This qualitative study investigated the influence of Metawriting, or "writing about writing," on fifth-grade students' knowledge of writing and proficiency in composing informative essays. Using a Think-TalkWrite model, students explored their existing writing knowledge and experiences, analyzed their essays using genre-specific tools,…

Strategy instruction is an effective method for improving the writing skills of students who struggle when writing. It is critical when implementing strategy instruction that assessment of the strategy takes place in addition to assessment of writing. Practitioners should consider strategy assessment to ensure student proper use of strategy. This…

The current study examined the extent to which sixth grade students used their pre-existing topic beliefs to guide comprehension of semantic ideas within multiple conflicting texts, and the sources providing them. Adolescents completed an inventory assessing their pre-reading topic beliefs one week prior to the study. During the study, students…

Much of the research that has examined the writing knowledge of school-age students has relied on interviews to ascertain this information, which is problematic because interviews may underestimate breadth and depth of writing knowledge, require lengthy interactions with participants, and do not permit a direct evaluation of a prescribed array of…

We investigated writing performance and knowledge of writing before and after a persuasive writing intervention for ethnically diverse elementary school students in a low socio-economic community in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). We used a one-group pre-post design. The participants (n = 24) were year 5 and 6 students (ages 9-11) from the same…

This study investigated fourth and fifth graders' metacognitive knowledge about writing and its relationship to writing performance to help identify areas that might be leveraged when designing effective writing instruction. Students' metacognitive knowledge was probed using a 30-minute informative writing prompt requiring students to teach their…

Background: Classroom discourse featuring meaning making supports students achieving discipline-specific learning. However, moving beyond recitation requires developing beliefs, skills, structures, and practices. Any theorizing we do about developing discussion practice must attend to realities of culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.…

With Common Core State Standards (CCSS), all students are held to the same high expectations, including students learning English and other learners who may have academic difficulties. Many students learning English have trouble writing and need effective writing strategies to meet the demands the standards present. Ten fourth and fifth grade…

Prognostic statements are a standard component of assessments for adolescents at risk for language-learning disabilities, but there is limited evidence on the validity of prognostic indicators. In two studies, we collected measures of language ability and candidate prognostic indicators from adolescents age 12 to 13. We conducted an expository…

Aim/Purpose: Quality in higher education assumes the challenge of developing in all citizens of the 21st century the cognitive, motivational, and socio-cultural dimensions that provide them with communication competences including the use of information and communication technologies, for the dissemination of sustainable scientific knowledge in…

We designed and investigated the first set of instructional procedures we are aware of to teach 4th and 5th grade students how to write a persuasive essay following close reading of a source text. Eight boys and girls attending a diverse, low income school who were having difficulty learning to write participated in an experimental…

In this single-subject study, we examined the effects of a persuasive writing and self-regulation strategy on the writing of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Six children with ASD worked in pairs to learn a mnemonic-based strategy for planning and writing a persuasive essay using the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD)…

Teaching students in upper elementary school to revise their papers effectively requires a three-pronged approach. First, teachers provide instruction on a relevant genre or writing form (using the Common Core State Standards for English language arts or other relevant standards as a guide). Second, teachers help students to use four basic…

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of using metacognitive strategies for problem solving in "geometry" on fifth grade students' achievement, metacognitive skills and attitude. Experimental method was used with a pretest/posttest control group design. Firstly, both groups were subject to a pretest that was comprised of…

The present study replicates and extends previous research regarding the effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) within a school wide positive behavior support model among students with writing difficulties who also had either internalizing or externalizing behavior patterns. Two multiple-probe designs, involving 13 second-grade…