Scaffolding The Persuasive Writing Of Middle School Students

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop and test a strategy to support middle grade students’ persuasive writing skills. The sample included 52 eighth-grade students who were either proficient or struggling writers. The students were randomly assigned to either receive training on a graphic organizer designed to scaffold effective persuasive writing (experimental group) or receive training on a strategy to scaffold reading comprehension (control group). Students were posttested on relevant writing and reading skills. Results indicated that, regardless of initial writing skill level, students who were trained in the persuasive writing strategy were able to implement the steps with fidelity and constructed higher quality written essays than students in the control group. Implications and application to middle school language arts classes are discussed.