Socially Mediated Instruction: Improving Students' Knowledge and Talk about Writing

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Metacognitive knowledge about writing is presumed to be an important aspect of self-regulated writing. Yet few studies have examined the effects of interventions designed to increase this knowledge on students' metacognitive knowledge as it is expressed through talk about writing. In the present study, 32 upper-elementary learning-disabled (LD) and non-learning-disabled (NLD) students participated in a socially mediated writing intervention emphasizing the process of writing, writing strategies, and the role of teacher-student and student-student dialogue. The intervention program was administered 3 times per week over a 1-year period. The talk of the intervention students about writing processes and strategies was compared to that of a similar group of students who had not participated in the intervention. The results suggested that, following the intervention, both LD and NLD students' talk revealed more metacognitive knowledge about writing. Students who had participated in the intervention showed greater ability to talk about planning, drafting, and revising as well as to discuss their purposes and intended audience. Further, when LD and NLD students from the intervention group were compared, the talk of LD students showed the greatest progression from an emphasis on other-regulation to self-regulation. Finally, the quality of students' metacognitive knowledge was positively related to measures of academic performance in writing and reading.