How can sentence construction skills improve a childs whole-school performance?
This US-based study adds to the growing body of evidence about the importance of mastering sentence construction in learning to write effectively. As the researchers point out, writing ability also has an impact on the improvement of pupil achievement across the whole curriculum. Yet, they say, writing has been neglected in the current US educational reform agenda No Child Left Behind, 2001 (NCLB) which focuses on improving children’s reading and mathematics. The study focused on pairs of mixed ability pupils and compared the impact of two methods of teaching writing skills: sentence-combining and grammar instruction. Both of these methods were integrated with a peer support technique. The research found that peer-assisted methods which focused on sentence combining led to greater improvements in sentence construction than teaching based on grammar approaches.
