The Effectiveness of an Explicit Instruction Writing Program for Second Graders

The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 25% of 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students were at grade-level writing proficiency (Greenwald et al. 1999). Insufficient writing skill is a major contributor to lack of school and college success. The current study evaluated a modification of Quickwrite (Maloney 1998), a strategic writing program that explicitly teaches students how to brainstorm, plan, draft, and revise within brief time periods. Teachers who did not have knowledge of the study or the participants rated the overall number of story elements included in second-grade students’ stories higher after the intervention. The rate of student writing did not improve. Results were maintained 4 weeks after the intervention.