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AWRITINGHANDBOOKFORMIDDLEYEARSTEACHERS

USINGTHESELF-REGULATEDSTRATEGYDEVELOPMENTMODELBy

TracieMcDonald

APaperSubmittedforthe14thAnnualGraduateStudentSymposium

FacultyofEducation

UniversityofManitoba

Winnipeg,Manitoba

TracieJ.McDonald2013

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Introduction

Inthetwenty-firstcenturypeopleneedtomanage,analyze,andsynthesize

multiplestreamsofinformationinordertofunctionintoday’ssociety.Thisputs

demandsontoday’sadolescentsforthefuturebecausetheywillneedtoreadand

writemore,thaninpreviousdecadesinordertoperformjobs,runtheirhouseholds,

andactascitizenswithinaninformationrichsociety(Biancarosa&Snow,2006;

Graham&Hebert,2010;NationalInstituteofChildHealthandHumanDevelopment,

2007).Onespecific concern related to adolescent literacy is the quality of writing that

students in the United States and Canada are demonstrating once they graduate from high

school. Adolescents are not always seen as having adequate writing skills that are needed

for college and the work place. According to the National Commission on Writing

(2004), American businesses spend $3.1 billion yearly, to improve employees’ skills in

writing. Writing is important in the work force because it is needed to produce written

reports, presentations, and for E-mail communication (Graham & Perin, 2007a; Wosley

& Grisham, 2012).

Hyland, Howell, and Zhang (2010) have noticed with the increased

postsecondary population in Ontario “writing ability appears to be one skill that is most

variable among this population” (p. 6). The problem related to the quality of adolescent

writing has drawn attention to how schools are teaching writing and how adolescents are

being prepared to function as literate members within society. The information in this

handbook has significance for teachers that teach English Language Arts, Science, and

Social Studies. There is a clear need that writing strategies need to be taught in all subject

area so that students become well-rounded writers. According to Biancarosa and Snow

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(2006), content area teachers should provide both instruction and practice “in writing

skills specific to their subject area” (p. 4). It is important to respect and understand that

each discipline is different and “requires particular kinds of literacy skills” (Knipper &

Duggan, 2006). According to Shanahan & Shanahan (2008) “ writing instruction should

become increasingly disciplinary” (p.57). This indicates that all teachers have a role to

play with the development of writing skills for adolescents in todays classrooms.

Everythreeyears,since2000,theProgrammeforInternationalStudent

Assessment(PISA)measurestheskilllevelsof15-year-oldstudentsfrom65

countriesintheareasofreading,mathematics,andscience.ThePISAassessments

measuretheknowledgeandskillsthataredeemedtobeessentialforparticipation

intoday’ssociety.Thedataobtainedfromthismethodofassessmentreveal

international,national,andprovincialresultsthatallowforliteracycomparisonson

agloballevel.Canadaplacedfifthglobally,whileManitobaexperiencedadropin

performancebetween2000and2009.Despitethisdropinperformance,Manitoba

stillhadanoverallperformancelevelthatwasequaltothatoftheOECDaverage.

(Knighton,Brochu,&Gluszynski,2010).Thedecreasewiththeprovincialresults

representsbothawarningandanopportunityforeducatorstoconsiderwhat

changesneedtobemadewithinstructionalpracticesinordertoimprove

adolescentliteracylevels.

ContemporaryResearchonWritingStrategies

Thissectionofthepaperprovidesinformationaboutresearchthatfocused

ontheeffectivenessofstrategyinstructiononwritingperformance.Thisreviewis

notexhaustive,butitismeanttoprovideanoverviewofspecificresearchstudies

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thathavefurnishedinformationaboutwritingstrategies.Ihavechosentohighlight

thesestudiesbasedonthestrengthandconsistencyoftheireffectiveness.Thereare

twomainsectionstothispartofthepaper.Thefirstsectionwillreviewlarge-scale

studiesbyGraham(2006),GrahamandPerin(2007a),andRogersandGraham

(2008).Theresearchthatisbeingreviewedincludesmeta-analysisstudiesthat

usedexperimental,quasi-experimental,andsinglesubjectdesignresearch

methodologies.ThesecondsectionwillreviewresearchstudiesspecifictotheSelf-

RegulatedStrategyDevelopmentmodel(SRSD).Thisresearchhasbeenincluded

becausetheSRSDmodelmaybeusedtoteachseveralofthewritingstrategiesinthe

finalsectionofthepaper.

