In this study, we explored the potential of two forms of discussion (disciplinary vs. traditional) for 39 sixth- and seventh-grade students with or at-risk for LD, before writing historical arguments. Nine teachers who led small group discussions in six heterogeneous social studies classrooms implemented the intervention. Students who were…

The study investigated whether a self control strategy training procedure was effective in improving compositions of two 12-year-old learning disabled students. Effects of training on three objective aspects of compositions (number of different action words, action helpers, and describing words) were investigated using a multiple baseline across…

Noting that many students appear to lack the skills necessary for composing an academic paper, this paper contends that such students may possess a field dependent cognitive style (termed "holistic") that is at odds with the needs and expectations of the college world's field independent cognitive style. Pointing out that cognitive style permeates…

This study compared the written products of four groups of 26 male students in grades 4-6, including 8 students identified as gifted, 6 learning-disabled/gifted, 6 learning-disabled, and 6 normal. The Test of Written Language-2 was administered and seven subtest scores were compared among the four groups. In general, the speculation that…

There are students who have "invisible handicaps" specific learning disabilities who need to be identified and given assistance. One such student was discovered in a freshman composition class because of the disparity between his in-class writing and his take-home writing. It was ascertained that he had a learning disability that made it difficult…

Learning disabled writers are unable to incorporate text structures to plan their writing; they stop writing before their point is stated; their writing includes redundancies, irrelevancies, and many mechanical and spelling problems. Studies indicate that learning disabled writers use simplistic and/or ineffective planning strategies while…

This paper explores the characteristics and problems many language learning disabled (LLD) and dyslexic students have in college and suggests ways for college English composition teachers to help them. LLD students are often poor spellers and their handwriting looks like that of a younger child. Constant difficulty with certain grammatical…

This study investigated the relationship between the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration-Revised (VMI-R) and written expression skills of 54 students (grades 2 to 7) with learning disabilities. Data analysis compared cognitive ability; visual motor skills; achievement in reading, math, and written language; teacher rating of written…

This study utilized a sociocultural approach to writing instruction and examined its effects on the motivation of students with learning disabilities. The concept of the Zone of Proximal Development was used to measure changes in five third and fourth grade students' motivation toward literacy activities. Students wrote in journals daily and…

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,…

Using self-instructional strategy training procedures, three sixth-grade learning disabled students were taught a series of self-directed prompts designed to facilitate the generation, framing, and planning of written compositions. The eight-step instructional procedure included pretraining, review of baseline performance level, description of the…

The CC School project, which included 18 elementary students with deafness enrolled in the TRIPOD program within the Burbank (California) Public Schools, applied a personal video captioning technology in a workstation setting to a weekly writing experience that involved translating short American Sign Language video stories into written English…

This action research study examined what writing strategy, process writing approach, free, or informal writing, was the most effective with students with learning disabilities. Five students (ages 13-15) in a self-contained eighth grade language arts class were observed while they learned the three different writing strategies. The process writing…

This study was conducted to determine whether Ontario students' abilities to apply rubrics accurately in order to self-assess or to assess peers' written work were related to their current levels of achievement in writing. The project examined differences in assessment ability for children attending different grades, gender differences,…

This report discusses the effectiveness of strategy-based writing instruction for adolescents with language-based learning disabilities. The instruction is being provided to Canadian students in grade eight who are at least two grade equivalents below their peers in reading and writing ability. The students are taught a paraphrasing strategy that…