Teaching Writing Strategies to Young Students Struggling with Writing and at Risk for Behavioral Disorders: Self-Regulated Strategy Development

Abstract

By fourth grade, over half of students write so poorly that their writing skills are not adequate for meeting classroom demands (Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). Poor writing skills place these children academically at risk, not only during the early elementary years but in secondary school as well. During the middle and high school years, writing is the primary means by which students demonstrate their knowledge (Graham, 2005). It is used to gather, remember, and share content information. Furthermore, it is an effective tool for exploring and thinking about ideas (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley, & Wilkinson, 2004). Writing is especially difficult for students with behavioral difficulties (Tindal & Crawford, 2002). Nelson, Benner, Lane, and Smith (2004) found that from kindergarten through Grade 12, students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) scored well below average on a standardized test of writing ability. Given the importance of writing to school success, this places these students at a considerable disadvantage in the educational system (Graham, 2006). It is especially important that children with or at risk for E/BD receive sound instruction in writing early on, before their writing problems become more intractable. Research indicates that waiting until later grades to address literacy problems that are evident in the primary grades is not a successful strategy (Slavin, Karweit, & Madden, 1989). Learning to write is a complex process that depends on mastering a variety of processes and skills (Graham, 2006), including how to plan compositions and regulate writing behavior. One approach that has been used successfully to teach both good and poor writers such processes is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD; Harris & Graham, 1996, 1999). With SRSD, students are taught strategies for processes that include planning as well as the knowledge and self-regulatory procedures (goal setting, self-monitoring, self-instructions, and self-reinforcement) needed to apply the target strategies, better understand the writing task, and regulate their writing behavior. In addition, this approach enhances students’ motivation for writing by making students’ writing gains visible, connecting these gains to using the knowledge and strategies they are learning, and emphasizing the importance of effort as a key factor in learning to write well. In this article, we describe how SRSD instruction was modified to teach planning and self-regulatory strategies for writing a story to second-grade students who were at risk for behavioral difficulties and who also had co-occurring writing deficits. This instruction occurred within the context of a positive behavioral support (PBS) model.