“LUMINESCENT AS AN ANGLERFISH”: CREATIVE WRITING AS A STRATEGY FOR BUILDING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

Author

Dana Fitz Gale

Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Degree Name

Teaching and Learning

Department or School/College

Phyllis J. Washington College of Education

Committee Chair

Morgen Alwell

Commitee Members

Kate Brayko, Jingjing Sun, Daniel Lee, Stephanie Reid

Keywords

creative writing, figurative language, literacy, poetry, writing instruction

Publisher

University of Montana

Abstract

This pretest/ posttest nonequivalent groups study explored the relationship between classroom-based creative writing instruction and the figurative language abilities of fourth grade students. Figurative language is widespread within the oral and written discourse of K-12 classrooms and is an essential component of higher-level language and literacy development.

Despite the prevalence of non-literal language in educational settings and its relevance to children’s academic and social success, research concerning best practices for teaching non-literal language remains scarce. A few studies have suggested that creative writing may be an effective vehicle for fostering figurative language in children. Poetry writing seems especially promising, since poetry is rich in figurative forms and tends to be motivational for young writers.

In this study, I compared pretest and posttest scores on a brief measure of figurative language which I administered to two groups of fourth grade students. The treatment group (n = 30) received six weeks of poetry writing instruction between pretest and posttest, while the comparison group (n = 37) did not. Results of a within subjects analysis using paired samples t tests revealed that only the treatment group demonstrated significant gains on the posttest. Results of between subjects analysis showed that the change in the treatment group’s scores between differed significantly from the comparison group’s change in scores. The effect size was large for both the within subjects and the between subjects analyses. Although generalizability is limited due to the nonrandomized design, the results suggest that creative writing deserves more attention as a means of teaching figurative language to school-aged children.

Recommended Citation

Gale, Dana Fitz, "“LUMINESCENT AS AN ANGLERFISH”: CREATIVE WRITING AS A STRATEGY FOR BUILDING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN" (2023). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12162.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12162