Teaching Expressive Writing to Students With Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis
Elementary School Journal
Gersten, R., & Baker, S. (2001).
Elementary School Journal, 101(3), 251-272.
This meta-analysis investigates the effects of writing interventions in children with learning disabilities.
National Council of Learning Disabilities
1963-1999
Experimental studies; quasi-experimental studies
13
Interventions were comprised of components that fell in the following categories: writing process (e.g., planning, writing, and revising), awareness of text structures (e.g., expository vs. narrative text); and guided feedback about the overall quality of writing, missing elements, and strengths. Overall, these interventions have a large, positive effect on aggregate writing skills (ES= 0.81). Effects were consistent across writing genres (e.g., comparison essays vs. narrative stories) and assessment techniques (e.g., global rating of quality vs. the sum of scores for individual writing traits or rubrics).
