Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities to Mindfully Plan When Writing

Abstract

In this study, fifth-grade students with learning disabilities received instruction designed to help them incorporate three common planning strategies into their current approach to writing. Students learned to set goals, brainstorm ideas, and sequence their ideas while writing stories and completing self-selected homework assignments. To facilitate maintenance and generalization, instruction included a variety of procedures for inducing the thoughtful or mindful application of the planning strategies. Following instruction, planning became a prominent part of the composing process, as students spent as much time planning papers as writing them. Correspondingly, the schematic structure of students' stories improved and their papers became longer. These effects generalized to a second, uninstructed genre, persuasive essay writing, and were generally maintained over time.