LargeScaleStudiesonWritingStrategies

Theselectedstudieshadtomeetthreecriteriatobeincludedinthemeta-

analysis.First,studentshadtobeshownhowtousethestrategywithmodeling.

Second,therehadtobeatleastthreeormoredaysofstrategyinstruction.Third,

instructionhadtoprogresstowardsthestudentbeingabletousethestrategy

independently.Studentsinthestudiesrangedfromgradetwotogradetwelve.The

studiesincludedstudentswithlearningdisabilities,aswellaspoor,average,and

goodwriters.Studentsweretaughtoneormorestrategiesforplanning,revising,or

editingoftext.

Thefindingsfromthegroupcomparisonstudiesandthesingle-subject

designstudiesrevealedthatstrategyinstructiondidimprovestudents’writing

performanceandwritingquality.Graham(2006)foundwiththegroupcomparison

studiesthattheeffectsizeforstrategyinstructionwas1.15;whilegroup

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comparisonstudiesthatspecificallyexaminedSRSDinstructionwerefoundtohave

aneffectsize“thatwasalmostdoubletheaverageeffectsize”(p.204).

WritingNext(GrahamandPerin,2007a)isameta-analysisthatcategorized

andanalyzedexperimentalandquasi-experimentaldatatodeterminewhich

instructionalmethodswouldbestsupportgrowthinadolescentwritingquality.For

thisstudythetermadolescentreferredtostudentsin4ththroughto12thgrade.

GrahamandPerin(2007a)identified11elementstobeeffectiveforadolescent

writinginstruction.(SeeTable1)

Table1:RecommendationsfromWritingnext:EffectivestrategiestoimprovewritingofadolescentsinmiddleandhighschoolsStrategyEffectSize

1.WritingStrategies0.82

2.Summarization0.82

3.CollaborativeWriting0.75

4.SpecificProductGoals0.70

5.WordProcessing0.55

6.SentenceCombining0.50

7.Prewriting0.32

8.InquiryActivities0.32

9.ProcessWritingApproach0.32

10.StudyofModels0.25

11.WritingforContentLearning0.23

AdaptedfromWritingNext:EffectiveStrategiestoImproveWritingofAdolescentsinMiddle

andHighSchools(p.11)byS.GrahamandD.Perin,2007a,Washington,DC:AllianceforExcellentEducation

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Writingqualitywastheprimaryoutcomeoftheresearchbeingstudied.

Writingqualitywasdefined“intermsofcoherentlyorganizedessays,containing

well-developedandpertinentideas,supportingexamplesandappropriatedetail”

(Graham,&Perin,2007a,p.14).ThefindingsfromWritingNext(Graham&Perin,

2007a)indicatedthatteachingstudentswritingstrategies(effectsize=0.82)and

skillsforsummarizationoftext(effectsize=0.82)werebothequallyeffectivefor

bringingaboutimprovementstothequalityofadolescentswriting.

RogersandGraham(2008)extendedtheworkfoundinWritingNext(2007a)

byconductingameta-analysisofsinglesubjectdesignwritingintervention

research.Eighty-eightsinglesubjectdesignstudieswerereviewed.Studieswere

includedfromresearchthatwasconductedatregular,private,andalternative

schools.Studiesfromsummerprograms,clinics,andresidentialcenterswerealso

includedbecausetheresearcherswereinterestedinfindingoutwhichwriting

practiceswouldbeeffectivewithstrugglingwritersandstudentswithlearning

disabilities.

