1
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
WRITING PROCESS
Helps students to :
 Plan
 Organize
 Write
POWER
 Edit
 Revise
http://coe.jmu.edu/LearningTool
box/printer/power.pdf
Helps students to:
Ellis, E., & Lenz, K. (1987). A
Component Analysis of Effective
Learning Strategies for LD
Students. Learning Disabilities
Focus, 2, 94-107.
Alley, G.R. (1988). Effects of
Generalization Instruction on the
Written Language
Performance of Adolescents with
Learning Disabilities in the
Mainstream Classroom.
Reading, Writing, and Learning
Disabilities, 4, 291-309.
 Write a composition defending a position
DEFENDS
(Argumentative)
Englert, C. S., Raphael, T. E.,
Anderson, L. M., Anthony,
H. M., & Stevens, D. D. (1991).
American Educational Research
Journal, 23, 337-372.
Learning Toolbox. Steppingstone
Technology Grant. James
Madison University, MSC 1903,
Harrisonburg, VA 22807.
 Provide reasons to back up position
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/Pdfs/def
ends.pdf
2
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
PLANNING
Helps students to:
 Pick ideas (i.e., decide what to write about)
 Organize their notes (i.e., brainstorm and
organize possible writing ideas into a writing
plan)
POW
 Write and say more (i.e., continue to modify the
plan while writing)
Helps students to:
 Suspend judgment
 Take sides
STOP
(Argumentative)
 Organize ideas
 Plan to adjust as they write.
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to Be
Effective Writers, U.S. Department
of Education, June 2012. (p.16)
This link provides a power point
that explains SRSD and STOP,
DARE, PLAN, TREE, POW, and
WRITE. Information about
teaching the self-regulating
strategies for student materials
and links to Peabody/ Vanderbilt
interactive tutorials are provided.
https://earlychildhoodeducation.u
su.edu/files/uploads/UTah_State_
SRSD.pptx.pdf
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to Be
Effective Writers, U.S. Department
of Education, June 2012. (p.26)
This link provides a power point
that explains SRSD and STOP,
DARE, PLAN, TREE, POW, and
WRITE. Information about
teaching the self-regulating
strategies for student materials
and links to Peabody/ Vanderbilt
interactive tutorials are provided.
https://earlychildhoodeducation.u
su.edu/files/uploads/UTah_State_
SRSD.pptx.pdf
3
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
WRITING PROCESS
Helps students to:
 Pay attention to the prompt
 List main ideas
PLAN
 Add supporting information
This link provides a power point
that explains SRSD and STOP,
DARE, PLAN, TREE, POW, and
WRITE. Information about
teaching the self-regulating
strategies for student materials
and links to Peabody/Vanderbilt
interactive tutorials are provided.
 Number major points
https://earlychildhoodeducation.
usu.edu/files/uploads/UTah_Stat
e_SRSD.pptx.pdf
Helps students to:
 Brainstorm/generate ideas for their paper
BODY
 Review their ideas and place a number by what
will go first, second, third, and so on
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.16)
 Decide which are main ideas and which are
supporting ideas
 Create an outline that shows the order of the
main ideas and the supporting details for each
main idea
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_062
612.pdf
4
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
WRITING PROCESS
Helps students to understand:
 Their role as writers
 Their audience
 The varied formats for writing
RAFT
 Their topics
By using this strategy, teachers encourage students
to write creatively, to consider a topic from a
different perspective, and to gain practice writing
for different audiences. Students learn to respond
to a writing prompt that requires them to think
about various perspectives (Santa & Havens, 1995)
Helps students to:
Mitchell, D. (1996). Writing to
learn across the curriculum and
the English teacher. English
Journal, 85, 93-97.
Santa, C., & Havens, L. (1995).
Creating independence through
student-owned strategies:
Project CRISS. Dubuque, IA:
Kendall Hunt
http://www.adlit.org/strategies/
19783/
Welch, M., & Jensen, J.B. (1990).
 Plan and write compositions
PLEASE
 Generate and organize ideas in simple paragraph
form
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/Pdfs/ple
ase.pdf
5
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
WRITING PROCESS
Helps students to:
 Select a subject
 Create categories
SCORE
(Research
paper)
Korinek, L., & Bulls, J.A. (1996,
Summer). SCORE A: A student
research paper
writing strategy. Teaching
Exceptional Children,60-63.
