The effects of self-regulated strategy development on the writing process for high school students with learning disabilities

Many students with learning disabilities (LD) exhibit deficiencies in the writing process. In order to achieve an adequate level of writing competence, these students must apply strategies that enable them to effectively plan, organize, write, and revise a written product. Explicit strategy instruction involving a structured style of learning has been found to increase students' writing competence (De La Paz & Graham, 1997a). The current study examined the effects of the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model on the writing performance of 15 high school sophomores with LD. Students were taught to apply the SRSD model as a strategy for planning and writing essays and to self-regulate their use of the strategy and the writing process. The effects of strategy instruction were examined using a repeated-measures design.