RogersandGraham(2008)alsoexaminedtheeffectofstrategyinstruction

withdifferentwritinggenres.Analysiswasdonewithstorywritingandexpository

writing.Expositorywritingincludedpersuasiveandexpositoryessays.Strategy

instructionhadalargeeffectwithelementsofwritingandproductivityforboth

formsofwriting.ThemedianandmeanPNDscoresforelementsofwritingand

productivitywas91%orgreater.Itwasfoundthatmaintenanceforelementsof

writingwithexpositorywritinghadameanPNDscoreof89%whilemaintenanceof

productivityforstorieshadameanPNDof79%.Scoresthatrangebetween50%

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and70%reflectquestionableeffectiveness,whilescoresbetween70%and90%are

moderatelyeffective.Highlyeffectivetreatmentsarereflectedbyscoresthatare

90%andabove.Bothresultsindicatethatwritingimproveswithstrategy

instructionembeddedininstructionalpractices.

RogersandGraham(2008)examinedfivestudiestoseehoweffective

strategyinstructionwasforediting.Thesestudiesusederrorscorrectedasthe

outcomemeasure.Therewere32studentsingrades4to12fromthefiveediting

interventionstudies.Eachstudyhadstrugglingwriterswithlearningdisabilities

andonestudyhadstudentsthatrepresentedthefullrangeofwritingabilitiesthata

teacherwouldhaveintheregularclassroom.Theresultsindicatethatteachingan

editingstrategywouldhavealargetomoderateeffectoncorrectingerrors(Rogers

&Graham,2008).

ResearchonSelf-RegulatedStrategyDevelopment

NextIwillreviewstudiesthatinvestigatetheSelfRegulatedStrategy

Development(SRSD)procedures.DeLaPazandGraham(2002)examinedthe

effectivenessofinstructionalstrategiesandtheimpactthattheyhaveonthewriting

performanceofstudentsintheregularclassroom.Thestudentpopulationbeing

studiedbyDeLaPazandGraham(2002)wasveryspecific,andthefocuswason

middleschoolstudents.Theparticipantsinthisstudyincluded58seventhand

eighthgradestudents.Studentsweretaughtstrategiesforplanning,drafting,and

revisinganexpositoryessayforpersuasionusingtheself-regulatedstrategymodel.

Afterreceivinginstruction,97%ofthestudentsintheexperimentalgroupwere

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“morecomplete,elaborate,andhierarchical”(p.696)withtheirpre-writingplans.

Effectsizesforthewritingmeasureswerequitestrong(effectsize=1.0)onthepost

treatment.OverallDeLaPazandGraham(2002)foundthatstudentsinthe

treatmentconditionproducedessaysthatwerelonger,usedmaturevocabulary,and

werequalitativelybetter.

Strategyinstructionhasbeenfoundtobeeffectiveforalargepercentageof

studentswhohavealearningdisability(DeLaPaz&Graham,1997a).Accordingto

Baker,Chard,Ketterlin-Geller,Apichatabutra,andDoabler(2009),writingprovides

studentswithanopportunitytoexpresstheirfeelings,knowledge,andopinionona

particulartopic.However,“studentswithwritingdifficultiesoftenstrugglewiththe

planning,composting,andrevisingskillsrequiredforeffectivewriting”(Mason,

Harris,&Graham,2011,p20).Studentswithalearningdisabilitymayalsohave

difficultywiththeplanning,writing,andrevisingofanessay.Self-regulatedstrategy

developmentwilloffersupporttothesestudentsbecauseit“targetswritingskills

thatinvolvebrainstorming,semanticmapping,generatingwritingcontent,setting

goals,andrevision”(Chalk,Hagan-Burke,&Burke,2005,p77).

AstudyconductedbyChalk,Hagan-Burke,&Burke(2005)assessedboththe

qualityandquantityofwriting,offifteenhighschoolstudents.Studentsinthis

studywereidentifiedashavingalearningdisabilityandstudentsIQscoresranged

between80and115.Thestudentswerealsoidentifiedasbeingtwoyearsbelow

gradelevelinoneormoreacademicclasses.Chalk,Hagan-Burke,&Burke,(2005)

evaluatedthestudentswritingbasedonthenumberofwordswrittenandonthe

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qualityofthewriting.Studentsreceivedfivewritinglessonsthatwere20-25

minuteslongduringeach50-minuteclass.

