Strategy Instruction in Writing for Struggling Writers

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Strategy Instruction in Writingfor Struggling
Writers

• Charles MacArthur
• University of Delaware

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Strategy Instruction

• Research has demonstrated that well designed
  strategy instruction can produce substantial
  gains in writing quality for struggling writers.
• Well designed strategy instruction teaches
  specific strategies for planning and revising
  strategies as well self-regulation strategies.
• Staff development and wide scale implementation
  are significant challenges.

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Research foundations

• Cognitive models of expert and developing writers
• Research on self-regulation, e.g., goal-setting,
  self-evaluation, self-efficacy
• Research on strategy instruction in general -
  direct explanation, modeling, guided practice

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Proficient writers

• Planning
• Set goals and subgoals based on audience and task
• Generate content
• Organize using knowledge of text structure
• Production
• Generate sentences - language
• Transcription - mechanics

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Proficient writers (cont.)

• Revision
• Evaluate using extensive criteria
• Develop ideas
• Extensive self-regulation
• Select and monitor strategies
• Productivity

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Struggling Writers

• Minimal planning
• Little thought of audience or purpose or goals
• Difficulty generating ideas
• Limited knowledge about organization
• Problems with mechanics language

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Struggling writers (cont.)

• Minimal revising
• Poor reading skills
• Limited knowledge of evaluation
• Difficulty fixing problems
• Focus on mechanics
• Poor self-regulation - Difficulty coordinating
  what they do know

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We can

• Teach specific strategies for planning and
  revising based on what good writers do
• Teach students to self-regulate
• Set goals
• Cope with difficulties
• Self-evaluate
• Improve their writing

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ExamplesTask-specific strategies

• Planning strategies based on text structure
• Revising strategies based on evaluation criteria

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Importance of text structure

• Good writers use knowledge of text structure or
  genre to plan
• Connected to purpose for writing
• Helps to generate content
• Helps to organize paper
• Helps with self-evaluation

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A Planning Strategy for Persuasive Writing --
(TREE)

• THINK Who? Why?
• PLAN
• T -- Topic sentence
• R -- Reasons
• E -- Examine reasons
• E -- Ending
• Write and say more

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Planning Stories

• THINK Who? Why?
• PLAN
• C - Characters
• S Setting
• P Problem
• A Action
• C Conclusion
• E Emotion
• Write and say more

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Story map
Character
Setting
Problem or Goal
Events
Solution
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Compare-contrast
Compare what?
On what?
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Importance of self-evaluation

• Research shows that teaching evaluation criteria
  along with revision is effective
• Align self-evaluation, teacher evaluation, and
  accountability assessments
• Analytic scales like 6-Traits
• Genre-specific evaluation scales
• Teach peer revising strategies

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Self-evaluation for persuasive writing -- genre
specific

• Did I state my position clearly? 1 2 3
• Is my first reason clear and supported by
  details? 1 2 3
• Is my second reason clear and . . . 1 2 3
• Is my third reason clear and . . . 1 2 3
• Did I summarize my reasons at the end? 1 2 3
• Is my essay persuasive? 1 2 3
• How can I improve my next essay?

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Peer revising strategy

• LISTEN as partner reads
• TELL what you liked best
• READ and ask questions
• Topic? Is the opinion clear?
• Reasons? Is each reason clear and related to the
  opinion?
• Support? Is each reason supported with details?
• Ending? Is there a summary?
• DISCUSS your suggestions
• Author makes changes

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Peer revising -- Stories

• LISTEN as partner reads
• TELL what you liked best
• READ and ask questions
• Characters? Are they clearly described?
• Problem? How is it resolved?
• Emotion? Does it show how characters feel?
• DISCUSS your suggestions
• Author makes changes

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Effective strategy instruction

• Meaningful writing in a social context
• Direct explanation and modeling
• Self-regulation strategies
• Self-statements
• Self-evaluation
• Goal setting
• Extensive guided practice
• Mastery learning
• Generalization
• Motivation

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Self-regulated Strategic Writers

• Set goals
• Purposes for writing
• Motivation
• Select strategies
• Planning revising
• Know why and when
• Monitor progress
• Am I using the strategy?
• Is my writing improving?

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Research

• Meta-analysis of 39 studies (Graham, in press)
• Effect size for quality - 1.25 (very large
  effect). Cf. ES.44 for best method in Hillocks
  1984 analysis.
• PND - 89 (very large effect)
• Most studies used LD (64), LA (23), or avg.
  (23) with few good (10), but all large effects
• Planning - revising elem - sec narr - expos.
  All large effects
• Effective in classrooms and in tutoring
• SRSD model more effective than others (ES 1.6 vs.
  0.9)

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Implementation Issues

• Teach a few strategies intensively
• Coordinate across teachers, grades, subjects
• Compatible with process approaches that emphasize
  social context
• Works in combination with content area
  instruction
• Fits into a curriculum based on genre or purposes
  for writing (e.g., to persuade)

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Challenges

• Getting from single strategies to strategic
  learners is a long term process
• Demanding approach for teachers
• Explicit explanation and modeling
• Appropriate support
• Evaluation of strategy use and results
• Teaching to individual mastery in a group setting
• Demands on schools
• Coordinated approach across classes and grades
• Little research on large-scale implementation or
  staff development