The Effects of Strategy Instruction on Written Expression of Students With Disabilities

1. The Effects of Strategy Instruction on Written Expression of Students With Disabilities Leigh Ann Sutton Ronald H. Pannell April 15, 2013 2013 Alternative Education Conference

2. Outcome of Presentation Session • Brief overview and discussion of writing instruction for students with low and high incidence disabilities. • Discuss and review behavioral interventions/strategies that can be implemented to improve the writing of students with disabilities. • Discuss the integration of technology in writing instruction.

3. Statement of the Problem • Teaching various learning strategies to students with special needs is an effective way of providing such assess in education (Warner, Schumaker, Alley, & Deshler, 1989). • Writing instruction is a frequently neglected topic where many students fail to meet demands they face in education and employment (NCW, 2003). • Writing outcomes for students with EBD are far below their peers (Adkins, 2005; Mason & Shriner, 2008). • Comparatively, little writing research addresses writing instruction and students with EBD (Mastropieri, Scruggs, Cuenca-Sanchez, Irby, Mills, Mason, & Kubina, 2010).

4. What We Know • Over two decades of research on self-determination has noted its relevance, and is now evident within legislative and policy initiatives, state standards, and professional competencies (Lane, Carter, & Sisco, 2012). • Writing skills are of critical importance because of their emphasis on organized, rational thinking, considering the perspectives of others, and clearly communicating facts and opinions to others – skills that are of great potential value for students with EBD (Mastropieri, Scruggs, Mills, Irby, Cuenca-Sanchez, Allen-Bronaugh,Thompson, Guckert, & Regan, 2009). • One promising instructional approach, that has successfully improved written performance with students with learning disabilities, is the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model (SRSD) (Harris, Graham, Mason, & Friedlander 2008).

5. Writing Research on Students With Low Incidence Disabilities Students with disabilities across the spectrum, for the most to the least disabled, are challenged by writing. The emphasis in writing is increasing as the emphasis in accountability is toward being "college and career ready." Much of the challenge comes not because students with disabilities have nothing to say or write about, but because they have difficulty with "executive function," the intellectual ability to visualize all the stuff and steps that go into writing, and then visualizing the path they need to proceed down before they have a product (story, article, essay.)

6. Writing Research on Students With High Incidence Disabilities Overall findings of writing research on students with EBD/SLD suggest the following: • Students with EBD face significant writing difficulties from grades K-12 (Nelson, 2004); • Most writing studies for students with EBD/SLD examine self-monitoring/regulation strategy instruction to improve the mechanics of writing, or simple paragraph writing (Little et al., 2010); and • SRSD is one promising approach to improve the overall quality of writing of students with EBD/SLD through the use of self-monitoring/self-regulation strategies.

7. Instruction • Overall, research has demonstrated that students improve in their abilities to develop persuasive essays; • Students write longer sentences after receiving strategy instruction in writing; • Students demonstrate improvement in the use of transition words; and • Students improve in their ability to remain on-task when writing persuasive essays across phases.

9. Overall Outcome of Results • Number of Words – students demonstrated the ability to develop more detailed persuasive essays via POW + TREE; • Number of Transition Words – students improved in their ability to use transition words when writing a persuasive essay; • Mean Holistic Scores – students developed persuasive essays that were longer, contained more transition words, and were more detailed in nature from baseline to post intervention phases; and • Time on Task – students improved in their ability to remain on task when writing a persuasive essay from baseline to post intervention phases.

10. Behavioral Strategies • Students that struggle with writing can often display behaviors that may be misinterpreted as aggressive towards others when in fact they are a clear message indicating a need for help. • Is the work…… • Too difficult- frustrating the student? • Too easy - not challenging enough? • Not engaging? • OR • Are the directions unclear or confusing? • Is the amount too overwhelming? • Does the student not have the background knowledge?

11. Technology and Writing Instruction • One very motivating tool for instruction is the use of computers. With technology integrated into every facet of our students lives it only makes sense to integrate technology into the classroom. • Many websites and programs are available to assist with writing.

12. Writing Resources • http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/faq/ldsped-x.html • http://www.eliteskills.com/ • http://www.dixie.fayette.k12.ky.us/languagearts.htm • http://www.monsterexchange.org/about_msdescription.htm • http://www.powa.org/ • http://paragraphpunch.com • http://www.indiana.edu%7Ewts/wts/plagiarism.html • http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm • http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437 • http://www.writesite.org/

13. Conclusion • Overall, students with low and high incidence disabilities have the ability to respond to instructional strategies in writing; • Research has demonstrated that a majority of students write longer sentences as a result of strategy instruction in writing; • Students demonstrated improvement in the use of transition words; and • Students improved in their ability to remain on-task as they complete writing assignments across the content areas.

14. References Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Mason, L. H., & Friedlander, B. (2008). Powerful writing strategies for all students. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks. Lane, K. L., Carter, E. W., & Sisco, L. (2012). Paraprofessional involvement in self-determination instruction for students with high-incident disabilities. Exceptional Children, 78, 237 –251. Little, M. A., Lane, K. L., Harris, K. A., Graham, S., Story, M., & Sandmel, K. (2010). Self-regulated strategies development for persuasive writing in tandem with schoolwide positive behavioral support: Effects for second-grade students with behavioral and writing difficulties. Behavioral Disorders, 35, 157–179. Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., Mills, S., Irby, N., Cuenca-Sanchez, Y., Allen-Bronaugh, D., Thompson, C., Guckert, M., & Regan, K. (2009). Persuading students with emotional disabilities to write fluently. Behavioral Disorders, 35, 19–40. Nelson, J. R., Benner, G. J., Lane, K., & Smith, B. W. (2004). Academic achievement of k-12 students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children, 71, 59–73. The National Commission on Writing. (2003). The neglected “r:” The need for a writing revolution. Retrieved September 16, 2009 from the NCW website: http://www.writingcommission.org/