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"Written composition"
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The mediating effect of instruction on pair composition in L2 revision and writing
The present study tests the effect of ability pairing in two instructional methods in L2 collaborative revision. Two continuous indices determine a pair: individual proficiency level, distance in proficiency between pair members (heterogeneity), and the interaction between both indices. Instructional methods tested are modelling and practising. Results show that the effect of pair composition depends on instructional strategies. In the Practising condition less proficient learners profit most from a heterogeneous ability pair, whereas more proficient learners are best paired homogeneously. In the Modelling condition no effect of pair composition factors was observed. This result illustrates that Modelling is a powerful instructional method for complex learning tasks like collaborative revision in L2 as it overrides some of the grouping effects which can be found in more traditional learning conditions.
Journal Article
The effects of skill diversity on commenting and revisions
The use of peer assessment to evaluate students' writing is one recommended method that makes writing assignments possible in large content classes (i.e., more than 75 students). However, many instructors and students worry about whether students of all ability levels are capable of helping their peers. We examine how ability pairing (e.g., high-ability student with high-ability student versus high-ability student with low-ability student) changes key characteristics of feedback to determine which pairings are likely to benefit students most. A web-based reciprocal peer-review system was used to facilitate the peer review of students' writing of two papers. Over 1,100 comments given to writers from their peers were coded for several relevant categories: type of feedback, type of criticism, focus of problem, focus of solution, and implementation. Overall, creating peer-review groups such that students receive feedback from someone of a dissimilar ability appeared to be most beneficial. High-ability writers received similar kinds of feedback from high-ability versus low-ability peers. By contrast, the low-ability writers received more comments that identified problems focusing on substance issues from high-ability reviewers. In addition, the low-ability writers implemented a higher percentage of the comments from the high-ability reviewers.
Journal Article
seismologically consistent compositional model of Earth’s core
Earth’s core is less dense than iron, and therefore it must contain “light elements,” such as S, Si, O, or C. We use ab initio molecular dynamics to calculate the density and bulk sound velocity in liquid metal alloys at the pressure and temperature conditions of Earth's outer core. We compare the velocity and density for any composition in the (Fe–Ni, C, O, Si, S) system to radial seismological models and find a range of compositional models that fit the seismological data. We find no oxygen-free composition that fits the seismological data, and therefore our results indicate that oxygen is always required in the outer core. An oxygen-rich core is a strong indication of high-pressure and high-temperature conditions of core differentiation in a deep magma ocean with an FeO concentration (oxygen fugacity) higher than that of the present-day mantle.
Journal Article
Are poor Chinese text comprehenders also poor in written composition?
We studied the performance in three genres of Chinese written composition (narration, exposition, and argumentation) of 158 grade 4, 5, and 6 poor Chinese text comprehenders compared with 156 good Chinese text comprehenders. We examined text comprehension and written composition relationship. Verbal working memory (verbal span working memory and operation span working memory) and different levels of linguistic tasks—morphological sensitivity (morphological compounding and morphological chain), sentence processing (syntax construction and syntax integrity), and text comprehension (narrative and expository texts)—were used to predict separately narrative, expository, and argumentation written compositions in these students. Grade for grade, the good text comprehenders outperformed the poor text comprehenders in all tasks, except for morphological chain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed differential contribution of the tasks to different genres of writing. In particular, text comprehension made unique contribution to argumentation writing in the poor text comprehenders. Future studies should ask students to read and write parallel passages in the same genre for better comparison and incorporate both instructional and motivational variables.
Journal Article
No More \How Long Does It Have to Be?\
In No More \"How Long Does it Have to Be?\": Fostering Independent Writers in Grades 3-8, author Jennifer Jacobson provides the inspiration and tools to shift from a teacher-directed writing program to a student-propelled workshop model. Drawing on a wealth of Writer's Workshop experience in upper elementary and middle school classrooms, Jacobson provides strategies to help you engage and support writers as they discover their voices and take charge of their own learning. Jacobson shares tips on how to establish the spaces, routines, and tone to run a highly productive writing time:
Building classroom spaces conducive to practicing thoughtful, engaging writing
Rolling out a streamlined sequence of varied writing activities
Leading creative explorations of mentor texts
Integrating the riches of mini-lessons, conferring, sharing, and publishing
Building a workshop curriculum that aligns with your goals and rubrics
As she clarifies misconceptions about writing and workshops, she serves up an immensely readable blend of activities, anecdotes, and advice that will energize and inspire your students.