 Obtain resources
 Read and take notes
 Evenly organize information
By using this strategy, students learn a concrete,
sequential structure to develop a topical research
paper.
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/Pdfs/scor
ea.pdf
6
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
DRAFTING
Helps students to develop:
• Topic – Write a topic sentence expressing an
opinion.
TREE
(Opinion)
• Reason – Give at least 3 reasons to support the
topic sentence.
• Explanation – Explain your reasons.
• Ending – Formulate a statement to summarize
the topic sentence.
Helps students to identify the parts of a good story:
 W- who
WWW
What=2
How=2
(Narrative)
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.26)
 W- when
 W-where
https://earlychildhoodeducation.
usu.edu/files/uploads/UTah_Stat
e_SRSD.pptx.pdf
http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/casl/po
wtree.html
National Center on Accelerating
Student Learning, U.S.
Department of Education’s Office
of Special Education Programs
(OSEP), Teachers College of
Columbia University and
Vanderbilt University.
 W- What do the characters do?
 W- What happens then?
 H-How does the story end?
 H-How does the main character (and other
characters) feel?
http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/casl/srs
d.html
7
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
DRAFTING
Helps students to:
 Work from plan to develop thesis
 Remember writing goals
WRITE
 Include transition words
This link provides a power point
that explains SRSD and STOP,
DARE, PLAN, TREE, POW, and
WRITE. Information about
teaching the self-regulating
strategies for student materials
and links to Peabody/Vanderbilt
interactive tutorials are provided.
 Try to use different kinds of sentences
 use Exciting words
Helps students to:
SSS
SENTENCE
GENERATION

Say Sentences orally

Select the best sentence

Structure sentences using transition words
By using this strategy, students learn to select a
sentence, paragraph, or text excerpt and imitate
the author’s form. They learn to try out sentences
orally before writing them on paper. They learn to
try multiple sentences and choose the best one.
They learn to use transition words to develop
different sentence structures and to practice
writing good topic sentences.
https://earlychildhoodeducation.
usu.edu/files/uploads/UTah_Stat
e_SRSD.pptx.pdf
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.16)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
8
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
DRAFTING
SENTENCE
EXPANDING
SENTENCE
COMBINING
Helps students to:
 elaborate
 describe
 increase sentence structure variety
To implement the activity:
1. Introduce a short sentence.
2. Model how to add to the sentence using different parts
of speech, demonstrate appropriate capitalization and
punctuation as the sentence is expanded.
3. Have students provide suggestions for different parts
of speech (e.g., subjects and predicates) to add to the
short sentences.
4. Have students work independently or in pairs to
expand a sentence.
5. Encourage students to share their expanded sentences in
small groups, providing feedback to their peers.
Helps students to:
 write complex yet concise sentences
 express important points and ideas
 express ideas in an interesting way
To implement the activity:
1. Choose sentences for combining.
2. Model how to combine the sentences using several
examples; with older students, introduce moving,
deleting, and adding words or parts.
3. Have students rate the quality of the new sentence,
provide alternatives to the new sentence, and
discuss which sentences sound better and why.
4. Encourage students to work in pairs to combine
sentences, creating several new possibilities and
rating the quality of their new sentences.
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.31)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.31)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
9
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
DRAFTING
Helps student to develop sentence writing skills.
SENTENCE
FRAMING
To implement the activity:
1. Develop a sentence frame for students to use.
2. Model the use of the sentence frame.
3. Have students use the sentence frame to
construct their own sentences.
4. Have students share their sentences with peers
and discuss their word choices.
5. Slowly fade the use of the sentence frame during
instruction until students can write sentences
independently.
Helps students to make a writing plan by
considering:
SPACE
(Narrative)





Setting
Purpose
Action
Conclusion
Emotions
This strategy is the second step of a three-step
writing strategy. It is designed to help students
make a writing plan and think about the details that
should be included in stories. Models,
demonstrations, and guided practice should be
included when teaching student this strategy.
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.31)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
Harris, K.R., & Graham, S. (1992).
Helping young writers master the
craft: Strategy instruction and
self-regulation in the writing
process. Cambridge, MA:
Brookline Books, pg. 76.
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/Pdfs/spac
e.pdf
10
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
REVISING & EDITING
Helps students to:
 Develop the thesis.
 Add ideas to support the thesis.
DARE
(Argumentative)
CHECKLIST
FOR
WRITING
SELF-CHECK
 Reject arguments on the other side.
 End with a strong conclusion.
