Many students across the US, specifically in Texas, struggle with writing on grade level. On the last National Assessment of Educational Progress (2012), 70% of eighth- and twelfth-grade students were not writing on grade level. On the 2021 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Writing, only 26% of the fourth grade students met…

This empirical study examines the sustainability and generalisability of the impact of the storytelling strategy, which was implemented earlier with grade 7 students. The sample of this study involved 30 students which are randomly chosen and four teachers, who participated in the experimental groups. The researcher used the mixed approach for…

Writing standards and objectives outline complex skills for narrative essay writing at the secondary level. Students with disabilities often produce disorganized narratives with fewer narrative elements than their peers without disabilities. A multiple-probe design was used to examine effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development for the Pick my…

This study used a single-subject, multiple-baseline across participants design to replicate previous research on the functional relation between the use of a mobile-based graphic organizer (MBGO) and the persuasive writing performance of middle school students with high incidence disabilities. The current study extended the previous research by…

Lucy Moonen set out to explore whether collaborative writing in small groups, facilitated by the use of Google Docs, would help to sustain students' focus on essay writing as the development of an historical argument. She explains how she set up an essay on the League of Nationals as a collaborative task and demonstrates how the technology enabled…

This study explored the extent to which an 18-day history and writing curriculum intervention, taught over the course of one year, helped culturally and academically diverse adolescents achieve important disciplinary literacy learning in history. Teachers used a cognitive apprenticeship form of instruction for the integration of historical reading…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop and test a strategy to support middle grade students' persuasive writing skills. The sample included 52 eighth-grade students who were either proficient or struggling writers. The students were randomly assigned to either receive training on a graphic organizer designed to scaffold effective…

Writing is a tool students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can use to communicate and interact with other people socially and professionally. Strong writing skills may lead to social and economic success, as well as a sense of self-empowerment. Unfortunately, there is very little research related to the use of sentence-writing strategies and…

A key component of good writing is the use of critical thinking skills. Without deeper levels of reflection and thinking, writing becomes superficial, less interesting, and harder to follow. Too many essays do not reflect the use of critical thinking. This paper examines the effects of the Jane Schaffer method and the degree to which it has…

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and present the status of student synthesis with color coded formula writing for grade level six through twelve, and to make recommendations for educators to teach writing structure through a color coded formula system in order to increase classroom engagement and lower students' affect. The thesis first…

A practicum was developed to address deficiencies in students' writing skills. The program goals were to assess the students' abilities to use prewriting strategies, to use supportive elements in writing, and to evaluate students' progress using pre- and post-attitude surveys and writing samples. The target group was 20 eighth-grade journalism…

A teaching team from Fall Creek Valley Middle School in Indianapolis, Indiana sought to improve their students' writing skills by collecting writing samples in portfolios in each of their subject areas. This approach allowed the eighth-grade students to assess their progress as writers, see connections between the disciplines, and understand the…