eBook
Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities
Although it is generally accepted that plant community composition is key for predicting rates of ecosystem processes in the face of global change, microbial community composition is often ignored in ecosystem modeling. To address this issue, we review recent experiments and assess whether microbial community composition is resistant, resilient, or functionally redundant in response to four different disturbances. We find that the composition of most microbial groups is sensitive and not immediately resilient to disturbance, regardless of taxonomic breadth of the group or the type of disturbance. Other studies demonstrate that changes in composition are often associated with changes in ecosystem process rates. Thus, changes in microbial communities due to disturbance may directly affect ecosystem processes. Based on these relationships, we propose a simple framework to incorporate microbial community composition into ecosystem process models. We conclude that this effort would benefit from more empirical data on the links among microbial phylogeny, physiological traits, and disturbance responses. These relationships will determine how readily microbial community composition can be used to predict the responses of ecosystem processes to global change.
Journal Article
The Effects of Providing and Receiving Peer Feedback on Writing Performance and Learning of Secondary School Students
Research has shown that engaging students in peer feedback can help students revise documents and improve their writing skills. But the mechanistic pathways by which skills develop have remained untested: Does receiving and providing feedback lead to learning because it produces more extensive revision behavior or is such immediate implementation of feedback unnecessary? These pathways were tested through analyses of the relationships between feedback provided and received, feedback implemented and overal revisions, and improved writing quality in a new article. Overall, the number of revisions predicted growth in writing ability, and both amount of received and provided feedback were associated with being more likely to make revisions. However, providing feedback was also directly related to growth in writing ability.
Journal Article
Carbon isotope compositions of terrestrial C3 plants as indicators of (paleo)ecology and (paleo)climate
A broad compilation of modern carbon isotope compositions in all C3 plant types shows a monotonic increase in δ¹³C with decreasing mean annual precipitation (MAP) that differs from previous models. Corrections for temperature, altitude, or latitude are smaller than previously estimated. As corrected for altitude, latitude, and the δ¹³C of atmospheric CO₂, these data permit refined interpretation of MAP, paleodiet, and paleoecology of ecosystems dominated by C3 plants, either prior to 7-8 million years ago (Ma), or more recently at mid- to high latitudes. Twenty-nine published paleontological studies suggest preservational or scientific bias toward dry ecosystems, although wet ecosystems are also represented. Unambiguous isotopic evidence for C4 plants is lacking prior to 7-8 Ma, and hominid ecosystems at 4.4 Ma show no isotopic evidence for dense forests. Consideration of global plant biomass indicates that average δ¹³C of C3 plants is commonly overestimated by approximately 2%thou.
Journal Article
consumer's guide to nestedness analysis
Nestedness analysis has become increasingly popular in the study of biogeographic patterns of species occurrence. Nested patterns are those in which the species composition of small assemblages is a nested subset of larger assemblages. For species interaction networks such as plant-pollinator webs, nestedness analysis has also proven a valuable tool for revealing ecological and evolutionary constraints. Despite this popularity, there has been substantial controversy in the literature over the best methods to define and quantify nestedness, and how to test for patterns of nestedness against an appropriate statistical null hypothesis. Here we review this rapidly developing literature and provide suggestions and guidelines for proper analyses. We focus on the logic and the performance of different metrics and the proper choice of null models for statistical inference. We observe that traditional 'gap-counting' metrics are biased towards species loss among columns (occupied sites) and that many metrics are not invariant to basic matrix properties. The study of nestedness should be combined with an appropriate gradient analysis to infer possible causes of the observed presence-absence sequence. In our view, statistical inference should be based on a null model in which row and columns sums are fixed. Under this model, only a relatively small number of published empirical matrices are significantly nested. We call for a critical reassessment of previous studies that have used biased metrics and unconstrained null models for statistical inference.
Journal Article