Paragraph Writing Strategy

Resources: 

The Paragraph Writing Strategy Research (.pdf)

Research Articles:

• Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. (2003). Can students with LD become competent writers? Learning Disability Quarterly, 26(2), 129-141. This article summarizes a programmatic line of R&D work that has focused on learning strategies instruction as a method for improving the writing performance of students with disabilities within the context of the general education curriculum as well as on district- and state-wide writing assessments.

The Story Behind the Paragraph Writing Strategy Program from author,  Jean B. Schumaker, Ph.D.:
I started developing instructional programs for writing skills in the 1970s when I was a graduate student at the University of Kansas. My graduate program required me to take part in an internship at the probation department of the Douglas County Juvenile Court in Kansas. I was assigned several cases of truant secondary students. In working with these students, I learned that they could not write. They told me that one of the reasons they avoided school was that they were embarrassed because they could not complete the work assigned to them. I also learned that there were no instructional programs available to teach them writing in an intensive way. I embarked on a journey of developing writing programs that continues to this day, and several colleagues have joined me along the way.

Development of the Paragraph Writing Strategy Program started in the early 1980s. We originally thought that we could teach students to write topic sentences, detail sentences, and concluding sentences, and that, as a result, the students would be writing paragraphs that would be appropriate for secondary courses. We quickly learned that we could teach students how to write those types of sentences but that their paragraphs horrifyingly simple. We also learned that there is a lot more to writing a “meaty” and well-organized paragraph than meets the eye. We realized, for example, that we needed to teach students basic concepts and associated skills such as how to use the same tense, the same point of view, and coordinated transitions throughout paragraphs and how to plan paragraphs. We also realized that students needed to learn how to write a variety of topic sentences, detail sentences, and concluding sentences. Karen Lyerla, a high school teacher, became my partner in creating the current program that contains a variety of learning sheets for each of the needed skills. Several years of trial and error were required before we had a program that worked. The program was finally published 10 years after the original idea for a paragraph writing strategy was hatched, but we are pleased that the program can be used to teach students to write excellent paragraphs.

Author's Thoughts about Strategic Instruction
Strategic instruction is one of the few instructional methods that have been shown to be effective through empirical research to produce improvement in learning and in the academic performance of at-risk students. The studies conducted on the instructional program for the Paragraph Writing Strategy have shown students can learn to write well-organized paragraphs and can generalize their use of paragraph writing skills to their coursework when this program is used with fidelity. Instruction in the Paragraph Writing Strategy has been included in scope and sequence plans at the middle-school and high-school levels in numerous districts across the nation. The strategy has been taught in general education and special education settings to a wide variety of students.

Teacher and Student Feedback on the Paragraph Writing Strategy
Teachers often report that students ask them, “Why didn’t someone explain this to me in this way before?” They report that students are happy to learn how to plan and write well-organized paragraphs and pleased with the results that they can achieve in their required courses on writing assignments.

The Story Behind the Paragraph Writing Strategy from author Karen Lyerla:
Writing represents one of my passions. All the nuances involved within the written expression continuum excite me. A well-written composition of any kind offers a sense of rightness in my world. The sound and flow of pencil lead over paper in high school provided me with satisfaction of a job well done. I enjoyed the university ‘blue book’ finals where I became more skilled and adept at speaking my thoughts in written form. Dr. Gordon Alley, my master’s advisor and mentor at KU, and I endlessly discussed and debated the written words within my thesis. Once I began my career as a high school teacher of students with learning disabilities, I realized the importance of the written word for all young men and woman–especially once computers entered our world. Indeed, I experienced major struggles and extreme frustrations as I onerously shifted from pencil and paper into the techno world of Apple Works, Claris Works, MacWrite, and Microsoft Word. I truly understood from this experience what my LD, ED, ADHD, Aspergers’, and at-risk students (the majority reading and writing at about a third- or fourth-grade level) experienced on a daily basis while they fought to stay up with their content classes. As a result, I began a life-long study of written expression. I narrowed my focus and research to paragraphs, recognizing that paragraphs could be broken down into more manageable portions allowing young adults to more easily learn, integrate, and generalize writing basic paragraphs as well as writing different paragraph types.

Author's Thoughts About Paragraph Writing Strategy Instruction:
When used in a variety of settings, at different levels of schooling, and with populations of college-bound and at-risk students and students with disabilities, the Paragraph Writing Strategy lays a solid foundation for more multifaceted written expression strategies. Bottom line–the Paragraph Writing Strategy makes sense. The instruction associated with the strategy promotes consecutive learning following the Sentence Writing Strategy or by itself by teaching how to write basic paragraphs as well as different paragraph types using a series of easily memorized and meaningful formulas evolving into a sequential plan for writing substantial, reliable paragraphs. The strategy exists in a continuum of solid writing strategies with each building to enhance each other and empower students with improved and more complex writing skills.

Teacher and Student Feedback on this Product:
Several students confided the same idea to me over the years. Having mastered the Paragraph Writing Strategy, they reported that, when they began the instruction, they already knew the basics of paragraph writing, and their knowledge of the information resided somewhere within their brain’s ballpark. Learning the strategy helped them by organizing their knowledge so that the information was visually available, sequential, and categorized into meaning units of information.

I believe the best feedback I received on the Paragraph Writing Strategy came from a student I recently tutored. As a pre-organizer, I asked him to share with me all the information he knew about paragraphs. He came up with two ideas: a paragraph has a main sentence, and it gives information. Three hours later, after having finished a tutoring session on the strategy, he intently looked at me, threw his hands up in the air and said, “Who knew???!!!”