High school students with high-incidence disabilities and struggling writers face considerable challenges when taking writing assessments designed for college entrance. This study examined the ...effectiveness of a writing intervention for improving students’ performance on a college entrance exam, the writing assessment for the ACT. Students were taught a planning and composing strategy for successfully taking this test using the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) model. A true-experiment was conducted where 20 high school students were randomly assigned to a treatment (n = 10) or control (n = 10) condition. Control students received ACT math preparation. SRSD instruction statistically enhanced students’ planning, the quality of their written text (including ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use), the inclusion of argumentative elements in their compositions, and the use of transition words in written text. Limitations of the study, future research, and implications for practice are discussed.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Developing informative writing skills at the elementary level is critical for long-term academic and personal success. This study investigated impacts of a schoolwide implementation of Self-Regulated ...Strategy Development (SRSD) in inclusive classes to improve elementary students' informative writing and teachers' efficacy and perceptions of teaching SRSD for writing. Eighteen kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers participated in professional development and implemented SRSD with 276 students. Multilevel modeling was used to examine how students' improvement in writing performance varied by their gender, classification (general education - receiving no additional services, receiving special education services, English Learners ELs, and special education and EL), and number of lessons received. Student writing was scored for genre elements, holistic quality, total words written, and transition words. Results demonstrate that students in all grades improved on all measures. Gain scores of informative genre elements, holistic quality, and transition words remained significant even after controlling for student gender, classification, and the number of lessons received. In addition, teachers reported feeling more confident and skillful in teaching writing through SRSD.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an evidence-based practice for writing that is effective in improving the writing performance of elementary students with learning disabilities and the ...broader student population. In this manuscript, we provide guidance for elementary instructional coaches in facilitating a schoolwide adoption of SRSD for writing instruction. We outline the steps for instructional coaches to conduct practice-based professional development and then discuss ways instructional coaches can support teachers and oversee schoolwide SRSD implementation. Finally, we present ways that instructional coaches can be a valuable resource for teachers in differentiating SRSD instruction to meet students’ needs and to track students’ growth. By fostering a schoolwide implementation, coaches can harness the power of additive knowledge, increase teacher knowledge of evidence-based pedagogical practices, and increase the writing skills of all students, including those with learning disabilities.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UPUK
In this meta-analysis, we examined whether children classified with specific language impairment (SLI) experience difficulties with writing. We included studies comparing children with SLI to (a) ...typically developing peers matched on age (k = 39 studies) and (b) typically developing younger peers with similar language capabilities (k = six studies). Children classified with SLI scored lower on writing measures than their typically developing peers matched on age (g = −0.97) when all writing scores in a study were included in the analysis. This same pattern occurred for specific measures of writing: quality (g = −0.92), output (g = −1.00), grammar (g = −0.68), vocabulary (g = −0.68), and spelling (g = −1.17). A moderator analysis revealed that differences in the writing scores of children classified with SLI and typically developing peers matched on age were not as large, but were still statistically significant, when assessment involved a contrived response format (vs. measured based on students’ writing), researcher-created measures (vs. norm-referenced tests), or SLI included just children with a speech disorder (vs. children with a language disorder). Children classified with SLI further scored lower on writing than typically developing peers with similar language capabilities (g = −0.47). We concluded that children with SLI experience difficulties with writing.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Three studies examined if teachers' beliefs about writing predicted their efficacy to teach writing. We surveyed primary grade teachers from Taiwan (N = 782), Shanghai (N = 429), and the United ...States (N = 214). At each location, teachers completed surveys assessing attitudes toward writing and the teaching of writing, beliefs about students' progress as writers, and epistemological beliefs about writing instruction, writing development, and writing knowledge. We examined if each of these beliefs made unique and statistically significant contributions to predicting efficacy to teach writing after variance due to all other predictors, as well as personal and contextual variables, was controlled. With one exception, these three sets of beliefs each accounted for unique variance in predicting teacher efficacy at each location. There was, however, variability in unique variance in teacher efficacy scores accounted for by specific beliefs across locations and the factor structure of various measures by location.
