Writing development involves changes that occur in children’s strategic behavior, knowledge, and motivation. The authors examined the effectiveness of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), a strategy instructional model designed to promote development in each of these areas. Instruction focused on planning and writing stories and persuasive essays. The addition of a peer support component to SRSD instruction aimed at facilitating maintenance and generalization effects was also examined. SRSD had a positive impact on the writing performance and knowledge of struggling second-grade writers attending urban schools serving a high percentage of low-income families. In comparison with children in the Writers’ Workshop condition, SRSD-instructed students were more knowledgeable about writing and evidenced stronger performance in the two instructed genres (story and persuasive writing) as well as two uninstructed genres (personal narrative and informative writing). Moreover, the peer support component augme...

Improving the Writing, Knowledge, and Motivation of Struggling Young Writers: Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Support

Reading is critical to students' success in and out of school. One potential means for improving students' reading is writing. In this meta-analysis of true and quasi-experiments, Graham and Herbert present evidence that writing about material read improves students' comprehension of it; that teaching students how to write improves their reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word reading; and that increasing how much students write enhances their reading comprehension. These findings provide empirical support for long-standing beliefs about the power of writing to facilitate reading.

Writing to Read: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Writing and Writing Instruction on Reading.

Longitudinal structural equation modeling was used to evaluate longitudinal relationships across adjacent grade levels 1 to 7 for levels of language in writing (Model 1, subword letter writing, word spelling, and text composing) or writing and reading (Model 2, subword letter writing and word spelling and reading; Model 3, word spelling and reading and text composing and comprehending). Significant longitudinal relationships were observed within and across levels of language: spelling to spelling and spelling to composing (Grades 1 to 7), Models 1 and 3, and composing to spelling (Grades 3 to 6, Model 1; Grades 4 to 6, Model 3); spelling to word reading and word reading to spelling (Grades 2 to 7), Models 2 and 3; spelling to word reading (Grade 1), Model 2, and word reading to spelling (Grade 1), Model 3; composition to comprehension (Grades 3 to 5), Model 3; comprehension to composition (Grades 2 to 6), Model 3; and comprehension to word reading (Grades 1 to 6), Model 3. Results are discussed in reference to the levels of language in translating ideas into written language and integrating writing and reading.

Longitudinal Relationships of Levels of Language in Writing and between Writing and Reading in Grades 1 to 7.

A random sample of elementary teachers in grades 4–6 from across the United States were surveyed about their writing practices. Their responses raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in upper-elementary grades. Almost two-thirds of the teachers reported that the teacher education courses they took in college provided them with little preparation to teach writing. They also reported that they teach writing for only 15 minutes a day and their students spend just 25 minutes a day writing texts of paragraph length or longer. The writing activities they mostly assigned involved writing-to-learn activities, but other important types of writing like persuasive writing, writing to inform, writing to describe, and research reports were assigned infrequently. Teachers reported using a wide range of evidenced-based instructional practices, but most of these practices were used infrequently. They make a variety of different types of adaptations for weaker writers, and most of these adaptati...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/651193

Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4–6: A National Survey

There is considerable concern that students do not develop the writing skills needed for school, occupational, or personal success. A frequent explanation for this is that schools do not do a good job of teaching this complex skill. A recent meta-analysis of true- and quasi-experimental writing intervention research (S. Graham & D. Perin, 2007a) addressed this issue by identifying effective instructional writing practices. The current review extends this earlier work by conducting a meta-analysis of single subject design writing intervention studies. The authors located 88 single subject design studies where it was possible to calculate an effect size. They calculated an average effect size for treatments that were tested in 4 or more studies, using a similar outcome measure in each study. This resulted in the identification of 9 writing treatments that were supported as effective. These were strategy instruction for planning/drafting, teaching grammar and usage, goal setting for productivity, strategy instruction for editing, writing with a word processor, reinforcing specific writing outcomes, use of prewriting activities, teaching sentence construction skills, and strategy instruction for paragraph writing.

/pdf/a-meta-analysis-of-single-subject-design-writing-1nbdds6w24.pdf

A meta-analysis of single subject design writing intervention research.

A random sample of primary grade teachers from across the United States was surveyed about their instructional practices in handwriting. Nine out of every ten teachers indicated that they taught handwriting, averaging 70 minutes of instruction per week. Only 12% of teachers, however, indicated that the education courses taken in college adequately prepared them to teach handwriting. Despite this lack of formal preparation, the majority of teachers used a variety of recommended instructional practices for teaching handwriting. The application of such practices, though, was applied unevenly, raising concerns about the quality of handwriting instruction for all children.

How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey

In this study, we examined whether early, supplemental strategy instruction in planning helped ameliorate writing difficulties. Second-grade students experiencing difficulty learning to write were taught a strategy for planning and writing stories. Learning to use the strategy had a positive effect on writing, as students' stories became more complete and, with the exception of 1 student, qualitatively better. Collateral improvements in an uninstructed genre, personal narratives, also occurred for all but 1 student. These positive effects were generally maintained over time and in some instances exceeded posttreatment effects.

Preventing Writing Difficulties: The Effects of Planning Strategy Instruction on the Writing Performance of Struggling Writers.

Primary grade teachers randomly selected from across the United Sates completed a survey (N = 168) that examined their instructional practices in spelling and the types of adaptations they made for struggling spellers. Almost every single teacher surveyed reported teaching spelling, and the vast majority of respondents implemented a complex and multifaceted instructional program that applied a variety of research-supported procedures. Although some teachers were sensitive to the instructional needs of weaker spellers and reported making many different adaptations for these students, a sizable minority of teachers (42%) indicated they made few or no adaptations. In addition, the teachers indicated that 27% of their students experienced difficulty with spelling, calling into question the effectiveness of their instruction with these children.

/pdf/teaching-spelling-in-the-primary-grades-a-national-survey-of-2y0idds7sk.pdf

Susan Moran

Papers

How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey

Preventing Writing Difficulties: The Effects of Planning Strategy Instruction on the Writing Performance of Struggling Writers.

Teaching Spelling in the Primary Grades: A National Survey of Instructional Practices and Adaptations