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Writing Instruction and
Intervention Strategies:
Initial Guidance
September, 2014
This document was created by the divisions of Educational
Services and MTSS in response to school-based staff’s need to
assess targeted writing skills and offer intervention due to
parent SLD referral. While schools focus on high quality literacy
practices and getting systems in place to implement a multi-
tiered system of supports, this document is meant to be a
helpful resource for when schools encounter the rare “writing
only” SLD referral.
2
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Tier 1 Instructional Strategies 4 General Instructional Techniques 4 Strategy Instruction 6
Tier 2 and 3
Instruction/Intervention Strategies
7
Sentence Combining 7 Self-Regulated Strategy
Instruction 8
Websites 10
References 11
Writing Instruction and Intervention Strategies:
Initial Guidance
3
Purpose of the Guiding Document
Writing is an essential area of learning for MMSD students. Writing is included as
one skill area of the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards.
Additionally, Written Expression is an Achievement Area for Specific Learning
Disability. As a result, it is important for educators to have effective tools to
support student learning in writing. The purpose of this guiding document is to
describe several evidence-based intervention strategies that educators can use
to help students improve writing skills. This document does not include
information about evidence-based intervention programs that may address
intervention needs in the area of writing (e.g., Rewards Writing). School teams
should consider the academic skill needs of students when determining which
evidence-based program(s) or evidence-based strategy(s) to use.
To use this document: First, a designated person will need to engage in
additional assessment to identify the particular skill(s) that the student needs
additional support with in addition to their core instruction. Typically this involves
reviewing a student’s work sample to see what kind of writing issue(s) the student
may have. An example of a norm-referenced tool is AIMSweb – Written
Expression curriculum-based measure. Next, identify a strategy that might target
one or more writing skill(s) determined to be an area of need for the student. For
guidance on expected performance by grade level, review the Common Core
State Standards for Writing in the English Language Arts domain
(http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/).
Organization of the Guiding Document
This document is divided into two sections: Tier 1 Instructional Strategies; and Tier
2 and Tier 3 Instructional Strategies that can be used for intervention purposes.
Both sections offer examples of evidence-based intervention strategies that can
Introduction
4
be used with students experiencing challenges with written expression and other
writing skills.
For each evidence based strategy, there is a section dedicated to explaining
the purpose of the strategy (i.e., the writing skill that the strategy targets),
materials needed to use the strategy, and steps used to implement the strategy.
Also, a fidelity checklist is included for each strategy so educators can record
the level of implementation for the intervention sessions. These checklists outline
the important steps to maintain the evidence-based nature of the strategies.
However, they can be modified to tailor a strategy to an individual student.
Tier 1 Instructional Strategies:
General Instructional Techniques and Strategy Instruction
Effective Core Instructional Practices: General Instructional Techniques
Tier 1, or core instruction, is the collection of instructional practices used in the
classroom with all students to teach the general education curriculum. Several
instructional strategies have been identified through research as effective
practices for teaching writing skills in the classroom.
Model the target writing skills: Model the specific writing skill that you want
students to learn during writing instruction. Effective modeling involves
modeling the thought processes a writer engages in to use the writing skill,
in addition to the actual production of the writing. The goal is to have
students imitate the important components of the target writing skill.
Provide students with opportunities to write: Consistent, predictable
writing times are important to help students develop writing skills. Activities
during writing time include planning, writing, and revising. A
recommended time is 45 to 60 minutes of writing time daily.
Have students set clear and specific goals for writing assignments:
Students should know the purpose of each writing assignment. State the
writing skill goal for each assignment. Goals can be used at each stage
of the writing process, not just the end goal of the complete written topic.
5
Provide opportunities for peer collaboration: Give students time to work
together on the writing process. This strategy works best when peer pairs
have students with different levels of writing ability. Additionally, provide
students with specific instructions and modeling for what they should be
doing with their writing partner.
Provide students with frequent and specific feedback on their writing:
Help students understand the skills they have mastered and the skills they
need to work on in writing. Give feedback on an all writing assignments in
relation to the assignment goals and the target writing skills. Keep
students motivated – make it a balance of positive reinforcement for
writing skills that were demonstrated and constructive feedback on writing
skills that students can continue to improve.
