Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction in Developmental Writing

Abstract

This design research project developed and evaluated curriculum for developmental writing classes in community colleges. The core of the curriculum was self-regulated strategy instruction, which has been shown to be effective with adolescents who are struggling as writers. In the curriculum, students learned strategies for planning, drafting, and revising compositions with an emphasis on using knowledge of text organization to guide planning and self-evaluation. In addition to specific writing strategies, students learned strategies for self-regulation. The study is part of a project that developed two levels of developmental writing courses, but only the lower level course is addressed in this article. This article reports findings from the first two cycles of implementation and revision. Over two semesters, the curriculum was implemented in eight classes taught by three instructors and revised after an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Substantial gains in writing achievement and motivation were found, especially in the second cycle. In addition to successes, the article discusses design challenges for the curriculum and professional development.

“The More Mistakes You Have the Better You Could Improve”: Two Students’ Interpretations of Pedagogy in Developmental and College English

“…In this way, the findings affirm a growing body of literature that suggests developmental English professors must develop courses that avoid what Grubb (2013) referred to as "remedial pedagogy." Instead, they should provide meaningful opportunities for students to practice college-level literacies (e.g., Callahan & Chumney, 2009;Grubb, 1999Grubb, , 2013Hillocks, 1999;MacArthur & Philippakos, 2013;Perun, 2015).…”

“…While the research into organization and structure is robust, there is much less into the students' leaning experiences in the classroom (Capt & Oliver, 2012;Cox, 2009Cox, , 2015Grubb, 1999Grubb, , 2013Hillocks, 1999;MacArthur & Philippakos, 2013;Perun, 2015). Nonetheless, three key themes have emerged across this literature.…”

“…Second, students need explicit instruction on how to engage in learning activities and assessments (MacArthur & Philippakos, 2013;Perun, 2015). For example, MacArthur and Philippakos (2013) found that course design and pedagogy focused upon teaching students how to evaluate a writing task in order to understand what was expected and then engage in a revision process grounded in self-assessment based upon the evaluation criteria improved students writing, as well as their confidence in their writing abilities.…”

College Student Writers' Use and Modification of Planning and Evaluation Strategies After a Semester of Instruction

“…Quality was scored on a 7‐point scale that asked raters to provide a score for overall quality. Common criteria for writing were considered: ideas or content, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions (MacArthur & Philippakos, ; Philippakos & MacArthur, in press). Two raters independently scored essays with adequate inter‐rater reliability ( r = .78; Brown, Glasswell, & Harland, ).…”

Introduction to Special Issue of Community College Review

“…In particular, we need to know the extent to which developmental education could benefit from importing, with appropriate modifications, evidence-based instructional techniques and materials from secondary education (MacArthur & Phillippakos, 2013). Additionally, new methods and models are needed that can capture the complexity of students’ trajectory as Bahr (2013) discusses.…”