The Cognitive Strategy in Writing: Welcome Relief for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

• Main Author: Hallenbeck, Mark J
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 07.04.1995
• Subjects: Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing; High School Students; High Schools; Instructional Effectiveness; Junior High School Students; Junior High Schools; Learning Disabilities; Teaching Methods; Teaching Models; Writing (Composition); Writing Instruction; Writing Strategies

This study adapted the Cognitive Strategy in Writing (CSIW) program, which had been effectively used with elementary students with learning disabilities (LD), to an older population of students. CSIW embodies three guiding principles: (1) effective writing is seen as a holistic enterprise involving the processes of planning, organizing, writing, editing, and revising; (2) teachers scaffold students' use of specific writing strategies; and (3) students write for authentic purposes and real audiences and collaborate with each other. Subjects included seven junior high and high school students with diagnosed LD and demonstrated difficulties with written expression. The students learned CSIW and practiced the strategies on two text structures (one requiring explaining a process and the other discussing what they know about a topic) over the course of a school year. Pretest and posttest assessments of overall quality, structure-specific primary traits, paper length, and reader sensitivity indicated improvement in students' writing during the year. T-tests demonstrated that students showed significant improvement on all measures of their writing ability. These findings affirmed the value of this writing approach for adolescents with LD. Appendixes include strategy "think sheets" and a sample pretest and posttest paper. (Contains 36 references.) (DB)