The Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development on the Planning and Written Language Performance of High School Students With Disabilities

This study examined the use of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) to support 10th- and 11th-grade high school students with disabilities in writing. Participants included five 10th- and 11th-grade students identified as having high incidence disabilities who received 100% of their instruction in general education settings. A multiple baseline multiple probe design was employed to assess the effects of teaching persuasive essay writing under timed single-paragraph writing, untimed multiple-paragraph essays, and maintenance and generalization measures. After baseline, data were collected and two intervention phases were implemented. First, an instructional phase on teaching the SRSD persuasive essay strategy POW + TREE for single-paragraph fluency was implemented followed by postintervention testing. Next, a second intervention phase was implemented using the same strategy but expanding to writing a multiple-paragraph essay, followed by posttesting. Following a 4-week delay, maintenance and generalization probes were administered. Students were also assessed on their strategy knowledge, social validity, and the amount of planning and writing time. Findings revealed that although all except one student improved on all essay measures of length, quality, essay parts, sentences, transition words, and paragraphs, a second student exhibited high scores on the measures of length and sentences at baseline. These students made gains in the majority, but not all, measures after instruction. Overall, positive gains were maintained from postintervention testing to maintenance and generalization performance, with data remaining substantially higher than baseline performance. In addition, students improved from low planning and writing times at baseline by significant percentage increases at post-SRSD intervention, maintaining gains through maintenance and generalization, with only slight decreases as students appeared to become more efficient managing both tasks of planning and writing while creating quality written products. The teachers of all of the study participants, including English and other content areas, were also interviewed at maintenance for their feedback on student classroom writing performance at postintervention. Findings are discussed with respect to educational implications and future research.

Author

• Leins, Patricia A

• Writing instruction
• High school
• Special education
• Secondary education
• Students with disabilities

Identifier

hdl:1920/8827

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/8827