Self-Regulated+Strategy+Development

=“At its best, writing has helped transform the world. Revolutions have been started by it. Oppression has been toppled by it.” = The National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges

Writing is a powerful tool that is an essential skill in the 21st century. Given the importance of writing, how do instruct learning disabilities(LD) students who struggle with the process of creating and "making meaning"(Hillocks, 1995)? One approach that has shown proven results in improving the writing of LD students is the Self-Regulated Strategy Development model developed by Harris and Graham (1985).

When they began developing the model, Harris and Graham (1985) reviewed research on what they called “teacher-controlled interventions” on writing. They found little long lasting improvement of student writing when the teacher's instruction was the basis of classroom content. Harris and Graham began to explore the role of cognitive-behavioral modification as an avenue of intervention. They expanded upon previous research of “CBM procedures typically involve teaching students to regulate task-specific and metacognitive strategies through processes such as self-instruction, self-assessment, and self-reinforcement” (Harris, 1982). Therefore, if they could train students to internalize strategies, the interventions would not only change the writing of LD students, but would have longer lasting effects as well. Swanson, Harris, and Graham (2013) established a framework for LD students to write more effectively. They ideas reflect the work of Hayes and Flowers (1980), who view writing as a three step process of planning, writing, and reviewing the text. The planning stage was further delineated by Swanson, Harris and Graham (2013), to include “setting goals, generating ideas, and organizing ideas into a writing plan"(P. 406). MacArthur and Graham (1987), found that LD students spend an average of one minute planning their writing before starting to draft. Students produce a “list of topic related ideas rather than a coherent discussion or examination of a topic” (P. 406). Given that they do not effectively plan and generate ‘list-like’ writing, it is unsurprising that Graham and Harris (2003), fine LD students have shorter writing pieces. While there are many other factors that contribute to poor writing output from LD students, the focus of this page is how the SRSD model provides effective intervention for students with LD. Delays in speech and language development and/or handwriting are beyond the scope of this wiki. =What does SRSD entail? =

The SRSD model contains six main components:
 * 1) Develop and activate background knowledge.
 * 2) Discuss it
 * 3) Model it.
 * 4) Memorize it
 * 5) Support it
 * 6) Independent performance.

Stage One: Develop and activate background knowledge:
 In this stage the teacher guides students through the process of defining the skills need to write,, as well as, how to think about writing. As stated in Graham and Harris (2009), “Background knowledge and pre-skills, including critical vocabulary and understandings students need to successfully understand, learn, and apply writing and self-regulation strategies are developed in this stage" (P. 75). What is also interesting to note is how Graham and Harris begin to infuse CBM into the instruction. They have students think about themselves as writers by removing “negative self-statements (“I’m no good at this”). Instead students are taught how to utilize positive self-statements (“I can do this if I use the strategy and take my time”(Ibid).

Stage Two: Discuss It
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> The second stage of SRSD, teachers work with students to discuss the three main areas of writing instruction developed by Graham and Harris (2009). Students need to taught that the writing process includes; a planning stage, a writing stage, and a revising stage. Teachers and students work together to establish a plan to “make a commitment to learn the strategy and act as collaborative partners in this endeavor” (Ibid). Finally, students commit to setting a goal for their writing by continuing the CBM work begun in stage one. They agree to “(a) learning the strategy, (b) using the strategy, and (c) maintaining strategy use” (Ibid).

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Stage Three: Model It
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Modeling strategies is an important tool teachers use when instructing students. In this stage Graham and Harris (1996), use collaborative modeling. The teacher does a think aloud as they write, with students adding comments and collaborating during the process. Furthermore, teachers “model how to set specific goals for the writing task, self-monitor performance, and self-reinforce” (P. 75). Students work with the teacher and with peers to develop self-talk mantras or self-statements such as “Ok, now I need to plan out which type of lead I want to use for my introduction”. Graham and Harris (1996) also recommend writing down the self-talk statements for student to refer back to during their independent writing time.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Stage Four: Memorize It
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">The fourth stage adds a nice twist to the writing process. In this stage students will memorize their “strategy steps, the meaning of each step, and their personalized self-statements” (P. 76). By memorizing what they are actually doing, the students internalize the writing process and take ownership of their writing.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Stage Five: Support It
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">During the fifth stage of the SRSD model, teachers support students by prompting them to use “self-regulation strategies as they compose together" (P. 76). As students become more proficient with the strategies, the teacher steps back from supporting to allow for more independence. The teacher will not however abandon the student but rather will “continue to plan for and initiate generalization and maintenance of the strategies” (Ibid).

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Stage Six: Independent Performance
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">In the final stage of SRSD, students have mastered the strategies of self-regulation and have begun to use them independently. To insure that the students have taken ownership of the methods “students should be given the opportunity to use the writing and self-regulation strategies they have learned in novel settings, with different teachers, and with other appropriate writing tasks” (Ibid).