A Meta-Analysis of Single Subject Design Writing Intervention Research

Journal of Educational Psychology

Rogers, L. A., & Graham, S. (2008).

Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 879-906.

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effect of writing interventions on writing skills in students, grades 1-12, who are struggling writers, including those with disabilities.

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Single-subject design studies

88

<p>The review examined 9 writing treatments used with struggling and regular writers. Of these, the findings support the use of the following treatments--the majority of which included struggling writers with learning disabilities:</p><ul> <li>Strategy Instruction: Twenty-one studies examined the use of planning/drafting strategies to compose narrative and expository text. Effect sizes (mean percent of nonoverlapping data [PND]) for elements, productivity and quality were 96%, 91%, and 99% respectively for students grades 2-8.</li> <li>Teaching Grammar/Usage: Four studies examined peer-mediated grammar/usage instruction for children in grades 2, 5 and 6. Mean PNDs for improved grammar skills was 83%, suggesting that grammar/usage interventions were effective for this population.</li> <li>Word Processing Strategies: Five studies examined various word processing strategies (e.g., total number of words) to improve writing productivity in children in grades 1, 4, and 5. Moderate moderate effects were noted for improved writing productivity (mean PND = 70%).</li> <li>Teaching Complex Sentence Construction: Five studies reported moderate effects for improving sentence level construction in children grades 6-12 (mean PND = 86%).</li> <li>Prewriting Strategies: Sixteen studies examined the use of computer-based prewriting strategies (e.g., generating outlines, story webs) to improve narrative writing in children with learning disabilities. Small effects were noted for writing quality (mean PND = 52%).</li></ul>