Theresultsfromthestudyrevealedthatwordproductionandthequality

andquantityofwritingdidimproveafterreceivinginstructionusingtheself-

regulatedstrategydevelopmentapproach.Itwasfoundthatmostofthe

improvementsoccurredinwordproductionwhilethequalitymeasurehadsome

improvementitwasnotassignificant.Chalk,Hagan-Burke,&Burke(2005)

suggestedamoresensitivemeasureofprogresscouldhavebeenusedtoscorethe

qualityofwriting.Scoringthenumberofnumberofthoughtunitsmighthave

broughtdifferentresults.

GrahamandHarris(2008)didnotethatforstudentsthatusedtheSRSD

strategytheaverageeffectsizeforimprovementinthequalityofwritingfor

studentswithlearningdisabilitieswas1.14.Previousresearchstudieshave

documentedthatusingSelfRegulatedStrategyDevelopmenthasledtoincreasesin

writingquality,andself-regulationskillsforstudentsofdifferentabilitylevels,but

especiallystudentswithlearningdisabilities(Harris&Graham,2007;Graham&

Perin2007a)

The Self- Regulated Strategy Development Model

Astrategyisaconscioussetofactionsthatoneusesinordertoachievea

goal.(Alexander,Graham,&Harris,1998).Strategiesalsoinvolvetheprocedural

knowledgeorthestepsneededtoachievethewritinggoal.Aspecificpurposeand

procedureorplanneedstobefollowedinordertoachievethegoal(Graham&

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Harris,2008).AccordingtoChalk,Hagen-Burke&Burke(2005),strategy

instruction“engagesstudentswithtasksrequiringactiveunderstanding”(p.77).

Theteachingofwritingstrategieshelpswritersinseveralways.First,the

strategyprovidesdirectionforaspecificcourseofactionneededinorderto

completethewritingassignment.Theconcretenessofthestrategyallowsstudents

tofollowanorganizedpattern.Second,theteachingofwritingstrategiesmakesthe

mentalprocessinvolvedinwritingtransparent.Whenteachersmodelthestrategy,

theymakethementalactionsassociatedwithwritingobservablebydemonstrating

verballyandvisuallyhowtousetheparticularstrategy.Athirdbenefitforstudents

isthattheylearnnewwaystogenerateandorganizeideas,andtoplanandrevise

materialthathasalreadybeenwritten.Theabilitytohelpadolescentsachieveand

improvetheirwritingperformancewillhopefullyenhancetheirself-efficacyand

motivationforwriting(Graham&Harris,2008).

Self-RegulatedStrategyDevelopment(SRSD)isascientificallyvalidated

modelthatcanhelpstudentswiththewritingprocess(Graham&Harris2008;

Graham&Perin2007a;Harris&Graham,2007;Rogers&Graham,2008).Self-

Regulationreferstothoughts,feelings,andactionsthatpeopleusetoobtaingoals

(Schunk&Zimmerman,1994).Self-regulationskillsincludegoalsetting,self-

monitoring,self-recording,self-assessmentandself-reinforcementtomanagetheir

useofwritingstrategiesforthewritingtask(Chalk,Hagen-Burke&Burke,2005;

Graham&Harris,2008).Thesestrategieshelpstudentsmanagetheirwriting

behavior,duringplanning,draftingandrevising(Graham2006,Graham&Harris,

2008;Graham&Perin,2007a,Graham&Perin,2007b).

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Theinstructionalstagesoftheself-regulatedstrategymodelareflexibleand

maybecombined,reordered,ormodifiedtomeetinstructionalneeds.Accordingto

GrahamandHarris(2008)andHarrisandGraham(2007),thesixstepsoutlined

belowaremeanttobeaguidelineforteachingastrategy:

Step1:Developbackgroundknowledge:Studentsaretaughttheinformationand

skillsneededtounderstandtheself-regulatedproceduresandthewritingstrategy.

Step2:DiscussIt:Currentwritingperformanceandthetargetwritingstrategyare

discussed.Howandwhentousethestrategyarediscussed.

