The Effect of Writing Techniques on Improving the Writing Skills of Elementary Sixth Grade Students

Today, the importance of writing as a way of exchanging information and expressing thoughts is much more evident. In schools and universities of developed countries, special attention is paid to writing and writing skills, since competence in "writing" leads to the development and development of the mother tongue and can contribute to the consolidation of the roots of the mother tongue. In elementary school in Iran, many books are taught. But there are classes for which there are no special books, such as "Writing". The teachers teach this lesson, given that there is no specific book for this lesson according to their taste. So teachers may first give the subject matter to the students and give necessary explanations about it. In future meetings, they ask students to read the topics they wrote about the subject of writing the week before. The entries are then graded by the teacher. This method of writing makes students disinterested in writing because students, especially elementary school students, know nothing about how to write properly and get confused when writing. In Iran, reading skills in schools are restricted to reading only, and writing skills are limited to independent time students only until the end of the first year of high school. This skill is practically neglected in secondary school as a marginal course and a subset of the Persian language book (Hosseini Nejad, 2007). The lack of a book or a specific resource for teaching essay, the lack of specific indicators for evaluating essay and poor teacher knowledge of active and creative teaching methods in essay are problems of writing. Overall, numerous theoretical foundations and backgrounds suggest that researchers are focusing on important writing skills as one of the basic skills for elementary school students that highlights the role of the school and school environment in developing this skill. The overall results of the above backgrounds show that many researchers have focused on identifying the relationship between progress in writing on other educational variables such as creativity or the effectiveness of a variety of teacher teaching methods. In the meantime, there is a vacuum of research evaluating the effect of writing techniques on the development of writing skills in students. Despite the efforts of education researchers in this field, this gap is still tangible and it is necessary to introduce these techniques and determine their impact on the development of students' writing skills. Therefore, the present study seeks to identify more precisely its effects on students' learning and improvement of their writing skills by introducing a standard set of writing techniques. So, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of writing techniques on academic achievement of elementary school students.    

The research method was semi-experimental with pretest-postest and control group. The population consisted of all female students in the sixth grade of elementary region 2 in Yazd. Thirty students randomly divided into control and experimental groups of fifteen. It was also tried to control the disturbing variables by matching the subjects and randomly selecting them. The experimental group learned for six sessions, essay writing techniques (including shorthand, simple programming, rules, introductions, Wrap-up, conclusions) and the control group spent writing class without learning composition techniques. Academic achievement tests were administered from two groups, before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods in the form of ANCOVA.  

The results showed that the composition techniques dramatically affect the students’ academic achievement. According to the results, the adjusted mean of "summary" post-test scores in the experimental group was higher than the adjusted mean of "summary" post-test scores in the control group. Given that the test results showed that the scores of the experimental group in the post-test summary were significantly higher than that of the control group, it can be claimed that within the limitations of the experimental design, enlightenment training correlated with the progress of student summary writing. Therefore, the hypothesis is confirmed. Show more Show less According to the results, the adjusted mean of the post-test "simplification and checking" scores in the experimental group was higher than the adjusted mean of the post-test scores in the control group. Given that the results of the test showed that the post-test scores of the experimental group significantly increased compared to the control group, it can be claimed that, within the limitations of the experimental design, writing instruction increased students' 'writing and checking skills'. Therefore, this hypothesis is confirmed.  

The results of this study showed that using "writing techniques" is related to the improvement of students' writing skills. Using this approach as an effective tool to enhance students' writing skills can be helpful. Obviously, writing skills are one of the basic skills in the field of literature, which due to their high role in advancing the scientific goals of other courses should also be considered with special attention. In explaining the findings of the present study, it can be acknowledged that writing skills, among other educational skills more than other skills, depend on the educational environment, school priorities, as well as teacher skills in education. Standard writing is a skill that few in the family can devote to that time and attention and are often entrusted with school education. If students get acquainted with the simplest writing standards early in school education and then learn and apply more and more of these standards in the following school years, it is certainly in the academic years that this skill as one of Looking at the core lessons, they can perform better. On the other hand, improving students' writing skills requires educating teachers in this field. As studies show, teachers will find students more effective at writing skills and teaching methods after the training. Unless your elementary school teacher is proficient in writing techniques and standards, one cannot expect to help students with writing skills. Therefore, based on the findings of the present study, the following suggestions are made: - Compiling a curriculum guide - Developing a teacher guide for essay and curriculum development - Provide in-service training for elementary teachers - Teaching students writing techniques - Increase essay class hours per week