An increasing number of students with disabilities now attend college, but many do not complete their college program due to poor grades. This may occur because students with high-incidence ...disabilities often struggle acquiring the academic skills essential to success in college. Teaching learning strategies to students with high-incidence disabilities in high school can help prepare them to be academically successful in college. Learning strategies are specific techniques used to help students approach and learn content material. This article presents five strategies for learning academic content that can be taught to students with high-incidence disabilities who aim to go to college. The learning strategies incorporate mnemonics and an evidence-based practice and are intended to improve students’ listening during class, effective note taking, reading content material, assignment completion, and test taking.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Students with disabilities need high-quality instruction to effectively wield writing as a tool to powerfully shape both academic and economic outcomes. Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is ...a powerful intervention demonstrated to improve student growth and writing performance for students with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Moreover, it has been extended to show benefits beyond those populations into general education settings at the secondary level and to also support both reading and content area knowledge acquisition. That said, it’s a complex intervention that requires intensive support through professional development. In this manuscript, we outline how instructional coaches and other teacher leaders can best support teachers in middle and high school settings as they adopt SRSD, an evidence-based writing practice, through a practice-based professional development model. We offer step-by-step directions for planning, implementing, supporting, and evaluating the implementation.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study tested whether writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behaviors (within the context of robust writing instruction) each made a statistically unique contribution to predicting ...fifth-grade students’ (123 girls, 104 boys) composition quality and length on a persuasive writing task involving source material, after variance due to other predictors and control variables (reading comprehension, gender, class, and school effects) were controlled. With one exception, writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behaviors each accounted for statistically unique variance in predicting compositional quality. The exception involved writing knowledge, which did not make a unique contribution in the fall but did in the spring, when a topic knowledge measure was added. In addition, writing motivation, and strategic behaviors accounted for unique variance in composition length in the fall, and writing knowledge did so in the spring.
A random sample of middle school teachers (grades 6–9) from across the United States was surveyed about their use of writing to support students’ learning. The selection process was stratified so ...there were an equal number of English language arts, social studies, and science teachers. More than one-half of the teachers reported applying 15 or more writing to learn strategies at least once a month or more often. The most commonly used writing to learn strategies were writing short answers to questions, note taking for reading, note taking while listening, and completing worksheets. While teachers reported using a variety of writing to learn strategies, most of them indicated they received minimal or no formal preparation in college on how to use writing to learn strategies to support student learning, less than one-half of teachers directly taught students how to use the writing to learn strategies commonly assigned, and the most commonly used writing to learn strategies did not require students to think deeply about the material they were learning. We further found that teachers’ reported use of writing to learn strategies was related to their preparedness and the composition of their classroom in terms of above and below average writers, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Teachers report a need for professional development in order to feel more confident and be more effective in providing writing instruction and intensive intervention to support middle school ...students. This study investigates the impacts of online practice-based professional development (PBPD) and coaching for self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) argumentative writing instruction on teachers’ implementation of the instruction. Using a pre-test–post-test design, the study also examined the effects of the SRSD instruction on students’ argumentative writing from source texts. Five middle school teachers from three regions across the United States participated in the PBPD and implemented SRSD with 55 middle school students with high-incidence disabilities or below-proficient writing skills. Following PBPD, teachers implemented the SRSD argumentative writing instruction with high adherence to dosage, fidelity of implementation, and quality. Student writing was scored for argumentative genre elements, holistic quality, total words written, and transition words. Results demonstrate that students improved on all measures. In addition, students reported feeling confident in their argumentative writing abilities. Teachers and students reported high social validity for the intervention. The benefits found in this research study provide a strong foundation supporting the application of comprehensive online PBPD with follow-up coaching to support teacher implementation of SRSD.
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