Helps students to:
• Self-evaluate
- Are the ideas clear?
- Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?
Does the writing connect with the reader?
- Are sentence types varied?
 Self-monitor writing
Did I meet the goals I developed for my
writing? If not, what changes should I make
to meet my goals?
- Did I correctly use strategies that were
appropriate for this task? If not, what should
I change?
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to Be
Effective Writers, U.S. Department
of Education, June 2012.
This link provides a power point that
explains SRSD and STOP, DARE,
PLAN, TREE, POW, and WRITE.
Information about teaching the selfregulating strategies for student
materials and links to Peabody/
Vanderbilt interactive tutorials are
provided.
https://earlychildhoodeducation.u
su.edu/files/uploads/UTah_State_
SRSD.pptx.pdf
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.16)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
11
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
REVISING & EDITING
Helps students to edit through answering
questions:
• Did I Capitalize the first word in sentences and
proper names?
COPS
• How is the Overall appearance of my paper?
• Did I use commas and end-of-sentence
punctuation?
The Error Monitoring Strategy,
The University of Kansas Center
for Research on Learning,
http://www.kucrl.org/sim/strate
gies/error.shtml
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.16)
• Did I Spell each word correctly?
Helps students to edit using the steps:
 Write on every other line
WRITER
 Read the paper for meaning
 Interrogate yourself using COPS
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
Schumaker, J.B., Nolan, S.M., &
Deshler, D.D. (1985). The error
monitoring strategy. In Ellis, E.S.,
& Lenz, B.K. (1987). A component
analysis of effective learning
strategies for LD students.
Learning Disabilities Focus, 2, 94107.
 Take the paper to someone to proofread again
 Execute a final copy
 Reread your paper a final time
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/Pdfs/writ
er.pdf
12
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
REVISING & EDITING
Helps students to peer edit by:
 Placing a question mark (?) by anything they do
not understand in their writing partner’s paper.
PEER
EDITING
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.16)
 Placing a carat (^) anywhere it would be useful
to have the author include more information.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
13
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
STRENGTHEN WRITING (SHARING WITH PEERS)
AUTHOR’S
CHAIR
Helps students provide appropriate verbal feedback
IES Practice Guide: Teaching
to peers about their writing.
Elementary School Students to
Be Effective Writers, U.S.
Department of Education, June
2012. (p.38) (p.16)
To implement the activity:
During the “Author’s Chair” activity, one student,
sitting in a special chair, reads his or her work to
peers as they sit on the rug. The teacher then
models (using suggested “Author’s Chair”) and
facilitates giving kind verbal comments.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/
practice_guides/writing_pg_0626
12.pdf
14
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Improving
Writing
Performance:
A Strategy for
Writing
Persuasive
Essays
Writing
Process
Writing Next:
Effective
Strategies to
Improve
Writing of
Adolescents
in Middle &
High Schools
Modules from IRIS website
Adolescent Literacy website
Center on Instruction
website
This professional development module highlights
the differences between students who write well
and those who struggle. Elements of the writing
process are discussed, as are the prerequisite skills
students need to write good papers. The module
outlines and describes the process for teaching
students the POW+TREE strategy, a writing strategy
to help students produce better persuasive essays.
Adolescent Literacy.org is a resource for parents
and educators, grades 4-12. Learn how to model a
range of prewriting techniques and introduce
several mnemonics to help students organize their
writing.”A chart that lists the Planning Mnemonics,
what they stand for, what type of writing and
credits for RAFT, STOP, DARE, STOP, LIST, W4H2.
This synopsis provides the findings reported in
“Writing Next”; it identifies 11 instructional
strategies, listed in decreasing order of effect size.
This resource can facilitate the strengthening of
writing instruction for implementation of the
College & Career Ready Standards.
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.ed
u/module/pow/
http://www.adlit.org/article/360
70/%20-%20mnemonics/
http://www.centeroninstruction.
org/synopsis-of-writing-nexteffective-strategies-to-improvewriting-of-adolescents-in-middle-high-schools
15
Writing Instructional Strategies
STRATEGY
MATERIAL
PURPOSE / DESCRIPTION
CITATION /
FURTHER READ
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Cognitive
Strategy
Instruction:
Writing
University of NebraskaLincoln Cognitive Strategy
Instruction website
The Cognitive Strategy Instruction website contains
a variety of writing strategies for spelling, written
composition, and proofreading.
http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/writing.s
html