Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders to Self-advocate through Persuasive Writing

Abstract

We examined the effectiveness of the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of writing instruction with a self-determination training component for middle school-age students with emotional and behavioral disorders. We randomly assigned students to experimental or comparison treatments during which special education teachers provided the intervention. Students in the experimental groups received instruction on how to plan and write persuasive essays, were trained on self-determination skills, and were taught how to use persuasive writing to self-advocate. Students in the comparison condition received writing instruction with the established school writing curriculum. Instruction for both groups lasted 33 days, four days a week during 30-minute sessions. Experimental students significantly outperformed comparison students at posttest in all the persuasive essay-writing components assessed, in their ability to recall the parts of a persuasive essay, in the self-efficacy measure, and on self-determination knowledge. Experimental students were able to maintain gains in almost all writing measures and were able to generalize to content areas, although comparison students slightly increased in number of words. Student and teacher interviews revealed an overall satisfaction with SRSD procedures and the results.

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