Self-Regulated Strategy Development at Tier 2 for Second-Grade Students With Writing and Behavioral Difficulties: A Randomized Controlled Trial

We examined the extent to which strategies instruction, using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model, would enhance the writing, engagement during writing, and behavior of 44 second-grade students identified as having behavioral and writing difficulties. This study occurred within a comprehensive, integrated, three-tiered model of prevention that included behavioral, social, and academic components. Students were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition. Students in the experimental condition received SRSD as a Tier 2 intervention. They were individually taught strategies for planning and composing, first for opinion essays and then for stories. Students met with their instructor 3 to 4 times per week for 30-min sessions, spending 3 to 4½ weeks in intervention for each genre. Students in the control group received the regular writing program. SRSD instructed students made significantly greater gains in writing quality and composition elements than control students for both opinion essays and stories. Students in the experimental condition also made greater gains than controls in academic engagement when writing opinion essays in their regular classroom. Transfer and behavioral effects, however, were limited. Implications are discussed.