See Chart 5).

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 The Development of Using the correct Verb Tense
9
8

Number of Mistakes
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
High High Avarage Avarage Low Low
Achieve Achieve Achieve Achieve Achieve Achieve
r1 r2 r1 r2 r1 r2
After Writing the Journals 0 0 1 2 3 1
Before Writing the Journals 1 1 3 4 5 5

(Chart 5)

The chart provides the errors that the students had before and after using the journals. The

strategy made a great impact on the higher achievers which contributed writings that are

effectively using correct tenses. What was surprising in the chart that one of the lower

achievers developed her writings till it almost reached the high achievers level. This

achiever, had extra help from the teacher and the support from the home through using

apps that were provided by the school. An extra finding here is that students need support

in and out the school to help in drilling the given strategies.

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Chapter 6 Conclusion

6.1 Summary of the findings

All the findings that were provided in the previous chapter have shown the effectiveness of

allowing the students to write through storytelling and the importance of integrating

different strategies while teaching. The study proved that learners became more interested

in writing, if they were exposed to the right methods and activities that grasps the learners’

attention. As the study of Yamac and Ulusoy (2016) proved that students could enhance

their writing skills through writing diaries, this research had an alignment with this finding

through the journal writing. Moreover, Alkaaf (2017) stated that storytelling has great

impact in stimulating the learners’ abilities in crafting new ideas while writing. Therefore,

the participants of this study became interested in writing because they were presented to

ideas that matches their interest.

6.2 Future research

As for any research, the results will never reach 100% of benefits that was planned. This

research provided good findings yet it needs improvement. Looking at the different

strategies which were applied during the first and second term, shows that some strategies

were not that effective. For further recommendation, teachers might create more

challenging activities that allows the students to generate more writings.

I had an idea of allowing the students to create a mini magazine where their stories are put

together and at the same time represented visually. Through this strategy, students will be

more interested in writing and they would be motivated to share their products. Also,

when it comes to the peer reviewing stage, it is better to allow the students to exchange the

papers and at the same time have their own discussions to explain the errors they found.

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Through this stage, the students will develop their understanding since young learners use

a language that is less complex than the teachers’ language.

6.3 Limitation of the study

When implementing my research in the school, I faced some problems that prevented me

from reaching what I wanted. The first problem, as a student teacher, I had to teach all the

language skills and stick with the school curriculum. Unfortunately, the school curriculum

focused more on reading skills rather than writing and they did not include enough classes

to get in details with this skill. Moreover, the period of applying the research was not

accurate because there were exams and special events that took several days without

implementing any strategy. That created a conflict in the research which impacted the

results.

6.4 Reflection on Learning

Implementing this research opened my eyes toward the writing skills importance. I learned

that young learners can produce written work but they lack the guidance. Through

implementing different strategies and organizing the writing procedure, learners can

enhance themselves and become motivated to write. It is essential to build an environment

that encourages young learners writing skills. As a result, the hesitation and fear of writing

will reduce which will prepare the learners for the future. Utilizing this study will improve

their writing sessions and turn it into an enjoyable skill.

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References

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Storytelling Strategy as a Way to Develop Story Writing Skills among Middle School

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SAGE.

Bayat, N. (2014). The Effect of the Process Writing Approach on Writing Success and

Anxiety. Educational Sciences: Theory And Practice, 14(3), 1133-1141.

Bowkett, S. (2010). Developing literacy and creative writing through storymaking:

Story strands for 7-12 year olds (1st ed.). New York;Maidenhead;: Open University

Press.

Brewster, J., Ellis, G., & Girard, D. (2002). The primary english teacher's guide (New

ed.). Harlow: Penguin English.

Chamberlain, L., & Kerrigan-Draper, E. (2016). Inspiring writing in primary schools.

Los Angeles: SAGE.

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 Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing

among five approaches. Sage publications.

Dirgeyasa, I. W. (2016). Genre-Based Approach: What and How to Teach and to

Learn Writing. English Language Teaching, 9(9), 45.

Faraj, A. A. (2015). Scaffolding EFL Students' Writing through the Writing Process

Approach. Journal Of Education And Practice, 6(13), 131-141.

Freedman, L. (2012). Reading to write: summarizing. Retrieved 8th May 2018 from

http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/summarize.pdf

Friday, M. J. (2014). Why storytelling in the classroom matters. Retrieved 10

December, 2017 from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/storytelling-in-the-

classroom-matters-matthew-friday

Harmer, J. (2004). How to teach writing. Harlow: Longman.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2004). A handbook for teacher research: From design to

implementation. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Loretto, A., DeMartino, S., & Godley, A. (2016). Secondary Students' Perceptions of

Peer Review of Writing. Research In The Teaching Of English, 51(2), 134-161.

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 MacIntyre, C., & Coutts MyiLibrary. (2000). The art of action research in the

classroom. London: David Fulton.

Peregoy, S. F., Boyle, O., & Cadiero-Kaplan, K. (2008). Reading, writing and learning

in ESL: A resource book for teaching K-12 english learners (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Ryan. (n.d). 7 simple visual aids you’ve gotta use in your ESL classroom. Retrieved 14

December 2017 from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-visual-

aids/

Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching: A guidebook for english language

teachers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Macmillan.

Suriyanti, S., & Yaacob, A. (2016). Exploring Teacher Strategies in Teaching

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Instruction, 13(2), 71-95.

