A Comparison of Text Structure and Self-Regulated Writing Strategies for Composing From Sources by Middle School Students

This study compared two techniques for teaching middle school students to compose from expository text sources, a common but difficult academic writing task. Classroom social studies content was used. Text structure instruction (TSI), which focused on text characteristics using graphic organizers, was compared with PLAN & WRITE for Summarization (PWS), a self-regulated strategy development intervention adapted from De La Paz (1999) De La Paz, S. 1999. Self-regulated strategy instruction in regular education settings: Improving outcomes for students with and without learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,, 14: 92–106. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], which taught note-taking, composing, editing and revision, and self-monitoring. Compared to a traditional instruction control, each technique had unique impact, PWS on writing quality and content knowledge, and PWS on inclusion of main ideas in the written summary.