Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students / Edition 1

by Karen R. Harris, Steve Graham, Linda H. Mason

Overview

Finally—highly effective, field-tested lesson plans for the students in every elementary and middle school classroom who struggle with writing. The practical how-to follow-up to Graham and Harris's popular Writing Better, this book is just what K–8 educators need to advance all students' writing skills, whether they have learning disabilities or just need extra help.

Teachers will get concise lesson plans they can use to easily supplement their existing writing curriculum. From 20 to 50 minutes each, the lessons

• address types of writing that are key to academic success, such as writing reports and constructing essays for standardized tests
• help with every phase of the writing process, from planning to revising
• reinforce new skills through group and individual practice
• ensure that improvements are sustained by teaching students critical self-regulation skills they can use independently
• support effective instruction with step-by-step guidelines and optional scripts for teachers
• engage students with mnemonic devices they'll immediately grasp and remember
• include fun photocopiable support materials, such as cue cards, picture prompts, sheets for graphing story parts, and charts for brainstorming and setting goals

Firmly grounded in the authors' Self-Regulated Strategy Development approach, which has been proven effective by 2 decades of research, these brief, powerful lessons will help transform struggling students into confident, skilled, and motivated writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557667052
Publisher:	Brookes, Paul H. Publishing Company
Publication date:	11/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	444
Sales rank:	164,725
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Karen Harris, Ed.D., is Professor and the Currey-Ingram Chair in Special Education at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. She has taught kindergarten and fourth-grade students, as well as elementary and secondary students with disabilities. She is co-author, with Steve Graham, of the books Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation; Teaching Every Child Every Day: Learning in Diverse Schools and Classrooms; Handbook of Learning Disabilities; and the curriculum Spell It-Write. Dr. Harris is the editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. Her research is focused on theoretical and intervention issues in the development of academic and self-regulation strategies among students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and other challenges.

Steve Graham, Ph.D., is Professor and the Currey-Ingram Chair in Special Education at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. He is the current editor of Exceptional Children and the past editor of Contemporary Educational Psychology. He is the co-author of the Handbook of Learning Disabilities; Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation; Teaching Every Child Every Day: Learning in Diverse Schools and Classrooms; Teaching Every Adolescent Every Day; Spell It-Write (a spelling program for children in grades K through 9); and the upcoming Handbook of Writing Research. Dr. Graham's research has focused mainly on identifying the factors that contribute to the development of writing difficulties; the development and validation of effective procedures for teaching planning, revising, and the mechanics of writings to struggling writers; and the use of technology to enhance writing performance and development.

Dr. Linda H. Mason has a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education and the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium at The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to completing her Ph.D., Dr. Mason taught special education in an inclusive public elementary school for six years. She has been awarded two U.S. Department of Education grants focusing on reading comprehension and writing intervention for low-achieving students. Dr. Mason serves on six editorial boards, including journals focused on research-topractice. At Penn State, she teaches courses in literacy for students with special needs, curriculum development, reading and writing methods, assessment, and effective instruction. Dr. Mason was awarded the Council for Exceptional Children, Division of Research Distinguished Early Career Award in 2011 and a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Hungary in fall 2011.

Barbara Friedlander has taught special needs and at-risk students since 1986 in an inclusive elementary classroom environment. She has been involved in a variety of written language research studies in the areas of learning disabilities and has coauthored a number of publications including Summer of Learning: The Effects of Summer Tutoring for Students with Learning Disabilities (Division of Learning Disabilities Times, 1997) and Incorporating Strategy Instruction within the Writing Process in the Regular Classroom: Effects on the Writing of Students with and without Leaning Disabilities (Journal of Reading Behavior, 1993). Ms. Friedlander has received numerous awards including the Shaklee Outstanding Special Educator Award, the Council for Exceptional Children Allyn Bacon Exemplary Program Award and Grant, the Baltimore Area Committee on Student Teaching Outstanding Cooperative Teacher Award, the Montgomery County Public Schools Educational Foundation Grant for Parent Training, the University of Maryland Alumni Award, and the Maryland Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development Judith Ruchkin Research Award.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpted from Chapter 2 of Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students, by Karen R. Harris, Ed.D., Steve Graham, Ed.D.,Linda H. Mason, Ph.D., & Barbara Friedlander, M.A.