Step3:ModelIt:Theteachermodelshowtousethestrategywithathinkaloud

approachandgoalsettingapproachesmayalsobedoneatthisstep.

Step4:MemorizeIt:Amnemonicforrememberingthestrategymaybeusedto

supportmemorization.

Step5:SupportIt:Studentspracticeusingthewritingstrategyandself-regulation

processes.Studentsmayreceivehelpfromtheteacher,strategyremindersheets,or

otherstudents.Helpmayincludedirectassistanceandcorrectivefeedback.

Step6:IndependentPerformance:Studentsusethewritingstrategyindependently.

EvidenceBasedWritingStrategies

Thewritingstrategiesthatarebeingsuggestedinthissectionmaybeusedin

LanguageArts,oranyofthecontentareasubjects.Thestrategiesmaybeappliedin

abroadoraspecificamannerdependingonclassorstudentneed.Theremaybe

crossoverintodifferentgenresofwritingdependingonwhichstrategyisbeingused

tofacilitatethewritingprocess;thestrategiesareflexibleandmaybeusedwiththe

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writingofnarrativeandexpositorytext.Withtheimplementationofthese

strategies,writingdevelopmentissupportedinthefollowingareas:paragraph

writing,organizationalskills,goalsetting,summarizationandrevisingskills.Each

strategyisdesignedtoencompassthepre-writing,draftingandrevisingprocesses.I

willbeoutliningthreestrategiesforimprovingwritingquality:thePLEASEStrategy,

theSUMMARY-WRITINGStrategy,andtheCDOREVISINGStrategy.

ParagraphWriting:ThePLEASEStrategy

ThePLEASEstrategyisastructuredformulaforwritingaparagraph/

paragraphsthathaveamainideaandsupportivedetails.ThePLEASEmnemonic

standsforPick,List,Evaluate,Activate,SupplyandEnd.Researchonthisstrategy

suggeststhatithasapositiveeffectonparagraphwritingskills(Welch,1992).

Welch(1992)examinedparagraphwritingwiththePLEASESTRATEGYforstudents

whohadmildlearningdisabilities.Thestudentswereidentifiedashashavinga

learningdisabilitybuthadaverageintelligencescoresthatrangedfrom74to109.

Thestudyinvestigatedsixthgradestudents’knowledgeabout:prewriting,

composition,revisionandpartsofaparagraph.Sevenstudentsparticipatedinthis

studyandweretaughtthePLEASEstrategythreetimesaweekinaresourceroom

setting.Eachteachingsessionlastedthirtyminutesandthestudywasconductedfor

approximately20weeks(Welch,1992).

Resultsfromthestudyrevealedthattheexperimentaltreatmentwas

effectiveforimprovingprewriting,composition,revisionandpartsofaparagraph.

Welch(1992)alsonotedthatstudents“attitudestowardswritingandwriting

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instructionimprovedsignificantlyfollowingtheexperimentaltreatment”(p.119).

GrahamandHarris(2008)notedthatstudentsthatweretaughtthePLEASE

strategyexperiencedpositiveeffectsonparagraphknowledge(reportedeffectsize=

0.98),writingqualityandthewritingofmorecompleteparagraphsexperienceda

moderateeffect(reportedeffectsize=0.51).Moderateeffects(reportedeffectsize=

0.47)wereexperiencedwithstudentsfeeling“morepositiveabouttheirparagraph-

writingability”(Graham&Harris,2008,p.45).

TeachingthePLEASEStrategy

PLEASEisamnemonicthatremindsstudentstocarryoutthefollowingsteps:

1- Pick:Studentsneedtopickatopic,anaudience,awritinggoalandtypeof

paragraphorparagraphstheyplantowrite.Theymaywritefor

informational,compare/contrast,andorcauseandeffectpurposes.Students

needtoselectonetothreevocabularywordsforeachparagraph.

2- List:Studentsgeneratealistofideasthattheymightuseintheparagraph.

3- Evaluate:Studentsevaluatetheirlisttoseeifitiscompleteandcontains

relevantideas.Newideasorvocabularywordsmaybeadded.

