Despite the benefi ts of strategy training for almost all students, there are still a few individuals who do not seem to make effective use of the writing strategies they have been taught. Vanderburg (2006) suggests that this may occur for four possible reasons:
◗ They do not fi nd the strategy useful.
◗ They know it is useful but still do not remember to use it.
◗ They don’t use it because it places too heavy a demand on their already overstretched cognitive resources.
◗ Not enough time is devoted to writing, so the strategy is not practised and reinforced suffi ciently.
De La Paz (2007) suggests that some strategies are unnecessarily complex, with too many steps to remember and implement. Although potentially effec tive, these strategies would be much easier to recall and use if simplifi ed.
The greatest problem with strategy training is that students tend not to generalise the use of the strategy to writing situations outside the context
in which it is fi rst taught. Graham and Harris (2005) suggest that better generalisation and transfer may be achieved by:
◗ helping students understand how a strategy works, and how it helps them produce better results
◗ leading students to consider when and where a particular strategy can be used
◗ discussing how to modify a strategy for different situations
◗ teaching students to use self statements as a means to reinforce strategy use.
Examples of strategies for writing
Although there are many different writing strategies referred to in the literature, they all tend to have common aims and characteristics. They all focus on helping students think productively before writing, and then to sequence their ideas logically, add relevant detail, impose structure on their text, and then review and improve their fi rst draft. The following examples will serve as typical illustrations of specifi c strategies for writing.
> POW and TR EE
This is a two-part strategy to help students write opinion essays. The authors report that this strategy can be effective with students with learning diffi culties, and can even be used as early as Grade 3 (Harris et al., 2002).
The students are taught to apply the following step-by-step procedure:
P = Pick your topic or idea.
O = Organise your thoughts and make notes.
W = Write, and then say more.
T = Topic sentence – state your opinion.
R = Give at least three reasons to support that belief.
E = Explain your reasons in more detail.
E = End with a good concluding statement.
> POW and W W W + W hat 2 + How 2
This strategy is for narrative story writing (Saddler, 2006). POW is explained above.
WWW stands for:
(a) Who are the characters? (b) When does the story take place? (c) Where does the story take place?
What 2 represents:
(a) What do the characters do? (b) What happens?
How 2 reminds the writer to:
(a) State how the story ends. (b) How did the characters feel?
This strategy has been used successfully with Grade 2 students who were taught for 30 minutes sessions three times per week (total of 11 lessons).
Saddler (2006) reports that the students wrote longer stories of better quality, because they gave more thought to planning. POW plus WWW + What 2 + How 2 contains far too many steps for students to remember unaided, so it needs to be supported by use of a cue card or prompt sheet.
> PL AN and W R ITE
These researchers taught students the mnemonics PLAN (to be used at the planning stage of writing), and WRITE (to be used at the composing and transcription stages)(Graham & Perin, 2007b).
P = Pay attention to topic. Set your goals.
L = List your main ideas.
A = Add supporting detail.
N = Number the ideas in sequence.
W = Work from your plan.
R = Remember the goals
I = Include transition words to move from one paragraph to the next.
T = Try different kinds of sentences.
E = Exciting and interesting content.
> Story planner
Using a story planner is also effective for helping students brainstorm ideas before narrative writing, and arranging the ideas in the best sequence (Westwood, 2007). The story planner can take the form of a graphic
organiser that provides a starting point for generating ideas. The topic title is written in a circle in the centre of the whiteboard. From this circle a number of ‘spokes’ branch out like rays from the sun. As ideas related to the title are suggested, each one is added to one of the spokes until a suitable quantity of ideas have been recorded. Prompts and cues can be used to stimulate students’ thinking. Ideas might include the setting for the story, the type of action to take place, the characters involved, the outcome, etc.
As a class, students then review the ideas and decide upon an appropriate starting point for the story. Number ‘1’ is written against that idea. How will the story develop? Students determine the order in which the other ideas will be used, and appropriate numbers are written against each spoke.
Some of the ideas may not be used at all and can be erased. Other ideas may need to be added at this stage, and numbered accordingly. Students now use the bank of ideas recorded on the story planner to start writing their own stories. Brief notes can be elaborated into sentences and the sentences gradually extended into paragraphs. By preparing the draft ideas and then discussing the best order in which to write them, students have tackled two of the most diffi cult problems they face when composing, namely planning and sequencing.
> LESSER ( LESSER helps me write more)
Many struggling writers produce very little material during times set aside for writing. This strategy is designed to increase the amount of material these students complete in a lesson, thereby increasing the amount of successful practice (Westwood, 2007).
L = List your ideas.
E = Examine your list.
S = Select your starting point.
S = Sentence one tells us about this fi rst idea.
E = Expand on this fi rst idea with another sentence.
R = Read what you have written. Revise if necessary. Repeat for the next paragraph.
In addition, Stotz et al. (2008) reported that encouraging primary school students with writing diffi culties to count and record on a graph the num-ber of words they write each lesson can improve both the quantity and
quality of their written work. This strategy for self-monitoring is a key feature of the method known as precision teaching, designed to increase performance (for details, see Westwood, 2008). Many online links to additional examples of writing strategies can be found at the end of this chapter.