| This large-scale study investigated the writing development of urban, elementary-school students. Three hundred seventy-two low-income, urban, primary-grade students in the Boston Public Schools participated. In order to characterize their writing growth, descriptive writing samples were collected annually in first through third grades. The written descriptions were analyzed for their growth in writing quality (defined by content, use of genre features, written mechanics and spelling) and their growth in total number of words. Students showed slower growth in their use of genre features than in other dimensions, highlighting the uneven nature of writing development.;A second analysis examined the relationship between descriptive writing growth and a variety of predictors, including student background, student literacy skills, social interaction and the first-grade literacy environment. The writing of 309 students from first through third grade was included in this analysis. Two separate individual growth models were fitted with writing quality and text length as outcomes. For both models, writing growth was predicted by the combined influence of student background, early literacy skill, social interaction, and the first-grade classroom environment. In addition to the importance of early literacy skills, students' first-grade teachers were found to be potent predictors of writing. However, the influence of teachers depended on student background characteristics (ethnicity, language status and gender). Furthermore, two dimensions of the classroom literacy environment, the diversity of reading materials and the availability of writing materials in first-grade classrooms, were related to early writing growth.;These results signal that writing development involves a complex interplay of social, cognitive and environmental factors. Based on these results, the conclusions address directions for future research as well as the practical aspects of writing instruction. |
