Gary A. Troia

The Effectiveness of a Highly Explicit, Teacher-Directed Strategy Instruction Routine Changing the Writing Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities

This study examined the effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed instructional routine used to teach three planning strategies for writing to fourth and fifth graders with learning disabilities. In comparison to peers who received process writing instruction, children who were taught the three planning strategies—goal setting, brainstorming, and organizing—spent more time planning stories in advance of writing and produced stories that were qualitatively better. One month after the end of instruction, students who had been taught the strategies not only maintained their advantage in story quality but also produced longer stories than those produced by their peers who were taught process writing. However, the highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instructional routine used in this study did not promote transfer to an uninstructed genre, persuasive essay writing. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to effective writing instruction practices for students with learning disabilities.

Motivation Research in Writing: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations

This article reviews research on motivation in the academic domain of writing situated within a social cognitive perspective. First we summarize major findings related to 4 theorized components of human motivation—self-efficacy beliefs or perceived competence, mastery and performance goal orientations, task interest and value, and attributions for success and failure. For each component we also offer general instructional recommendations gleaned from the literature. Next we discuss how these components play a role in writing motivation, with particular emphasis on self-efficacy for writing skills versus writing tasks. Then we present findings from studies that have examined the motivational characteristics of individuals who struggle with writing, including those with disabilities, and interventions designed to enhance motivation to write. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research in writing motivation.

Development of Writing Knowledge in Grades 2–8: A Comparison of Typically Developing Writers and Their Struggling Peers

This study examined student perspectives about writing by interviewing both typically developing and struggling writers in Grades 2 through 8. The findings revealed a progressive developmental pattern of writing knowledge in which novice writers place more emphasis on the physical product and local meaning, while more experienced writers focus on global aspects, such as meaning and communication with an audience. In comparison, struggling writers focus on product over process even at the secondary level. Educational implications are discussed and include careful attention to the developmental level of the students during writing instruction.

Effective Writing Instruction Across the Grades: What Every Educational Consultant Should Know

Writing is one of the most complex literate activities in which children and adults engage. Composing text entails deployment and coordination of multiple cognitive, linguistic, and physical operations to accomplish goals associated with genre-specific conventions, audience needs, and communicative purposes. These operations include planning, generating text, transcribing, reviewing, and revising and are recursive and iterative in nature (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Flower & Hayes, 1980; Hayes & Flower, 1980; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1986). Not only is writing challenging for the inexperienced author but it creates anxiety, avoidance, and frustration for those who teach it. Teachers frequently comment that they lack the knowlJOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION, 14(1), 75–89 Copyright

A close look at the efficacy of Fast ForWord Language for children with academic weaknesses

This study evaluated the efficacy of the computer-assisted intervention program known as Fast ForWord Language in a sample of children in grades 1 through 6 referred for poor academic performance. Fast ForWord Language combines intensive training in multiple receptive language skills with adaptive acoustic waveform lengthening and amplification to remediate deficits in auditory temporal processing that are purported to be the root cause of developmental language disorders and many reading disabilities. Students in the treatment group were matched with students in a no-contact control group and all were assessed in four domains before and immediately after the 4–8 week intervention: (a) oral language competency; (b) phonological processing abilities; (c) basic reading skills; and (d) classroom behavior. Except for performance on a measure of expressive oral language, on which children in the treatment group achieved significantly greater gains than those in the control group, changes in test scores from pretest to posttest were equivalent for the two groups. However, when the lowest performing students in each group were compared, the children in the treatment group demonstrated superior gains in expressive oral language, syllable and sound blending, and reduction in problem behaviors. Thus, Fast ForWord Language had a positive, albeit limited impact on the oral language skills, academic performance, and social behaviors of some children in this study. However, due to methodological weaknesses and limited treatment fidelity, the study results must be interpreted cautiously.

A Year in the Writing Workshop

This article reports the findings from a year-long study of 6 writing teachers in an urban elementary school who also received intensive professional development in writing instruction from a nonprofit organization. Repeated observations demonstrated that the teachers displayed consistency in their use of the core instructional elements associated with writing workshop, which aligned with the emphasis of the professional development support. However, the teachers exhibited substantial variability in their use of student engagement tactics, management techniques, and instructional supports. According to survey data, the teachers demonstrated a strong and relatively stable sense of teaching efficacy and held a fairly balanced view of the importance of explicit and incidental writing instruction, and these beliefs were related to their instructional practices. Interviews with the teachers highlighted the relevance of teachers’ own writing behaviors and attitudes.

