Functional development of competences in text production in of students with low performance in their last grade of elementary school

Abstract

Preliminary results of a study with pre - post  evaluation with  three comparison groups are shown. This study has the purpose of testing three types of strategies for training in text production, which are morphologically, hierarchically and functionally different. This in order to promote three different types of functional relations: intrasituational, extrasituational and transituational. The intervention program was implemented as a summer workshop directed to 14 children of sixth grade in a semi urban area in the State of Morelos, Mexico, having low levels of performance in text production activities. The text production skills were assessed with four sets of two activities each one: writing regulations, writing stories, develop descriptive paragraphs and writing messages with use of synonymous. To compare the performance assessments before and after, and between groups, were descriptive analysis of group averages, using a valuation range between 0 and 4 for each activity. Also tested a structural regression model including as predictor variable to the experimental situation (group) and as variables to predict, the four skills evaluated. The results showed that the children of the transituacional group remarkably improved their competitions in text production from pre and post evaluations, furthermore, the structural regression model showed that in the post test, the experimental condition had a significant effect on the differential performance in three of the four skills assessed.