Title
The effects of a planning outline on the written compositions of students with and without learning disabilities
Date of Award
1994
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Higher Education
Advisor(s)
Lawrence Lewandowski
Keywords
learning disabilities, curriclua
Subject Categories
Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Special Education and Teaching
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of a planning outline upon several aspects of written language: Thematic maturity, macrostructure complexity (number of elements and organization of elements), fluency, and microstructures (e.g., vocabulary, spelling, syntax, and stylistic elements). Fifth and sixth grade students with and without learning disabilities were requested to write two compositions. The first was a baseline narrative. The second incorporated a planning outline which was designed to help the students produce macrostructure elements of the narrative text genre (e.g., setting, initiating event, goal, etc.). The results indicated that students with learning disabilities produced inferior products relative to their nondisabled counterparts in terms of vocabulary, punctuation and capitalization, spelling, syntax, fluency, and thematic maturity across tasks. Both groups made significant improvements in macrostructure complexity (number of macrostructure elements and the organization of macrostructure elements) on intervention versus baseline products. Besides macrostructure improvement, the outline condition fostered improvement across groups in thematic maturity and capitalization and punctuation. The results provide support for macrostructure planning to help students, with and without learning disabilities, write higher quality stories with more complex macrostructure organization.
Access
Restricted
Recommended Citation
Lane, Susan E., "The effects of a planning outline on the written compositions of students with and without learning disabilities" (1994). Psychology - Dissertations. 143.
https://surface.syr.edu/psy_etd/143
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