Provide students with the opportunities to revise their writing: Make time
for students to revise their writing assignment. Feedback will have a
greater impact on learning if students have the chance to revise their
writing based on feedback from teachers
The core Tier 1 instructional strategies can be delivered to students that need
intervention in addition to the core level (i.e., Tier 2 and Tier 3) at a more
intensive level. For example, the same core instructional strategies can be used
in a writing intervention with modification that include smaller teacher to student
Integrity Observation Checklist: Core Instruction Practices
Strategy Yes No
Modeled the target
writing skill(s)
Provided students
opportunity to write
Set clear and specific
goals for writing
assignment
Provided opportunities
for peer collaboration
Provided students with
feedback on writing
Provided opportunities
for revision of writing
6
ratios, more frequent times during the week, longer instructional sessions, and
more explicit instruction, including grammar instruction, and modeling.
Effective Core Practices: Strategy Instruction
Explicit instruction in the strategies needed to be a successful writer is
critical to effective writing instruction for all students. Be systematic about
teaching new writing skills: introduce and explicitly model the writing
strategy with a metacognitive demonstration, engaged in guided
practice, facilitate independent practice, and provide specific feedback.
Create a step-by-step plan that will guide students through the
completion of the writing task.
Incorporate gradual release into strategy instruction. First, introduce the
strategy and its purpose in the writing process. Describe each step that is
involved in using the strategy. Third, model the writing strategy. Share
with students exactly how you are completing the writing task by thinking
aloud. Next, provide students with a way to remember the writing
strategy, such as a mnemonic device. For example, if you are teaching
students the structure of a paragraph – topic sentence, details,
conclusion, you may have them remember the letters “TDC.” Then, have
students practice the writing strategy in an assignment or activity. Finally,
provide feedback on how well students used the strategy with the writing
assignment.
Writing skills that translate to strategy instruction include brainstorming,
organizing ides, planning, revising, editing, summarizing reading materials,
and combining sentences.
Integrity Observation Checklist: Strategy Instruction
Step Yes No
Introduced the strategy
Described the steps of
the strategy
Modeled the strategy
Identified a way to
remember the strategy
Provided an opportunity
to practice the strategy
Provided specific and
clear feedback on
strategy use
7
Tier 2 and Tier 3 Instructional/Intervention Strategies: Sentence
Combining and Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction
Sentence Combining
The purpose of Sentence Combining is to provide students with the
opportunities to manipulate and rewrite basic sentences into more complex
sentences, with greater syntactical complexity.
Basic Format: Present to the student a base sentence and a modifying
sentence. Ask the student to combine the sentences into one sentence.
Steps:
o Introduce the Sentence Combining activity and purpose
o Describe the process of Sentence Combining
o Model the process.
o Provide guided practice with feedback.
o Provide independent practice with feedback.
Forms:
o Sentence Combining can be used in one of two forms – cued and
open.
o Cued: a word is provided to prompt the student to produce a certain
sentence combination
EX:
Base: The cake was delicious
Modifying: The cake was chocolate.
EX:
Base: The boy fell over the desk.
Modifying: He lost his balance. (because)
o Open: new clue is given to the student and many sentence
combinations are possible.
Integrity Observation Checklist: Sentence Combining
Step Yes No
Introduced activity
Described steps of
Sentence Combining
Modeled the Sentence
Combining steps
Guided practice:
Presented a base
sentence and modifying
sentence
8
Provided feedback on
guided practice
Independent practice:
Presented a base
sentence and modifying
sentence
Provided feedback on
independent practice
Provided opportunities
for revision of writing
Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction
Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction is a framework of teaching stages for
writing skills and self-regulation strategies to help students learn about the
writing process.
Self-Regulation Strategies include: Goal setting, planning, self-monitoring,
self-assessment, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement. The purpose of
these strategies is to motivate and empower students to become good
writers. Where can students use a self-regulation strategy with the target
writing strategy? Explain and model how to use the self-regulation
strategy when modeling the writing strategy.