Migrant Students with Limited English Proficiency Can Fast ForWord Language™ Make a Di ference in Their Language Skills and Academic Achievement?

This study evaluated the efficacy of the computer-assisted intervention program known as Fast ForWord Language™ in a sample of migrant students in Grades 1 through 6 who were native Spanish speakers. Fast ForWord Language™ combines intensive training in multiple receptive English language skills with adaptive acoustic waveform lengthening and amplification to purportedly accelerate the English language learning skills of children who are nonnative English language speakers. Students either were randomly assigned to a treatment or no-contact control condition or were matched on grade, English language proficiency, and nonverbal IQ. All students were assessed in five domains before and immediately after the 4- to 8-week intervention: (a) spoken English language proficiency; (b) oral language competency; (c) phonological awareness; (d) basic reading skills; and (e) classroom behavior. Except for performance on a measure of sight-word recognition, on which children in the treatment group achieved a significantly greater gain than those in the control group, changes in test scores from pretest to posttest were equivalent for the two groups. However, when students who were least fluent in spoken English in each group were compared, the children in the treatment group demonstrated superior gains in expressive language, sight-word recognition, and pseudoword decoding. Thus, Fast ForWord Language™ had a substantial, albeit limited impact on the oral language skills and reading performance of migrant children in this study. However, due to methodological weaknesses and limited treatment fidelity, the study results must be interpreted cautiously.

Responsiveness to Intervention Roles for Speech-Language Pathologists in the Prevention and Identification of Learning Disabilities.

This article addresses ways in which speech–language pathologists can play a proactive and substantive part in schoolwide reading disability prevention and intervention efforts within the responsiveness to intervention framework. First, the driving forces that led Congress to alter how schools may operationalize learning disabilities are presented. Next, responsiveness to intervention is introduced and the shared characteristics of its varied models are reviewed. Finally, the likely benefits and potential limitations of this new approach for preventing and diagnosing learning disabilities are discussed. This information offers a backdrop for rethinking the role and responsibilities of school-based speech–language pathologists in the new millennium.

PROMOTING AWARENESS OF SOUNDS IN SPEECH (PASS): THE EFFECTS OF INTERVENTION AND STIMULUS CHARACTERISTICS ON THE BLENDING PERFORMANCE OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENTS

The primary purpose of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of the blending portion of the Promoting Awareness of Sounds in Speech (PASS) program, a comprehensive and explicit phonological awareness intervention curriculum designed for preschool children with speech and language impairments. A secondary purpose was to examine the effects of stimulus characteristics on responsiveness to the phonological awareness intervention via post-hoc analysis. A single-subject design was used to examine treatment effects among children with varying levels of communicative abilities. The PASS blending module was implemented with 11 children with speech and/or language impairments, following the establishment of a stable pretreatment baseline on a series of phonological awareness probes. After instruction, the children demonstrated substantial improvement in their blending ability, which appeared to be attributable to the intervention rather than environmental or maturational factors. These findings suggest that PASS blending training was an effective approach to phonological awareness instruction for the preschoolers with disabilities in our sample. Additionally, word frequency and neighborhood density were found to influence performance on some phonological awareness tasks. Specifically, children correctly blended high-frequency words more than low-frequency words, but they correctly blended words from lower-density neighborhoods more than words from higher-density neighborhoods. Findings are discussed with respect to predictions of the lexical restructuring hypothesis.

Promoting awareness of sounds in speech: An initial report of an early intervention program for children with speech and language impairments

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of the rhyming portion of the Promoting Awareness of Sounds in Speech (PASS) program, a comprehensive and explicit phonological awareness intervention curriculum that was designed specifically for preschool children with speech and language impairments. A single-subject research design was used to examine treatment effects among children with varying levels of communicative competence, to permit flexibility while piloting the intervention program, and to provide experimental control. The PASS rhyming module was implemented with eight children with speech and/or language impairments, following the establishment of a stable pretreatment baseline on a series of phonological awareness probes. After instruction, all of the children demonstrated substantial improvement in their rhyming ability, which generally appeared to be attributable to the intervention rather than environmental or maturational factors. These findings suggest that PASS rhyming training was an effective approach to phonological awareness instruction for the preschoolers with disabilities who comprised our sample. Thus, it appears that explicit instruction in phonological awareness skills is beneficial for children at a point earlier than is typically judged to be therapeutically appropriate.