Helping Struggling Writers Succeed: A Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction Program
This article describes a Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of instruction which combines explicit teaching of writing strategies with instruction in self-regulatory skills. While some students excel in the Writer's Workshop environment others struggle with the independence. Difficulty in self regulating the writing process can result from several factors such as struggling writers do little revision on their without teacher or peer support. According to the article, it has been propose that children's understanding of self-regulated learning can be enhanced in three ways, they are; self regulation can be learned indirectly through experience, can be taught directly through instruction, and lastly the use of self-regulatory skills can be elicited through practice. The main goals of the SRSD model are to "help students master the higher-level cognitive processes while developing autonomous, reflective, self-regulated use of effective writing strategies." There are 6 SRSD stages which include, build background knowledge, discuss it, model it, memorize it, support it, and independent performance. The author of this article believes this model is valuable in upper elementary and middle school.
I think that this model could work for upper elementary students. I am teaching in a 3rd/4th grade classroom currently so I think it could be applied. I think it would be more beneficial for the 4th graders and students older. My third graders may benefit from it later in the year however I think it may be a little early to begin it now. In order for me to implement this into my classroom I would need to work more with the students during writing before I would feel comfortable. Currently, I have not taken over writing so I would not feel confident starting this SRSD right now. I think my CT could implement this during Writer's Workshop, but like I said previous I think that it would be most applicable to the 4th graders as of now. I would like to see how it is done by her before I would feel confident in running it alone.
Today's module has made me think deeper about my unit plan especially the assessment portion. I was looking at some rubrics to assess students and after reading the different articles and watching the videos, I think I need to take more time and really think about what I am going to be assessing my students on during the course of my unit. I also need to spend more time on creating these rubrics for assessment. Most of my assessment will be informal throughout my unit so I need to establish a clear understanding of what it is I will be looking for and how exactly I will know which students have met the expectations.
Allison-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on not feeling comofortable until it is modeled by your CT. I felt like that when I started doing making meaning with the students. My teacher really did not like to do it and I offered and Im really not sure if what I am doing is accurate.
Constantly assessing students throughout your unit is very smart because it does not require a lot of writing and time. You can simply roam around and read what students have written and understand their comprehension of the assignment. The first day of writers workshop I walked around and knew the different levels students were at simply by their organization of thoughts and even how their writing appeared on paper.