4- Activate:Studentsactivatetheparagraphbycreatingatopicsentencethat

introducesthereadertothetopic.

5- Supply:Usingtheirlistofideas,studentsdesignsentencesthatsupporttheir

topicsentence.

6- End:Studentsendwithaconcludingsentence.Editingoftheparagraph

occurs.Studentscorrectanyerrorsinwordorder,capitalization,

punctuation,spelling,andoverallappearances.Studentsrecordwhetherthey

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havemettheirwritinggoal.Abriefexplanationaboutwhattheydidto

achieve,orwhytheydidnotachievethewritinggoalmayberecordedonthe

backofthestrategysheet.

PLEASEStrategy

Pickatopic:

Audience:

KeyVocabularyWords:

WritingGoal:

TypeofParagraph:Informational/CompareandContrast/CauseandEffect/Other

ListIdeas:(thenumberofideaswillvarydependingontheassignment)

1.

2.

3.

4.

Evaluateideas:(decideandnumberwhichorderyouwanttheideastoappearinthepaper)

Activate:Byprovidingatopicsentence

Supply:Ideasthatsupportthetopicsentence,underlinethekeyvocabularywords.

End/ConcludingSentence:

Editing:Mechanics:WordOrder,Spelling,capitalization,andpunctuation.

AdaptedfromGraham,S.,&Harris,K.R.(2008).Writingbetter:Effectivestrategiesforteachingstudentswithlearningdisabilities.Baltimore,Maryland:PaulH.BrookesPublishingCo.

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SummaryWriting:TheSUMMARY–WRITINGStrategy

TheSUMMARY-WRITINGstrategyismeanttoteachstudentshowtowritea

conciseandaccuratesummary(Nelson,Smith,&Dodd,1992).GrahamandHebert

(2010)foundthatcomprehensionofscience,socialstudies,andlanguageartstexts

isimprovedwhenstudentswritesummariesofthetext(Graham&Hebert,2010).

GrahamandPerin(2007a)reportedthatteachingstudentsstrategiesfor

summarizationdidprovideapositiveeffect(reportedeffectsize=0.82)ontheir

abilitytowritegoodsummaries.Writingastrongsummaryrequiresthatstudents

learnwhattokeep,whattoeliminate,andhowtowriteashortsynopsisofthe

importantinformation(Graham&Perin,2007a).Writingsummarieswillhelp

studentslearnhowtowritemoreprecisely.TheSUMMARY-WRITINGstrategywill

alsohelpstudentsorganizetheirthinkinginareflectivemannerandsupport

planninginathoughtfulmanner(Graham&Harris,2008).

Nelson,Smith,andDodd(1992)conductedastudythatexaminedtheeffects

oflearningasummarystrategyonthecomprehensionofsciencetext.Thestudywas

conductedwithfiveelementary-agespecialeducationstudentsthatwereattending

asummerremedialprogram.Twoareasofperformancewereassessed,

completenessofthewrittensummariesandreadingcomprehension.Thesummary

skillswereintroducedwithbothgroupandindividualreadingsettings.Theresults

fromthestudyrevealedthatthepercentageofimportantinformationincludedin

thewrittensummariesrosefrom45%to98%afterstudentslearnedhowtouse

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thisstrategy.Readingcomprehensionscoresimprovedby100%(Nelsonetal,

1992).

TeachingtheSummary-WritingStrategy

1. Itisimportantthatstudentshavetheopportunitytoapplythisstrategy

broadlywithavarietyoftextsinallsubjectareas.Theteacherneedsto

explicitlyteachwhatismeantbythetermsummarization.

2. TheteacherreadsaloudtotheclassfromaScience,SocialStudies,or

LanguageArtstext.Studentslistenforkeywordsorinformationthatthey

believetobeimportant.

3. Afterthereadingasaclasstheydiscussandrecordthevocabularyand

conceptsthatareimportanttothepassagethatwasjustread.

