EFFECTS OF DICTATION AND ADVANCED PLANNING INSTRUCTION ON THE COMPOSING OF STUDENTS WITH WRITING AND LEARNING-PROBLEMS

This study examined the effects of dictation and explicit instruction in planning on the composing skills of students in 5th-, 6th-, and 7th -grade with learning disabilities. Students received instruction in ei ther (a) planning, where students learned a strategy for developing, e valuating, and organizing ideas prior to composing, or (b) comparison, where students learned about essay structure,, revised sample essays, and composed and shared essays with peers. In both conditions, half t he students dictated and half the students wrote their plans and essay s. The combination of dictation and instruction in advanced planning r esulted in more complete and qualitatively better essays in contrast t o those written by students in the comparison condition on both a post test and 2-week maintenance probe. Results indicate advanced planning is important when using dictation to compose.