Teaching planning or sentence-combining strategies: Effective SRSD interventions at different levels of written composition

Abstract

This study tested the effectiveness of two strategy-focused interventions aimed at promoting fifth and sixth graders' opinion essay writing. Over 12 weekly 90-min lessons, two groups of 48 and 39 students received, respectively, planning and sentence-combining instruction, which followed the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model. These intervention groups were compared with a practice control group of 39 students receiving standard writing instruction. The following main findings were noteworthy: (a) planning and sentence-combining instruction enhanced planning and sentence-construction skills, respectively; (b) both interventions increased opinion essay quality and text length; (c) planning instruction enhanced not only discourse-level writing but also some sentence-and word-level aspects of composition; (d) sentence-combining instruction enhanced not only sentence-and word-level writing but also some discourse-level aspects of composition; (e) after instruction, there was a correlation between self-efficacy and writing quality in both intervention groups; and (f) planning, but not sentence-combining, instructional effects generalized to summary writing. Given the importance of writing in present-day knowledge societies, it is of the utmost importance to develop evidence-based practices that promote students' writing performance (Graham, Gillespie, & McKeown, 2012). Based on multiple sources of information, proposed that teaching planning and sentence-combining strategies are effective instructional practices in writing instruction. Nevertheless, little is known about the specific effects and comparative merits of planning and sentence-combining instruction. This was the main purpose of the present study, which examined the effectiveness of two strategy-focused interventions aimed at improving opinion essay writing in Grades 5-6 (age 10-12). One of the programs taught students a strategy to plan opinion essays, while the other program taught them a strategy to combine sentences. Self-regulation procedures to manage these writing strategies were embedded in both programs following the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model (Harris & Graham, 1996, which was adapted to the Portuguese culture and school system.

Examining the transcription-writing link: Effects of handwriting fluency and spelling accuracy on writing performance via planning and translating in middle grades

“…This result is consistent with intervention research showing that promoting these two skills is among the best effective ways to boost school-aged children writing performance (Graham & Perin, 2007). Indeed, a recent study directly comparing the effects of planning and translating interventions in Grades 5-6 (Limpo & Alves, 2013b) showed that both interventions had a strong and positive impact on writing quality. Additionally, the authors reported some transfer effects of planning and translating instruction, respectively, on sentence-and ideation-related aspects of writing.…”

“…Planning was assessed in a free planning task that students made before writing an opinion essay (Berninger et al, 1996;Limpo & Alves, 2013a;2013b). Translating was measured in the opinion essay written after the planning, together with a sentence-combining exercise.…”

“…Regarding the planning task, the experimenter gave students a blue sheet and explained to them that before writing the text they would have 3 minutes to plan it. Students were told to use that sheet as their "think pad" and to write down everything that could help them to write the text (for a similar procedures, see Berninger et al, 1996;Limpo & Alves, 2013a;2013b). The procedure for the writing task was similar across the two opinion essays.…”

“…Opinion essays were chosen because they represent a genre with which students are familiar and that allows them to write about topics directly related to their lives. Indeed, these prompts were chosen for their great interest value for Portuguese middle grade students (Limpo & Alves, 2013b), thereby maximizing task engagement and productivity.…”

“…Although no association was found between these variables in Grades 7-9 (Berninger, Whitaker, Feng, Swanson, & Abbott, 1996), cognitive models of writing, such as that of Kellogg (1996), conceptualize the generation of ideas and translation into text as components of a unique formulation system. Moreover, Limpo and Alves (2013b) showed transfer effects of planning and sentence-combining instruction, respectively, on sentence-and ideation-level aspects of opinion essay writing. Thus, we examined whether a model including a correlation between planning and translating (Model 2) TRANSCRIPTION-WRITING LINK 11 would fit the data better than a model assuming no correlation between these variables (proposed model).…”