Riding Elvis's Motorcycle: Using Self-Regulated Strategy Development to PLAN and WRITE for a State Writing Exam
De La Paz, S., Owen, B., Harris, K.R., & Graham, S. (2000). Riding Elvis's motorcycle: Using self-regulated strategy development to PLAN and WRITE for a state writing exam. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 15, 101-109.
Abstracted by Barbara Higgins-Dover
In this article the authors describe the experiences of Bonnie Owen (a general education Language Arts teacher) and her implementation of a Self-Regulated Strategy Development approach with students to help them PLAN and WRITE for a state writing test. The theoretical and research bases for using SRSD with writing strategies are discussed, as well as, teacher challenges and suggestions for successful implementation.
Bonnie Owen's story telling, of her teenage adventures at Elvis Presley's home, are described as a method she uses for teaching student strategies in writing essays. She tells her story as an introduction to writing strategies.
PLAN and WRITE: The article includes a depiction of an overview of the PLAN and WRITE strategy in Figure 1, which was projected on an overhead for the students. The Mnemonics PLAN and WRITE were used to help students remember strategy steps, and remind then to plan before starting to write. Figure 2 depicts a copy of cue cards used with paragraph development, while Figure 3 is a sample response of a student with learning disabilities to a writing prompt after receiving PLAN and WRITE instruction.
Self-Regulated Strategy Development: Stages of Instruction: The six stages of instruction in the SRSD model include developing background knowledge, discussing it, modeling it, memorizing it, supporting it, and independent performance, and are described in the reading. Considering Bonnie's experiences, with her students, implementation, suggestions for getting started, and recommendations are made as guide to using SRSD.
SRSD: Theoretical and Research Bases: SRSD research began out of a concern for students who struggle to write, including students with learning disabilities. SRSD incorporates support and components aimed at helping these students. Currently, 20 studies using SRSD have been published. The results of implementing SRSD are discussed in this section of the article, including, significant and meaningful differences in student development of planning and revising strategies. SRSD was found to lead to improvements in four main aspects of student performance: quality of writing, knowledge of writing, approach to writing, and self-efficacy.
Successful Implementation: Final thoughts for successful implementation are discussed in the last section of the article. The recommendations provided include taking it slow, taking advantage of strategies already developed, and learning together as we consider the use of SRSD in our own schools.
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