Turning around the Progress of Struggling Writers: Key Findings from Recent Research

Abstract

Purpose

To identify features of teacher support associated with children who made accelerated progress in writing in an early literacy intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

Mixed methods were used to describe the paths, rates, variability, and potential sources of change in the writing development of 24 first grade students who participated in an early literacy intervention for 20 weeks. To describe the breadth and variability of change in children’s writing within a co-constructed setting, two groups who made high and low progress were identified.

Findings

We focus on one child, Paul, who made high progress (became more independent in the writing of linguistically complex messages) and the features of teacher support that this child received compared to those who made lower progress. We compare him to another child, Emma, who made low progress. Teacher support associated with high progress included a conversational style and flexibility to adapt to the child’s message intent as the student composed, supporting students to write linguistically more complex and legible messages, and supporting students to orchestrate a broad range of problem-solving behaviors while writing.

Practical implications

We describe how teachers can support children to gradually take control of the composition process, how they can recognize complexity in early written messages and we provide suggestions as to how teachers can systematically assess, observe, and support children’s self-regulation of the writing process.

Citation

Harmey, S. and Rodgers, E. (2016), "Turning around the Progress of Struggling Writers: Key Findings from Recent Research", Writing Instruction to Support Literacy Success (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820160000007007