Student Strategies

I. Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their writing, both individually and collaboratively

Teachers can teach students various strategies for planning, revising, and editing their writing, with the goal of helping them know when to use these strategies on their own. According to Graham & Perin’s meta-analysis (2007), explicit instruction in such strategies has a strong impact on the quality of adolescent writing. Furthermore, the average weighted effect size across studies they reviewed involving low-achieving writers was larger than the average weighted effect size for students of a full range of abilities. Research also suggests that having students collaborate to practice these strategies has a strong impact on the quality of students’ writing (Graham & Perin 2007).

Classroom examples of teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their writing:

1. Developing literacy awareness (early primary)
The Literacy corner section of this site has good activities to develop literacy awareness and skills for three to six year olds. In the “Animal Stories” project, for example, children learn about things that interest them. When children feel empowered as readers and writers, they are more successful.
http://cela.albany.edu/

2. “Word by Word” – a story writing game (early primary)
This game promotes students to be critical and concise with their word choice when writing.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning3.html

3. “Letter to the Editor” (middle and high school)
In this activity, students analyze and interpret letters to the editor, using the information to write their own letters.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/compose2.html

4. Writing prompts/journal topics (multiple grades)
The link below provides good lists of prompts for writing.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.html

5. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)
Although Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) was developed by researchers Harris and Graham for students with learning disabilities (Warger 2002), evidence shows that it also helps students in general education. More of an approach than a specific strategy, SRSD involves explicitly teaching students specific writing strategies and self-regulation procedures. The approach involves addressing students’ (often negative) attitudes about their writing ability, then following the sequence below:
• teacher and students develop background knowledge and skills needed to learn strategy
• teacher and students discuss strategy, including rationale, steps to implement, and mnemonics
• teacher models self-regulated use of strategy
• students memorize strategy and use it with teacher support
• students move toward independent use

This process should be part of a complete writing program.
http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/helping.htm

6. Peer editing (multiple grades)
Peer editing can be structured in many ways, depending on the complexity of the assignment. For short papers, students can review each other’s drafts in pairs a few days before the final paper is due. For longer papers, the writer should formulate a specific question for the editor.
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/CL/doingcl/editing.htm

7. Dyadic essay confrontation (high school)
In this exercise, students write questions based on a reading assignment. They also write model answers to those questions, then exchange questions and responses in pairs. [Millis, B. J., & Cottell, P. G., Jr. (1998). Cooperative learning for higher education faculty. American Council on Education, Series on Higher Education. Phoenix, AZ: The Oryx Press.]
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/CL/doingcl/dyadic.htm