Wright Right: Improving and Sustaining Written Expression Abilities in Middle School Students With and Without Learning Disabilities Using Procedural Facilitators

Abstract

Students with and without learning disabilities struggle to engage in effective written expression. Despite challenges in written expression, written expression can be supported through pre-writing strategies such as procedural facilitators. Using a quasi-experimental design, eighth grade students with and without learning disabilities in written expression used three procedural facilitators—presented from the most to the least support—to write essays. Students wrote a pretest, an essay following each procedural facilitator, and two posttest essays. Results suggested that all students experienced significant gains in written expression when using the procedural facilitators and were able to maintain their improvements as the amount of support was decreased. Students also reported that the procedural facilitators were easy to use and beneficial.