There are 6 stages to teaching a writing skill:
o Introduce the Strategy: State the strategy that will be the focus of
the lesson. Explain the purpose of the strategy in the writing
process.
o Development of Background Knowledge: This step is a warm up
activity to get students familiar with the elements of the writing
strategy. Use an activity that will transition them from a previously
discussed strategy to the current strategy.
o Discussion of a Strategy: Explain the steps to use the strategy.
What’s the step-by-step process for using the strategy?
o Modeling of Strategy/Self-Instructions: Model the strategy, including
self-instructions for completing each step (i.e., think-aloud).
o Memorization of a Strategy: Provide students with a way to
memorize the strategy so they can recall it independently, such as
a mnemonic device.
o Supportive/Collaborative Practice: Have students work with
partners on a writing assignment to practice the writing and self-
regulation strategies.
9
o Independent Practice of a Strategy: Provide students with
opportunities to practice the writing and self-regulation strategies
on their own. Give specific and clear feedback on assignments.
Following independent practice and feedback, give students the
opportunity to revise and improve their writing.
Suggested writing skills include planning, semantic webbing, production
monitoring, peer response to revising, and revise.
Integrity Observation Checklist: Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction
Step Yes No
Introduced the strategy
Developed background knowledge
Presented and discussed the steps of
the strategy
Modeled the strategy with self-
instructions (think-aloud)
Identified a way to remember the
strategy
Provided opportunity for guided or
collaborative practice
Provided opportunity for independent
practice
Incorporated a self-
regulation strategy
into the session
Introduced the
strategy
Described the
steps of the
strategy
Modeled the
strategy
Provided an
opportunity to
practice the
strategy in the
writing process
Provided specific
and clear
feedback on
strategy use
Provided specific and clear feedback
on use of strategy
Provided opportunities for revision of
writing
10
Reading Recovery/Literacy Lessons Writing Component
Reading Recovery/Literacy Lessons Writing component is a framework of
teaching strategies to help students learn how to compose and transcribe
a message.
The writing used in this intervention is somewhat different in nature than
writing instruction in a regular language arts program. In a regular
language arts program, the primary emphasis is upon communication,
expression, and organization of ideas. In first drafts, children are
encouraged to use "temporary" (also called "invented") spellings in order
to move on with their ideas, and then, as they move through process
writing, to revise and edit their writing. In this intervention, communication
remains a purpose, and the writing is always meaningful, often based, for
example, on something of interest to children or on a book just read;
however, the writing is also more specifically used to draw students'
attention to the details of printed words in order to reinforce and extend a
student's growing word identification skills.
Procedures in Implementation:
o Teacher and student share a discussion.
o Student to think about the spelling of each word and to write as
much of the word as he or she can.
o Teacher support is offered only as needed in order to ensure that
the students write the word accurately either elkonin boxes,
repeated writing, and/or analogies. For example, for children who
are having difficulty with phonemic awareness (the conscious
awareness that spoken words are composed of units called sounds
and the ability to manipulate those sounds), the teacher draws a
box for each of the sounds in the word. The children are guided to
think about the number of sounds in a word and the letters that
represent those sounds. For example, the teacher would draw three
boxes for the word teach, grouping the ea and ch in separate
boxes since in that word ea and ch represent single sounds.
o Teacher supports with letter formation and other conventions as
needed
11
Integrity Checklist: RR/LL Writing Component
Step Yes No
The conversation is carefully crafted to help expand topics,
language, comprehension, and vocabulary and the teacher
makes deliberate teaching decisions that increase the
complexity of the writing.
The teacher uses a variety of writing prompts to help the child
write new words and takes the child to new learning by asking
the child to ‘think of a way’ to write a new word.
Constant use of the work page for letter work, word learning,
generating words, etc. This use will fade as the end of lessons
nears and the child grows in competence
The teacher anticipates quickly which words will be analyzed
in boxes, which will be analyzed with analogy, and which
should be written quickly and independently by the child
The child independently articulates sounds, pushes counters,
and records what is known. The teacher helps only for the
hardest to hear sounds for any particular child. The teacher
encourages the child to enter even silent letters by asking
“What letter do you expect to see?”