4. Havethestudentsreadthetextwithapartner.

5. Thestudentsidentifyandrecordthemainideaandimportantvocabulary

words.Studentswritedowntheimportantpointsdirectlyunderneaththe

mainidea.Next,studentsscanthetextagaintoseeifanyimportant

informationorvocabularywordsweremissedduringthefirstreading.The

mainideaandimportantpointsarerevisedifneeded.

6. Aplanforwritingthesummaryisdeveloped.Thismaybedonewholeclass

andlateronasasmallgrouporpartneractivity.Thestudentswritetogether

toformatopicsentencethatrepresentsthemainidea.Nexttheynumber

whichinformationwillgofirst,second,third,andsoon.Thestudentslook

throughanddecideifanyoftherecordedideasaremissingorifany

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unimportantinformationshouldbetakenoutofthesummary.Important

vocabularywordsareunderlined.

7. Studentsusetheplantowritethesummary.

SUMMARY–WRITINGStrategy

Step1.Whatisthemainidea?

Step2.Whataretheimportantpointsthatprovideinformationaboutthemainidea?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Whataretheimportantvocabularywordsthatshouldbeincludeinthesummarytosupportthemainidea?

Step3.Re-readthetexttomakesurealltheimportantinformationhasbeenincluded.Recordanyimportantinformationthatisneeded.Step4.Writeatopicsentenceforthesummary.Writesupportingdetailswithkeyvocabularywordsthatsupportthemaintopic.

Step5.ReviseandSelf-Editorpeereditforclarityofideas,andconventions.Re-writethesummary,ifthereisanythingthatisunclearorneedstobeadded.AdaptedfromGraham,S.,&Harris,K.R.(2008).Writingbetter:Effectivestrategiesforteachingstudentswithlearningdisabilities.Baltimore,Maryland:PaulH.BrookesPublishingCo.

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TheCDOREVISINGStrategy

Revisingisanimportantpartofwriting,butitisnotaneasytaskto

accomplish.AccordingtoSchneider(2003)manyteachersfindthatrevisionisa

challengeforalargenumberofstudents.Yet,revisionmaybeviewedas“themost

importantpartofthecomposingprocess”(Pritchard&Honeycutt,2006,p.282).

Revisingmaybeusedtohelpwritersdiscoveramismatchbetweenwhathas

actuallybeenwrittencomparedtowhattheirintentionswere,oritmaybeusedto

simplifyapartofthetextthatthewritermightseeasbeingtoocomplicatedforthe

intendedaudience(Graham&Harris,2008).

Therevisionprocessallowsthewritertoadaptthetexttoenhancetheclarity

oftheirmessage(Calkins,1986;Graves,1983).Thewritermaydecidetorevisefor

differentpurposes;theymayadd,rewrite,delete,ormovetextaroundinorderto

createmeaning(Graham&Harris,2008).TheCDOrevisingstrategywillprovidea

frameworktoassiststudentswiththerevisingprocess.TheacronymCDO

represents:Compare,Diagnose,andOperate.Comparereferstoidentifyingwherea

revisionisneeded.Diagnosedeterminestheproblem,andthestudentneedsto

considerthesubstanceofwhathasbeenwrittennotjusttheformofthetext.

Operatereferstothespecificstepstakentorevisethetext.

Graham(1997)conductedastudythatexaminedtheroleofexecutive

controlandrevisingdifficultiesthatstudentsexperiencedwithwriting.Twelve

studentsfromthefifthandsixthgradeparticipatedinthisstudy.Resultsfromthis

study(Graham,1997)revealedthat83%ofthestudentsindicatedthattheCDO

strategymaderevisingeasierbyprovidinghelpwithoneormoreoftherevising

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processes.Tenoutofthetwelve(83%)studentsthoughtthatthestrategymade

theirpapersbetterbecausethestrategyhelpedthemtomakeneededrevisions.

GrahamandHarris(2008)notedthattheCDOstrategy,whichwasresearchedby

Graham(1997),generatedthefollowingeffectsizesforrevisionsinvolving

substance(effectsize=0.38)mechanics(effectsize=0.42)andsubstantive

revisions(effectssize=0.83).Itwasalsonotedthatstudentsrevisedmore

frequently(Graham&Harris2008).

