Persuading Students with Emotional Disabilities to Write Fluently

Abstract

A multiple-baseline design study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of strategy instruction in persuasive writing with eighth-grade students who attended a public day school for students with severe emotional and behavior disabilities. Students were taught to plan and write persuasive essays using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development model. Following mastery of the strategy, students were taught to apply the learned strategy to write fluently in 10 min. After more than 4 months of instruction, findings indicated that all students had mastered the components of effective persuasive essay writing and increased from baseline to postinstruction and fluency phases in length and quality of essays. Effects were also noted on maintenance and generalization essay probes administered over 11.5 weeks after fluency testing. Observed on-task behavior was significantly correlated with a number of fluency, maintenance, and generalization outcomes. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.