Results/Pilot

A pilot of the Talk/Write program was conducted in Barstow, California with high school students who participated in the high school’s English language learner program. The home language of all students was Spanish and all students had scored above a CELDT (California English Language Development Test) Level 3 on CELDT testing. An English teacher and one aide participated in Saturday training sessions as well as two day a week collaborative teaching/evaluation sessions for most of the 7 week training program.

The students participating in the pilot program also received instruction in writing a persuasive essay, aliterary analysis, an autobiographical essay, and writing to a prompt.

Nine students completed the afterschool program. Their scores on pre-post testing as well as total point gains are shown in the charts below.

Week 1 Pre-Test and Week 6 Post-Test: Persuasive Writing

Student Point Gain in Organizational Skills

More than two thirds of the students demonstrated dramatic improvements in organization.