InstructionalSuggestions

TheCDOstrategyiscomposedoffoursteps.First,studentsneedtoreadand

evaluateeachsentenceinthepieceofwriting.Second,studentsneedtodiagnose

eachsentencebasedonsixpossibleoptions,asoutlinedontheCDOREVISING

strategysheet.Third,oneoffouroptionsisselectedasaplanofactionforthe

revision.Last,thestudentrevisestheoriginalpieceofwriting.

TeachingtheCDOREVISINGStrategy

1. Whenfirstintroducingstudentstothisstrategytheteacherdiscussesthe

importanceofrevising.Theessentialquestionwouldbe:Whywouldwe

wanttoreviseapieceofwriting?

2. Nexttheteacherexplainsandmodelsthefourstepsofthestrategywith

piecesofwritingfromdifferentsubjectareas.

3. Asawholeclasstheteacherasksstudentstohelpwiththeselectionof

appropriatediagnosisevaluationsoneachsentenceforapieceofwriting.

Nextstudentsselectwhichplanofactionwouldworkbestfortherevision

process.

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4. Workinginsmallgroupsoftwoorthree,studentsaregivenashortpieceof

contentareawriting.AsagrouptheyworkthroughtheCDOstrategyto

demonstratethattheyunderstandtheprocess.Theteacherprovideshelpas

needed.

5. Nexttheteacherhasstudentsworkindividuallywiththisstrategytoseeifall

stepshavebeenlearnedatanindependentlevel.Studentsmayrefertothe

CDOREVISINGstrategysheetastheyworkthrougheachstep.

CDOREVISINGStrategy

Step1.Compose:Readeachsentenceinthepaper.

Step2.DiagnoseWritethecorrespondingletterbesideeachsentencetosignifyanychangesthatareneeded.

a) Thisdoesn’tsoundright.

b) ThisisnotwhatImeanttosay.

c) Thisisnotusefulinformationforthispaper.

d) Thisisusefulinformationforthispaper.

e) Thereadermaynotunderstandthispart.

f) Thereadermaynotunderstandthisvocabularyword.Thereadermaynotbelievethispart.

Step3.Operate:Selectaplanofaction.

h)Rewrite

i)Addmore

j)Includeanexample

k)Leavethispartout

l)Changethewording

m)AddKeyVocabularyWords

Step4.Operate:Makeyourrevisions

AdaptedfromGraham,S.,&Harris,K.R.(2008).Writingbetter:Effectivestrategiesforteachingstudentswithlearningdisabilities.Baltimore,Maryland:PaulH.BrookesPublishingCo.

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ConcludingRemarks

Duringthepastdecadetheliteracyskillsofadolescentshavecometo

theforefrontasbeinglessthanadequatetomeetthedemandsoftoday’sworkforce

(Biancarosa&Snow,2006;Graham,&Hebert,2010;Graham,&Perin,2007a).The

importanceofliteracyhasbeennotedglobally,andthusexploredatanationaland

internationallevel(Knighton,Brochu&Gluszynski,2010).Theresultsfromlarge-

scalestudiessuchasReadingNext(Biancarosa&Snow,2006)andWritingNext

(Graham&Perin,2007a)indicatethatmoreneedstobedoneintheareaofstrategy

instructionformiddleandseniorhighstudents.Writinghasoftenbeenoverlooked

asanimportanttoolforimprovingliteracy.(Graham&Hebert,2010).Current

researchsupportstheimportanceofwritingonmanylevels(Biancarosa&Snow,

2006;Graham&Hebert,2010;Graham&Perin,2007a).Writinghasbeenconnected

withimprovingstudentsreadingability,enhancingcomprehension,andsupporting

cognitiveprocessesforlearning.Thispaperhasaddressedadolescentwriting

concerns;providedinformationrelatedtowritingandtheself-regulatedstrategy

developmentmodel.ThePLEASE,SUMMARYWRITING,andCDOstrategiesare

supportedbycurrentresearchasbeingeffectiveinstructionalstrategiesforthe

diversityofstudentsthatareintodaysclassrooms.

22

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