An emerging body of research suggests that content-rich literacy instruction has the power to expand elementary children's domain-general and domain-specific literacy skills. For content teachers, such as science teachers, explicit instruction in disciplinary-language and literacy practices can support students reading and writing of school-based…

This paper reports findings from two studies of student writing performance carried out in undergraduate political science courses to test whether low-cost interventions could lead to improvements in writing outcomes. Students enrolled in an introductory comparative politics course (N = 180) and a sophomore-level survey course (N = 101) were…

Schools need their writing instruction "simplified." Most classrooms share writing time with another subject, making it difficult for students to receive the direct writing instruction they need. Between the lack of time, increased gaps in writing skills, and inconsistent writing curriculum, teachers are struggling to bring their…

Writing has implications for the academic, vocational, and social pursuits of students. Unfortunately, many students with disabilities -- including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities -- struggle with a foundational aspect of written expression: text writing within sentences and paragraphs. This study used a multiple-baseline…

Paragraph text-writing refers to constructing multiple words and sentences into the form of a paragraph. It is critical to overall written expression; unfortunately, many students with disabilities struggle to develop it to fluency. The present study investigated the effects of a multicomponent intervention on the accuracy and fluency of paragraph…

The present research approaches differentiated instruction in light of metacognition and collaborative practices. The aim is to examine the contribution of a Tier 2 intervention implemented by teachers through a program entitled The Strategic Planners of Writing to the writing performance of 3rd and 4th grade students with writing difficulties.…

We examined effects of intervention on the level and trend of text-writing sequences of students with disabilities and writing difficulties, in addition to potential moderating effects related to student demographics (i.e., disability status, age, gender, and race) and writing task (i.e., sentence, essay, and narrative). We reviewed 18 single-case…

Self-regulating strategy development (SRSD) writing instruction is an evidence-based approach that has been shown to increase students' writing performance and knowledge of writing. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether early elementary students' story writing performance and knowledge of writing would change following 5 weeks of…

This paper reports on an intervention in a London school with boys with special educational needs and a lack of motivation to write descriptively. They displayed inconsistency in their written outcomes and a repetitive, limited range of vocabulary. While these issues were intertwined, the strategies described in this paper sought firstly to tackle…

This systematic review provides an overview of the impact of early writing in preschoolers and the effectiveness of handwriting interventions between kindergarten and second grade. Seven experimental studies (pre-K-7 yo) and eight handwriting intervention group studies (pre-K-2) were reviewed. The results suggest that writing letters in late…

This study examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention with three African American male third graders with a learning disability in reading and low writing skills. The participants were instructed in planning, organizing, writing, editing, and revising, supported by dictation and transcription of students' thoughts with the "Dragon…

"Self-Regulated Strategy Development" ("SRSD") is an intervention designed to improve students' academic skills through a six-step process that teaches students specific academic strategies and self-regulation skills. The practice is especially appropriate for students with learning disabilities, the focal population of the…

The authors investigated the impact of explicit instruction and peer-assisted writing on students' writing motivation and self-efficacy for writing. Eleven teachers and their 206 fifth- and sixth-grade students participated in a 2 (explicit instruction vs. writing opportunities without explicit instruction) × 2 (peer-assisted writing vs. writing…

In this study, we sought to determine the effectiveness of a sentence creation intervention on the sentence writing ability of a young writer with Noonan Syndrome. Noonan syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by shortness in stature, with neck and ear anomalies, hypertelorism, ptosis of the eyelids, low set ears, and instances…

Manitoba's reading scores continue to be under scrutiny. A national report, the PCAP, indicated that Manitoba ranked last in the country in reading (O'Grady & Houme, 2014). This literature review records the author's investigation into ways to support struggling readers in the early years classroom. Research articles were reviewed and books…