As I sat down to write this, I found myself staring at a blank screen, unsure where to begin. Earlier, while scouring research for a study to share, my mind was also blank; I didn’t know where my investigation would lead. Yet I had a goal—find some good research and say something useful about it.
Now, as I type, I’m drawing on years of learning about grammar, sentence construction, audience, purpose, and voice. Over the next day or two, I’ll revisit and polish these words, send them to my editor, receive feedback, and submit a final draft.
It’s a lot to juggle—and to teach.
So how can we help students develop this sophisticated suite of skills, from basic mechanics to higher-order thinking, that they need to write well?
A meta-analysis of 24 scientific studies of writing interventions for K–3rd-grade students suggests that although it may seem logical to focus first on mechanics (spelling, grammar, handwriting, and so on), students of all abilities benefit from a more holistic approach—one that recognizes writing is first and foremost about putting one’s thoughts onto paper (Kim et al., 2021).
One approach, called Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), emerged in the analysis as especially beneficial. (See https://srsdonline.org for more.) It has proven to have positive effects on student writing quality that are equivalent to improving performance by 22–35 percentile points or 1.5+ years of learning growth.
Developed in the 1980s by Karen Harris and Steve Graham, SRSD is designed to open the black box of writing by modeling the thought processes writers use. Using think-alouds, teachers show students how writers set goals, decide what to write about, ask questions while writing, assess their work, and revise what they’ve written. Teachers model each step of the process, using memory aids (such as POW—Pick an idea, Organize notes, Write a draft) to make it easier to manage multiple thought processes while writing.
My own organization, McREL, included scientific studies of SRSD in the research base for our book The New Classroom Instruction that Works, which identifies 14 instructional strategies proven to lift all learners (Goodwin et al., 2022). One such strategy is “cognitive writing”—extended writing tasks that prompt students to think deeply about new learning. For example, students in a science class might write about what genetic adaptations make sharks the perfect predator.
We found that students do not become confident writers through mere encouragement, practice, or a narrow focus on mechanics. Rather, they learn to become writers when we show them how writers think—from the first word to the last.
