Revision is a complex cognitive task and an integral component of the writing process. Students benefit from understanding the value of and how to revise their own writing. The purpose of this study was to turn to students to investigate their understandings of revision. We posed the following question: What are 7th graders' perceptions and…

Research shows that writing motivation decreases throughout schooling and predicts writing performance. However, this evidence comes primarily from cross-sectional studies. Here, we adopted a longitudinal approach to (a) examine the development of attitudes toward writing, writing self-efficacy domains, and motives to write from Grade 6 to 7, and…

One aim of this article is to shift mindsets from the traditional identification of written language abilities that are "missing" in students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) to writing assessment as the discovery of more complex language strengths foundational to success across disciplines. The multiple language-levels (MLL)…

Revisions in writing aim at text improvement. Literature has shown that revision activity differs between novice and experienced writers. Our ultimate goal is to understand how children and adolescents develop the capacity to shift perspectives from language producer to language recipient -- a prerequisite ability to successful revision. In this…

In response to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2001 (No Child Left Behind), states have sought various ways to adequately assess students in order to in turn hold schools and districts accountable for closing the achievement gap. As the state of Texas, motivated by pressure from parents, teachers, and other vested interest groups who…

Writing is a critical tool for developing thinking and communicating ideas. However, only about a third of students across grades 4, 8 and 12 meet standards for proficient writing (NCES, 2011). While writing generally has long been a neglected area of curricula, this is especially the case with argument writing. The proposed presentation describes…

This essay explores what the development of writing might look like and how it might take shape in a secondary English classroom. The study problematises current definitions of progress. In direct opposition to standards-driven models, I propose an alternative way of thinking about the development of writers through a series of narrative accounts…

In this experimental study, 151 middle school students explored 3 historical controversies, first reading and discussing primary source documents in groups, then writing arguments on their own. Students were either randomly assigned to an experimental condition, using argumentative schemes and critical questions as guides during discussions, or to…

National assessment data indicate that the large majority of students in America perform below expected proficiency levels in the area of writing. Given the importance of writing skills, this is a significant problem. Curriculum-based measurement, when used for progress monitoring and intervention planning, has been shown to lead to improved…

This study investigated the relationship between middle school students' scores for a written assignment (N = 162) and a process that involved students in generating criteria and self-assessing with a rubric. Gender, time spent writing, grade level, prior rubric use, and previous achievement in English were also examined. The treatment involved…

In this study, the purpose was to determine whether there was concordance among raters in the assessment of the writing performance using analytic rubric; furthermore, factors affecting the assessment process were examined. The analytic rubric used in the study consists of three sections and ten properties: External structure (format, spelling and…

This mixed methods study combining a single-subject experimental design with an embedded case study focuses on the impact of a visual treatment on the handwritten and typed output of a struggling male writer during his 5th through 7th grades who has undergone a longitudinal remedial phase of two and a half years creating text-only material as well…