Self-Regulated Strategy Development Writing Approach: A Single Fifth Grade Classroom

Abstract

Many students across the US, specifically in Texas, struggle with writing on grade level. On the last National Assessment of Educational Progress (2012), 70% of eighth- and twelfth-grade students were not writing on grade level. On the 2021 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Writing, only 26% of the fourth grade students met grade level writing standards, and 31% of seventh grade students met grade level writing standards. Writing is an essential skill students need to have. Writing is used to express ideas and opinions, write about what students are learning and reading about in their classes, and use it in their personal lives (e.g., social media, texting). For this record of study, the researcher employed a one-group pretest/posttest design to explore the impact of the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) persuasive writing approach on the quality of a class of fifth grade students' writing and the inclusion of persuasive elements. In this study, the researcher taught the six step SRSD persuasive writing approach through 15 lessons. A paired t-test analyzing the holistic quality scores data demonstrated the impact of the instruction on student writing quality. Another paired t-test analyzing the total persuasive elements data demonstrated the instruction's impact on student knowledge of the genre. Results indicated that the SRSD instruction positively impacted students' writing quality. Elementary teachers who want to improve their students' writing can integrate the SRSD writing approach into their curriculum. To help elementary teachers in a similar context, the researcher created a PD agenda to help teachers be able to implement the approach in their classrooms.