12
Assisted Writing: Interactive Writing
Interactive Writing is a framework of teaching strategies to help students
learn how to compose simple messages, acquire foundational concepts
about print, and articulate words slowly and hear and record letters in
words to communicate a message, write letters fluently, and build a core
of high frequency words.
The writing used in this intervention is somewhat different in nature than
writing instruction in a regular language arts program. In a regular
language arts program, the primary emphasis is upon communication,
expression, and organization of ideas. In first drafts, children are
encouraged to use "temporary" (also called "invented") spellings in order
to move on with their ideas, and then, as they move through process
writing, to revise and edit their writing. In this intervention, communication
remains a purpose, and the writing is always meaningful, often based, for
example, on something of interest to children or on a book just read;
however, the writing is also more specifically used to draw students'
attention to the details of printed words in order to reinforce and extend a
student's growing word identification skills and apply reading strategies to
predict and monitor the reading.
Procedures in Implementation:
o Teacher and student share a discussion from either a short read
aloud or a personal experience.
o The message is negotiated through conversation. The final text is
decided upon by the group and rehearsed before writing.
o Children actively contribute by writing known letters, and or words
on shared document
o Teacher models early reading and writing strategies as she engages
the children in constructing the message o Teacher supports with letter formation and other conventions as
needed
13
Integrity Checklist: Interactive Writing
Step Yes No
The conversation is carefully crafted to help expand topics,
language, comprehension, and vocabulary and the teacher
makes deliberate teaching decisions that increase the
complexity of the writing.
The teacher uses a variety of writing prompts to help the child
write new words and takes the child to new learning by asking
the child to ‘think of a way’ to write a new word.
Letter work, word learning, generating words, etc. is modeled
and practiced. This use will fade as the end of lessons nears
and the child grows in competence in letter formation, and
movement from semi-phonetic to phonetic stage of spelling.
The teacher anticipates quickly which words will be analyzed
in boxes, which will be analyzed with analogy, and which
should be written quickly and independently by the child
The child independently articulates sounds, pushes counters,
and records what is known. The teacher helps only for the
hardest to hear sounds for any particular child. The teacher
encourages the child to enter even silent letters by asking
“What letter do you expect to see?”
14
Website Resources
Website Description Link
Common Core State
Standards – English
Language Arts Standards
Common Core State
Standards for the area of
Writing
http://www.corestandar
ds.org/ELA-Literacy/
Intervention Central Information about
academic and behavior
interventions, including
writing
www.interventioncentral.
org
National Center on
Intensive Intervention
Offers resources, tools,
implementation, and
support for intensive
interventions
http://www.intensiveinter
vention.org/
AIMSweb Resources on
administering and
scoring AIMSweb-Written
Expression
http://www.aimsweb.co
m/products/features/ass
essments/written-
expression
15
References
De La Paz, S., Espin, C., & McMaster, K. L. (2010). RtI in writing instruction:
Implementing evidence-based interventions and evaluating the effects for
individual students.
Graham, S., & Harris, K R. (2007). Best practices in teaching planning. In S.
Graham, C. A. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.) Best Practices in Writing
Instruction (pp. 119-140). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Johnson, E. S., Hancock, C., Carter, D. R., & Pool, J. L. (2013). Self-regulated
strategy development as a Tier 2 writing intervention. Intervention in School and
Clinic, 48, 218-222.
Rathvon, N. Effective school interventions: Evidence-based strategies for
improving student outcomes (2nd Ed.). (2008). Guilford Publications: New York,
NY.
Saddler, B. (2005). Sentence combining: A sentence-level writing intervention.
The Reading Teacher, 58, 468-471.
Saddler, B., & Asarao-Saddler, K. Response to intervention in writing: A
suggested framework for screening, intervention, and progress monitoring.
(2013). Reading & Writing Quarterly, 29, 20-43.