This multiple-case study design with embedded units of analysis examined a two-year professional development (PD) program in which two rural districts received at least 90 hours of PD. This PD was provided through an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant that the United States Department of Education awarded to the National Writing Project. Two of…

This study has two research purposes related to L2 writing development. The first aim of this study is to explore how L2 learners receiving intensive ESL instruction develop their writing proficiency (writing quality from an analytic rubric) across two writing tasks (narrative and argumentative writing) over one semester. Limiting its focus to…

This paper explores writing pedagogy in the primary classroom and connections between children thinking creatively and their achievement in writing. Initially 'continuing professional development' for teachers, I designed and facilitated a two-day writing workshop with a class of children around the theme of a Victorian murder mystery. This was…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the application of behavior analytic procedures for advancing and evaluating methods for teaching literacy skills in the classroom. Particularly, applied behavior analysis has contributed substantially to examining the relationship between teacher behavior and student literacy performance. Teacher…

The National Writing Project (NWP) has contributed enormously and consistently to the effort to help teachers help students learn to write. In the early 1970s, researchers such as Donald Graves and Janet Emig began studying the ways writers go about the task of thinking and producing polished writing. The NWP's book "Because Writing…

Many students do not meet expected standards of writing performance, despite the need for writing competence in and out of school. As policy instruments, writing content standards have an impact on what is taught and how students perform. This study reports findings from an evaluation of the content of a sample of seven diverse states' current…

Austin Independent School District's English language learner students' (ELLs) results for the state's academic tests (STAAR) 2015 in reading and writing, grades 3 through 5, and the state's English language proficiency test (TELPAS) 2015, grades kindergarten through 5, are summarized.

In the context of our work as literacy specialists, we taught teachers to use sentence frames to support ELL students' writing. We then studied the impact of their instruction on students. Our analysis of student writing samples revealed no group wide developmental trends so we posed deeper questions about their work using the data analysis…

A large number of students struggle with composition writing. This is alarming since problems in this area reduce the chances of succeeding in school and life in general. Children and youth with learning disabilities (LD) are especially at risk of not acquiring the skills necessary to produce texts of an acceptable length and quality.…

Based on Robinson's Triadic Componential Framework and the definition of task planning by Ellis (2005), this study was carried out to find out the effects of task planning and rhetorical mode on lexical and syntactic complexity, and overall writing quality of writing production of EFL learners. Following a repeated-measures design, the present…

Although compositionists recognize that student talk plays an important role in learning to write, there is limited understanding of how students use conversational moves to collaboratively build knowledge about writing across contexts. This article reports on a study of focus group conversations involving first-year students in a cohort program.…

This study examined the influence of peer feedback and review on individual writing achievement and self-efficacy. Undergraduate first-year composition students engaged in normal instructional activities used the Eli Review program in order to conduct peer feedback and review sessions. Using the data collected from surveys and through the…

Curriculum Associates' i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic and individualized instructional tool that has been used in M-DCPS in the last few years. In addition, in 2016-2017, Curriculum Associates provided the District with results of their predictive model, which used the outcomes of the Fall and Winter i-Ready diagnostic testing to estimate the…

The primary focus of this study was to determine the feasibility of teacher implementation of peer-assisted writing strategies (PAWS) in improving the writing outcomes of kindergarten children. Six classrooms were recruited, and 3 were randomly assigned to the experimental condition. Results indicated that the content, length, and formatting of…

Writing is regarded as the most challenging task and the most difficult language skill among EFL students. Students need to employ different cognitive strategies in order to convey the meaning to the reader. Due to the complexity of the process, students display negative attitudes towards writing and the level of success is low. This study…