Copyright © 2008 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

"Okay, students, begin writing." The students look at their clean, white, lined paper, pick up their newly sharpened pencils, and begin to think. Some students start writing, while others continue to sit still, look around the room, and, after a few minutes, raise their hands. "What should I write about?" "How do I get started?" "I'm just no good at writing." With that informal assessment, the teacher decides on an approach that will provide the students with the keys to unlocking the strategies and skills that good writers use. The teacher is confident that these students can learn to use the same powerful writing and self–regulation strategies that good writers use. In this chapter, the instructional model for teaching composing and self–regulation strategies, Self–Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), is presented. The major goals of SRSD are threefold:

1. To assist students in mastering the higher–level cognitive processes involved in the planning, production, revising, and editing of written language
   
   
2. To help students further develop the ability to monitor and manage their own writing
   
   
3. To aid students in the development of positive attitudes and beliefs about writing and about themselves as writers
   
   

Many students have experienced a great deal of frustration, failure, or anxiety when faced with writing assignments. For these students, the development of positive attitudes and beliefs is essential. These attitudes and beliefs develop as the students learn powerful strategies that improve their writing. There is a great deal of truth in the old adage, "Nothing succeeds like success." To help students master writing strategies and use them effectively, the SRSD approach includes the development of skillful use of effective writing strategies, self–regulation of the writing process, and knowledge of one's own cognitive processes and other learning characteristics and an understanding of the potential and limitations of the strategies they learn.

Self–regulation of strategic performance and knowledge about the strategies are important in helping students

• Understand how and when to apply a strategy
  
  
• Independently produce, evaluate, and modify a strategy in an effective manner
  
  
• Recognize meaningful improvement in skills, processes, and products
  
  
• Gain new insights regarding strategies and their own strategic performance
  
• Improve their expectations of and attitudes regarding themselves as writers
  
  
• Maintain and generalize strategic performance
  
  

STAGES OF INSTRUCTION

In the SRSD approach, six basic stages of instruction are used to develop and integrate use of the strategy and self–regulation components. SRSD has been successfully used with entire classes, small groups, individual students, and in tutoring settings. Throughout these stages, teachers and students collaborate on the acquisition, implementation, evaluation, and modification of strategies. These stages are not meant to be followed in a "cookbook" fashion. Instead, they provide a general format and guidelines. The instructional stages are meant to be recursive, teachers may return to any stage at any time. The stages may be reordered, combined, or modified as needed to meet student and teacher needs. In fact, as will be seen in the lesson plans in this book, the first two stage

Editorial Reviews

"Splendid, accessible compendium of a body of respected scholarly work now packaged for all teachers. A wonderful gift to the field!"

Nickola W. Nelson

"If you have to choose one resource on written expression, this is it! Evidence-based, practical information on structured, explicit instruction in a reader-friendly and ready-to-use format."

Sheldon H. Horowitz

"Designed to enable the classroom teacher to advance and enhance their student's writing skills . . . very strongly recommended as a language arts and literacy curriculum and classroom instruction plan supplemental resource."

Midwest Book Review

A new book...seeks to reverse the downward trend in the quality of student writing. Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students presents a detailed program that teachers can use to help students master writing and improve their self–confidence.

Vanderbilt University - Melanie Moran

"Harris and Graham are models for contemporary intervention researchers with their balanced foci on impeccable research and assiduous attention to translating research into practice."

Professor Emerita, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada - Bernice Wong

"A powerful, evidence-based approach to instruction . . . The clear and complete lessons plans included in this volume will help teachers enhance their ability to provide effective instruction to students at all levels."

Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University - Joanna Williams