Paragraph and Essay Writing Instruction for Struggling Secondary Writers

Edge Enterprises, Inc., Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract for Phases I and II The purpose of this fast-track SBIR project entitled Paragraph and Essay Writing Instruction for Struggling Secondary Writers is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a total of four interactive multimedia (IM) software programs to be used to teach complex writing skills to struggling writers in secondary schools. The foci of the four programs will be (1) basic paragraph-writing skills, (2) advanced paragraph-writing skills, (3) basic essay-writing skills, and (4) advanced essay-writing skills. The lessons within each program will include an introduction to the program and the targeted writing skills, a description of how to use a targeted writing strategy, demonstrations, practice activities, and feedback. The Phase I project will focus on the feasibility of this medium for teaching complex writing skills to struggling writers. Measures will focus on (a) student use of the program, (b) student knowledge of writing skills, (c) student writing skills related to writing topic, detail, and concluding sentences within a paragraph, and (d) student satisfaction. During Phase I, an informal and a formal pilot test will be conducted to determine the feasibility of the prototype program. During each of the three years of Phase II, at least one informal pilot test and one field test of one new program will be conducted. A pretest-posttest control-group design with random assignment of students to groups will be utilized in each field test to determine the effects of each instructional program on student knowledge, performance, and generalization of the writing skills to complete writing tasks. The programs resulting from this project, because they will be designed to include instructional methods that have been found to be successful with at-risk students, should enable these students to respond successfully to the writing demands of their courses and minimum competency tests.