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 Viriya, C. & Wasanasomsithi, P. (2017). The Effect of the Genre Awareness Approach

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Appendices

Appendix 1
Weeks Research activity When Duration

Week 1 Observation (field notes) 1. Oct 2017 Whole week

Week 2 Interview+ using process approach 8. Oct 2017 1 days

Week 3 Using summarizing strategy (genre 18. Oct 2017 Whole week
approach)
+ providing visuals to describe it
Week 4 Checklist (after gathering the work) 23. Oct 2017 1 day
+ using the previous strategies
Week 5 Collecting data + using the previous 29. Oct 2017 Whole week
strategies
Week 6 Focus on what the students need to 5. Sep 2017 Whole week
be scaffold in.
Week 7 Reading stories + Using the genre 11. March 2017 Whole week
approach (Checklist)
Week 8 Reading stories + Using the genre 18. March 2017 Whole week
approach + writing journals
(checklist)
Week 9 Reading stories + Using the genre 25. March 2017 Whole week
approach + writing journals

A plan that was created to organize the action plan procedure

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Appendix 2

Journal 1
School
The school that I am practicing in, is a private school that uses an American curriculum. The school
has different internationalities of students but most of the students are Arabs. During this term when
I started reading through the unit planning, I noticed that the school new planning is focusing on the
different kind of writings and specifically text structures. I think that it is going to be very beneficial
for my research since my focus is on writing. Even though, it is related to improving through
storytelling but the stories have different kind of writings.
Class
As it happens in each classroom, each student is different and they have different levels. For my
classroom, I noticed great students with great understanding of the English language. Almost the
whole class do not have any problems in understanding the language. However, they are fifth graders
and they are still second language learners. Therefore, they still have problems in creating the write
sentences structures and sometimes they struggle in delivering some information. Through looking
at the students’ exams and performance in the classroom, I was surprised by their language level.
Most of the class got high marks and almost 50% of the class got full marks in English. They are active
students who look for engaging lessons that allows them to produce. Though, I could not observe the
students’ writings because most of the classes depends on readings.
Participants
I chose six participants who are divided into three levels high, mid and low. The pair of the high-level
students are active students who have excellent level of understanding and language level. There
writings are unique with the minimum amount of writing errors. The mid achievers are active
students with a good level in English. Their writings contain several issues however, they are
comprehensible and clear. For the low achievers, they have the ability of understanding the language
but struggles in expressing ideas. As for the writings, they got the ideas of the writings yet difficult to
understand. The sentences need improvement and extra attention to the writing cohesion.

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Appendix 3

Journal 2
School
Being in the school, I noticed that they stress on the reading skills more than the other language skills. I did
not observe any displays for the students writing work or even competitions that motivate young writers.
However, the school encourage story writing which gives the students the opportunity to experience
different ways of writings. Also, it helped me because I believe in developing writing skills through
storytelling and it mainly helps the students in generating writing ideas while they are writing.
Classroom
Recently in the English lessons, the students were exposed to both reading time and journal writing. At the
beginning of each lesson, the students write a small journal for fifteen minutes. They write the journal in a
story form which is beneficial for my research. Nevertheless, the students are not following any writing
phases that could support their writings. It is more into free writing style. Therefore, I thought about
teaching them some steps that could help them to write in a better way.
Participants
During this week, we applied a writing lesson only once and it was applied among the groups. Each group
is mixed where the high, mid and low achievers are working together. I noticed that the students become
motivated to work among the group and sharing ideas. However, the high achievers were more capable to
write than the low achievers which made me thought that the low achievers were not working enough. They
only had a chance to observe the right way of writing and the different styles of writing structures.
Moreover, in the journal writing, the high achievers were able to write without the teacher help. The mid
achievers needed some help in the punctuation and some writing problems. Lastly, the low achievers, I had
to be with them during the whole writing process to make sure that they were following the right steps.

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Appendix 4

Journal 3

During the last a few weeks, I started to focus on teaching the students advanced writing methods to help
them in developing better writings. We started by watching different kinds of stories to allow the students
to connect stories with writing. One of the stories was related to a writing method which helped in
encouraging the students to write and made it easier for them to creating new sentences. Since I noticed
that the students do not use enough conjunctions in their writings, I decided to help them in writing using
the different conjunctions. After being exposed to both grammar and storytelling lessons, we started the
writing lesson using the burger method. The students had to organize their ideas through using a new way
of brainstorming. The students were working independently to show the final results of using the strategies
and the methods of enhancing writing skills. Moreover, the error correction stage worked very well this
time since the students had the chance to work as a group before and then trying to do it individually. It
showed lots of improvement and most of the students were able to spot the errors and correct their mates
work.

Appendix 5

Getting to know the students

A small interview with: ……………………………………………………………….
Questions
1- Do you like writing and why? Yes\No
2- What do you find difficult in writing?
3- Do you prepare before you start writing?
4- Do you read your paragraph after you finish writing?
a. Do you think it is important to revise the writing?
5- How do you check your writing?
6- Do you ask your teacher or your friends to check your writings?

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 Appendix 6 Appendix 8

Students in the publishing Students discussion during

stage of the process the group work.
approach. First journal of the
field observation section

Appendix 7

Students using a checklist for

peer review activity.

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Appendix 9

A checklist that was created to evaluate the students’ work

High Achiever Checklist Average Achiever Checklist Low Achiever Checklist

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Appendix 10

The survey was provided to the learners to answer particular questions

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Appendix 11

The Ethical consideration form that was provided the participants’ parents

Appendix 12

Students work describing pictures and drawings

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Appendix 13

A low achiever summary

Appendix 14

Low Achiever Writings Average Achiever Writing High Achiever Writing

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 Appendix 15 Appendix 16

Student using the Paragraph High achiever explaining interest in

Hamburger writing stories.

Appendix 17

Appendix 18 mind map to transfer

Students using
ideas to the draft.

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APPENDIX 18

Students comments on their peers’ work through using the checklist

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