Effects of the STOP and LIST Strategy on the Writing Performance of Struggling Fourth Graders

Abstract

This study tested the effectiveness of a writing planning strategy (STOP & LIST) with four struggling students from fourth grade. A multiple-baseline design (AB) was used with baselines consisting of between five and seven daily probes. The duration of the intervention was between five and seven 25-minute sessions. A randomization procedure was implemented within the constraint that the baseline had to comprise at least five measurements and the treatment had to comprise at least three. The data were analyzed using visual inspection, different effect sizes, randomization tests, and piecewise regression analyses. Results revealed distinct improvements in both the length and quality of stories that the participants produced from baseline to the end of the training. This indicates that the ability of young struggling writers to plan narratives can be fostered considerably through rather simple means. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Implementing Strategy-Based Instruction for Struggling Writers via Telepractice

“…For instance, the O can stand for organization for a student who struggles with organizing ideas but On-the-line for a student struggling with handwriting legibility or line approximation. Another strategy mnemonic, STOP and LIST (Stop and Think of Purpose, List Ideas and Sequence Them), has been reported in prior research as a way to support struggling writers with organization and planning (e.g., Grunke et al, 2019; Nobel & Grünke, 2020). Grunke et al (2019) examined the effects of the STOP and LIST strategy for improving writing in fourth-grade struggling writers using a single-case experimental design.…”

“…Another strategy mnemonic, STOP and LIST (Stop and Think of Purpose, List Ideas and Sequence Them), has been reported in prior research as a way to support struggling writers with organization and planning (e.g., Grunke et al, 2019; Nobel & Grünke, 2020). Grunke et al (2019) examined the effects of the STOP and LIST strategy for improving writing in fourth-grade struggling writers using a single-case experimental design. Their findings showed increases in total words written and rubric quality scores from the baseline to treatment phases, across all four participants in the study.…”

Using a Simultaneous Prompting Procedure to Improve the Quality of the Writing of Three Students with Learning Disabilities

“…Another factor limiting the results of this study is the complexity of assessing the quality of a text. Rubrics are currently the most common method used to assess the quality of writing probes over time (Grünke et al, 2019), but the risk of subjectivity can still limit the inference with a higher probability of low inter-rater reliability scores between assessors. For this reason, in the present study, two assessors scored the writing probes independently using an adapted writing rubric; in addition, a paraprofessional unfamiliar with the study rated three randomly selected texts produced during baseline and seven randomly selected writing probes produced during intervention, resulting in a percentage of agreement of 0.93 between assessors.…”