Experimental research on strategy instruction for beginning writers has only recently begun. This study investigated the role of self-regulation instruction in Grade 1 strategy learning. In a pretest-post-test quasi-experiment, 120 Grade 1 students participated in a unit of study on personal narrative in one of three conditions: (1) Self-Regulated…

The authors explored the impact of a novel, interactive performing arts-based program on students' writing skills. The program featured the Story Pirates, a group that teaches children how to write stories and then turns their stories into a musical sketch comedy show. Written stories from the third-grade students in an elementary school were…

Writing has a leading role in learning and, although elementary-school curricula emphasize the development of this complex skill, many students still struggle with their writing performance. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and social validity of CriaTivo, a curriculum-based intervention developed following a Response to Intervention model…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple contingency contracting intervention on the correct use of punctuation marks in freely produced texts by elementary school children with learning disabilities. This approach can be considered a promising strategy for facilitating the development of academic skills in…

This article reports on how pen pals can be incorporated into the literacy classroom for engagement and motivational interest. The authors describe a study in which focused, interactive pen pals were implemented in a third-grade classroom, and the influence this practice had on students' writing. Incorporating pen pals during writing instruction…

A recent study by Debra McKeown and colleagues is described by author Eliabeth Foster as important not only because it highlights professional learning about a model of writing instruction of interest to many educators, but also because it examines teachers' reflections about their experiences in professional learning. Building on a larger…

A process writing project in a third-grade classroom explored the idea of using nonfiction mentor texts to assist students in writing their own creative informational texts about animals. By looking at author craft and structure during close reading activities with nonfiction Twin Texts, students were taught how to emulate these techniques in…

This study aimed to investigate the development of the learners' story writing skills under the implementation of animated video story as innovation. This study provided various evidence on how the said innovation can help develop the learners' story writing skills. the grade three learners as well as the subject teachers and master teacher in the…

This study, using a mixed methods design, examined the use of a photograph-based model to improve students' language and writing skills. Classes were assigned to receive the photograph-based intervention (experimental) or to receive the regular language-based curriculum (control). Both second and fifth grade students in the experimental group…

Background: English Second Language (ESL) learners have difficulty constructing sentences due to internalising information in their home language and thereafter translating it into English. Learners who have difficulty speaking English generally encounter problems writing it, which hampers their creative writing ability. Objectives: The purpose of…

This article explores how a second-grade teacher challenged and supported students of varying language and literacy abilities to engage with complex material during a 14-week read-aloud unit focused on historical change-makers, and how engagement and comprehension through talk and writing changed for five purposefully selected students.…

This formative and design study examined how the Complex Text Analysis (CTA) instructional approach provided support for first-grade students to increase their comprehension of texts of increasing complexity. The students in the diverse class participated in weekly lessons during which fictional texts were read aloud and analyzed in terms of key…

This article includes discussion about a formative study in which inquiry was used as ESL instruction for second-grade emerging bilinguals. Drawing on the literature and research surrounding English learners, comprehension, informational text and inquiry, the teachers and researcher integrated comprehension strategy instruction with inquiry and…

The aim of the study is to deepen the understanding of teacher's perspective on how to promote all children's learning in reading and writing in grade 1 of primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a Swedish context with 18 primary school teachers, representing a large collective experience from working as teachers in grade 1.…

With the adoption of the Common Core Standards and a renewed emphasis on critical and higher-order thinking skills, exploring the relationship among writing development, self-efficacy beliefs, perseverance, and effort has become essential. The nature of writing workshop not only lends itself to differentiation among students but also provides…