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.