kathleen yancey's Page

I'm just now getting the hang of this thing and I go on here and see all these old messages? Do you "ning" very much?? How about some discussion on Arne Duncan who just made some really offensive remarks at NEA. I think we (NCTE)should respond somehow.

Sorry about the long gap...life, huh? I'm getting in tomorrow (Wed) night, will stay through early evening Saturday, then fly back to my two incredible grandsons...the new arrival is Ethan Alexander LeCureux! I'm at the Marriott Riverwalk. Where are you?

K,

Just a quick "hello" ... life has been nuts since the state convention (all that stuff I neglected for two months leading up to the event and piled on my desk has been demanding my attention). We all had a such a great time and you were a MAJOR part of it. I'll look forward to seeing you in TX!

at Howl at the Moon - Fri. 21st from 5-8 for happy hour, but I imagine some of us may hang out longer (heck, Bob and I have a meeting until 7) email me jerspohn@zoominternet.net and I will send your evite...

Hi, Kathy, Our state affiliate, PCTELA will be hosting a Happy Hour function on Friday night and we would love to welcome you! You already know PCTLEA is a fun loving crowd after our Lancaster times email off list and I will put you on our guest list.

Hi, Kathleen! thanks again for a great presentation at PCTELA 08! We will be hosting a PCTELA function on Friday at NCTE - Howl at the Moon - would love to have you join us!

We toons need to stick together. Avatar-ly, yours.

Well...what do you think? Will we be able to walk in San Antonio, dear sister-of-mine?

The chief researcher was my colleague Nicole Roth, Ph.D. at Bethel Park High School (PA)in the fall of 2006. For her doctoral work, she was interested in my previous success with blogging. It was the first known study of its kind on the high school level student. Previous studies focused on college level students. She completed an 11-week study with 9th graders writing essays based on Pennsylvania State Sytem Assessment prompts (the Standards-based assessment used in PA to determine proficiency). Readers used the PSSA rubric to assess the student samples. Each class consisted of three groups: blog-writers, and two control groups--hand-writers and word-processor-writers. Three readers scored student papers before and after the 11-week period. The bloggers on average had high proficiency scores than either of the two control groups. Notably students surveyed did not report "liking" blogging more than other types of writing, although they performed better. This study suggests further research on why this is so. One hunch: modeling of students seeing each others work and ownership/integrity of writing to an authentic audience of peers.