This study examines the patterns of growth across both taught and untaught genres of writing for deaf and hard of hearing students in grades 4-6. Twenty-three students were exposed to Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) for 5 weeks, during which time they received guided, interactive instruction focused on how writers address…

Fifth-grade students with learning disabilities who were good (n=12) and poor (n=11) handwriters and 56 matched controls were asked to copy text under two conditions, quickly and neatly. Students with learning disabilities were not as capable of increasing writing speed and demonstrated a slower rate of speed. (Author/CR)

Examined differences in written expression between learning-disabled and nondisabled middle school students matched by grade and sex, using eight curriculum-based measures. All of learning-disabled students had been identified as having written language deficits. Nondisabled students showed superior written expression skills, especially on…

Students with (n=45) and without (n=60) mild mental retardation were compared on nine measures of syntactic complexity in writing at three grade levels (grades six, seven, and eight). Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences for group but not for grade level or group by grade level. (Author/DB)

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…

Compared to 92 low-achieving and high-achieving students, 46 intermediate grade learning-disabled students wrote compositions, wrote summaries, and produced comprehension recalls that were less organized and contained fewer ideas. Interviews indicated that learning-disabled students possessed less knowledge about processes related to…

A study identified stages of student writing maturation across several grades and developed classroom resources to enhance the maturation of students. A total of 3,600 essays written by students in grades 4 and 6-12 attending urban and rural schools in eastern Ontario, Canada, were holistically scored. The original limited and quite specific…

Interviews with 39 students with learning disabilities (LD, grades 4-8) and 29 normally achieving students revealed that, compared to controls, LD students had less mature conceptualizations of writing and less favorable attitudes toward writing but no differences in evaluations of their competence in either writing or the composing process.…

Examines the effects of mental imagery instruction on 37 gifted fourth and fifth grade students' creative writing and development of imagery vividness. Finds that treatment subjects significantly outperformed control subjects on originality and use of sensory descriptions but not on writing length. (MG)

A study examined the writing performance of American schoolchildren based on a survey conducted in 1992 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Nationally representative samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending public and private schools--approximately 30,000 in all--responded to a variety of writing…

This research shows that students often lack the ability to set appropriate goals for their learning. The students in this study did not take ownership in their education, and expected teachers to make decisions for them. The students in the study were fifth grade students in middle class communities in the Midwest. Analysis of probable cause data…

Describes a restructured Chapter 1 program that provided supplemental support within the students' classrooms to raise expectations for Chapter 1 students' performance. Notes that expectations of teachers and students increased; portfolios of student work showed steady improvement in reading comprehension and writing ability; and standardized test…

Intermediate grade students with learning disabilities learned to work in pairs to help each other with editing and revising of their compositions. The 13 subjects made more revisions and produced papers of higher quality when revising with peer support than did 16 students in a process-approach control group. (Author/JDD)

A study examined whether students, when removed from a video-based context, were able to transfer the writing-related objectives taught within a curriculum to similar writing tasks. Subjects were 24 sixth-grade, learning disabled students enrolled in a resource room language arts program who participated during the first year of a project.…

Describes a Canadian study attempting to relate the motivating power of interest to children's writing performance by supplementing background knowledge with topic relevant information. Reports that children with tutorial support on high interest subjects performed no better than others. Concludes that the motivational power of interesting topics…