Writing is a skill with which many students struggle, but especially those identified with special needs. Previous studies have shown that teaching students strategies has been successful; however, using Direct Instruction has been most effective in improving and increasing written expression skills particularly for struggling students (Walker, Shippen, Alberto, Houchins, & Chalk, 2005). An important element of Direct Instruction curricula is that it is scripted. The current study examined the effects of a scripted writing program on the number of correct minus incorrect writing sequences (CIWS) and total words written (TWW) by middle school students.
This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a scripted program to teach basic writing skills and paragraph writing in three different middle school classrooms. A scripted program developed to improve written expression was used to instruct middle school students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Two dependent variables (CIWS and TWW) were evaluated in this study. Students moved into intervention by class when the majority of the subjects’ baseline data remained stable or decreased. Instruction took place with the entire classroom not with just several students. Three-minute writing prompts were collected weekly throughout the study to measure progress with both variables. Results show the scripted presentation was successful for some students, though not all. Social validity results indicating consumer satisfaction are discussed, as well as limitations, practical implications, and suggestions for future research.