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Article Excerpt
Abstract. In this replication study, supplemental writing instruction in strategic planning was used to improve the story writing ability of young writers with learning disabilities (LD) and poor writing skills. Six 2nd-grade students with learning disabilities who experienced difficulty with story writing were taught a strategy for planning and writing stories using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development approach. The effects of the strategy were assessed through a multiple-baseline-across-subjects design. After learning the strategy the stories written by the students at post-instruction and maintenance became more complete, longer, and qualitatively better. In addition, planning time at post-instruction and maintenance increased. Limitations of the study and implications for practice are discussed.
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Writing poses challenges for many students. While composing, a writer must manage complex problem-solving writing processes that include planning, considering the audience's needs and perspectives, generating organized content, and revising for form and ideas. Although many students struggle occasionally with writing, writing is especially difficult for less skilled writers and writers with a learning disability (LD) (Graham & Harris, 1989).
For many students with LD, writing problems exist on two levels: (a) lower level--including grammar, punctuation, and spelling; and (b) higher level--including audience awareness, planning, content generation, and revising (Newcomer, Nodine, & Barenbaum, 1988). Obstacles on either level may detract from the overall quality of the written message. For example, spelling errors may make stories more difficult to understand, while lack of audience awareness may make the story unappealing or irrelevant.
Students who have LD and struggle with writing may have difficulty executing and monitoring many of the cognitive processes writers need to effectively manage during the writing process (Saddler, Moran, Graham, & Harris, 2004). Although writing is a multifaceted process, they may approach the writing task as a solitary activity--to only write (Englert & Marriage, 1991). Such an approach, called a "what's next?" strategy (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1986), minimizes the role of planning and revising and may lead to several undesirable story characteristics. First, the stories may be shorter as authors cannot find enough to say while writing. Second, the stories may be less coherent as writing assignments are converted into question-and-answer tasks, where whatever comes to mind is included and a clear focus for the story is not established (Newcomer et al., 1988). Third, the ideas that are stated are not developed into cohesive story lines, leading to stories that lack basic story elements such as an ending or premise (Graham & Harris, 1989, 1993, 1997). Fourth, much irrelevant information may be generated because these writers may have less knowledge of story structure or what elements a story may include (e.g., setting, characters, ending).
WRITING INTERVENTION RESEARCH
Researchers investigating writing instruction have attempted to help less skilled writers develop the more sophisticated approaches to writing that skilled writers employ (Graham, Harris, MacArthur, & Schwartz, 1991). Writing researchers have largely focused on three critical areas: explicit teaching of the writing process through strategies and procedural facilitators; adherence to a basic framework of planning, writing, and revising; and feedback (Gersten & Baker, 2001). Specific intervention research has included teaching specific types of text structure (e.g., Welch, 1992); navigating the writing process via "plans of action" (e.g., Englert, Raphael, Anderson, Anthony, & Stevens, 1991); planning (De La Paz & Graham, 1997); peer feedback (MacArthur, Schwartz, & Graham, 1991); modes of transcription (MacArthur & Graham, 1987); and sentence construction (Saddler & Graham, 2005).
Researchers have discovered that strategy instruction has been effective in teaching these interventions to students with LD (Graham & Harris, 1989). Strategies are plans for accomplishing a task and effective strategy instruction helps promote active student involvement while engaged in task-specific behavior. Strategies can provide extensive, structured, and explicit instruction that meets student needs (Harris & Graham, 1992). In writing instruction, strategies for planning or revising text, for example, can help writers improve their skills as writers by teaching them new or different ways to craft their prose (Chalk, Hagan-Burke, & Burke, 2005).
Self-Regulated Strategy Development
One empirically validated method for teaching strategies is the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) approach (see Harris & Graham, 1992). The primary focus of SRSD is teaching students strategies for successfully completing an academic task. SRSD is based on the belief that the development of self-regulation processes is an important part of learning and maturing and that self-regulatory mechanisms can be fostered and improved through instruction (Harris, Graham, Mason, & Saddler, 2002).
The major goals of SRSD as related to writing include helping writers (a) master the higher-level cognitive processes involved in writing; (b) develop autonomous, reflective, self-regulated use of effective writing strategies; and (c) form positive attitudes about writing and about themselves as writers (Harris, 1982).
Over 30 studies conducted in writing instruction for students with disabilities have utilized SRSD to support writing improvements. The results of these studies suggest that SRSD had a strong impact on improving writing performance of upper-elementary and middle school students (typical effect sizes of .80) in four areas: quality, writing knowledge, approach to writing, and self-efficacy (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2003). SRSD has been used successfully to validate strategies for several elements of the writing process, including brainstorming (Harris & Graham, 1985), semantic webbing (MacArthur, Schwartz, Graham, Molloy, & Harris, 1996), and revising (MacArthur et al., 1991). In addition, improving planning performance has also been explored (Chalk et al., 2005; Sexton, Harris, & Graham, 1998; Troia, & Graham, 2002).
Although these results are encouraging, the effectiveness of SRSD with younger students has not been as widely studied. This is surprising as a critical element in improving students' writing performance is the use of effective instructional procedures early in a child's academic career (Graham, Harris, & Larsen, 2001). Effective early instruction helps maximize the writing development for all children and may reduce the number of children who experience difficulty with writing (Graham et al., 2001). Based on the assumption that early intervention programs yield more powerful benefits than later efforts aimed at remediating problems, typical early intervention programs seek to accelerate the progress of struggling writers by providing them with additional instruction, either in a small group or through one-on-one tutoring. The basic goal is to help these students catch up with their peers early on before their difficulties become more intractable.
Research examining the effectiveness of early supplementary writing instruction has primarily focused on lower-level skills such as handwriting or spelling instruction. Extra handwriting instruction for struggling writers in first grade has resulted in increased output, improved sentence writing skills, and better writing quality (see Berninger et al., 1997; Jones & Christensen, 1999). Similar gains in writing output and sentence writing skills were obtained for second-grade writers when provided with extra spelling instruction (see Berninger et al., 1998).
Since the effectiveness of SRSD with younger students has not been widely studied, and because of the importance of early intervention for struggling writers, research needs to investigate the effectiveness of strategy instruction in improving the ability of young writers. Therefore, this study sought to determine if strategy instruction using the SRSD approach could improve the story writing ability of young writers with writing disabilities.
PRIOR STUDY
Although the planning...
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