Literature Review

The purpose of my study is to determine how the use of writing engagement strategies through social justice will increase student achievement in the areas of ideas and organization while writing in the persuasive mode. Writing engagement strategies can be defined as instructional methods that bring about students’ interests and curiosity, impact participation and enthusiasm, and support student achievement (Parsons, Nuland, & Parsons, 2014). A social justice approach to writing provides student with an awareness of current tensions and topics occurring in society that may affect their family or community. When fifth graders write in the persuasive mode, students target an authentic audience for their finished product and write about topics that matter (Chapman, Hobbel, & Alvarado, 2011). Authentic social justice writing tasks for students in fifth grade could be something school based like writing a persuasive essay to the principal to make changes within the school or a community based issue causing students to write local government officials to advocate for change within the community.

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Research indicates that students in grades four through six are not exposed to meaningful writing tasks, through persuasive and informational writing, that are needed for later success in college and work (Gilbert & Graham, 2010); yet, one of the major assessments that fifth-grade students complete is the persuasive Analytical Writing Assessment. Providing students with meaningful writing tasks through social justice, gives them choice in their writing. This choice empowers students by giving them the opportunity to write to an authentic audience about a topic that is important to them. An English-Language Arts curriculum specialist shared, writing disposition, interest, and persistence, “...have everything to do with writing achievement. In order to get students to write and love to write, they have to be able to write every day about topics that they are passionate about,” (2017). Substantial research further supports that in order for students to develop the writing skills needed for future education and careers, they should engage in extended, meaningful, and useful writing activities (Bingham, Holbrook, & Meyers, 2010).

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Developing students’ writing abilities is key to their success as learners and members of a literate society. Educators can leverage social justice and authentic writing tasks as engagement strategies to improve students’ performance on various writing tasks. Research indicates that these types of engagement strategies, “...provide evidence of student accountability to community, content, and critical thinking, as well as overall positive perceptions of their participation,” (Gambrell et al., 2011, p. 250). Educators have a responsibility to prepare students for the future by providing them with college and career readiness skills. Through the use of social justice and authentic writing tasks, students are connecting their work in the classroom to the real-world. This engagement can have an impact on student learning, grades, achievement, test scores, retention, and graduation (Parsons, Nuland, & Parsons, 2014).

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