INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF PREWRITING ACTIVITIES ON WRITING PERFORMANCE AND ANXIETY OF AT-RISK STUDENTS

At-risk fifth grade students were treated to a writing program that utilized prewriting activities to see if their written expression and writing anxiety would improve. Students’ before and after papers were compared utilizing their holistic scores on written expression. Writing anxiety changes were noted at the same time through a writing anxiety test. The experimental students improved in their written expression scores from beginning to end of treatment and in comparison to the control group. Writing anxiety decreased for the experimental group during the study compared to the expression ability through writing instructions that emphasize prewriting activities. This study has also demonstrated that student-writing anxiety can be lowered through a writing program that emphasizes prewriting activities.