Open Access Peer-reviewed Commentary

Programming for Students Who Struggle with Writing: How Strategy Instruction, Technology and Assessment can Promote Students’ Writing Improvement

Article Sidebar

Selected Writing Assessment Results
Download PDF
Submitted   Mar 26, 2025
Published   Jul 4, 2025
Issue    Vol 5 No 2 (2025)
DOI   10.25082/AMLER.2025.02.004

Views

25

Downloads

10

Citations

PlumX Metrics

Main Article Content

Michael William Dunn corresponding author
College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA

Abstract

Writing can be a challenging task for many people. Developing ideas, organizing them into an outline, spelling words, creating sentences with descriptive adverbs and adjectives, and making edits for a finessed final copy require an ability to manage these tasks concurrently to help make the ideas and phrases flow into a coherent text. For educators as well as governmental departments of education who create and manage yearly testing, there are many options for how writing can be assessed; assessment choices play a part in defining students who struggle with writing. This conceptual article discusses the challenges that students who struggle with writing face, technology tools that can help and how assessment of students' skills can be designed and applied to progress monitor (assess) writing content and quality over time. The conclusions of this article emphasize the benefits of employing research/evidence-based practices for writing with technology tools. The implications are that students who struggle with writing can benefit from step-by-step (strategy) instruction, progress monitoring their written content and quality skills as intervention programming sessions progress, and employing technology tools to help with idea generation, spelling, grammar/syntax, and revising ideas.

Keywords
students who struggle with writing, technology tools, writing assessment, special education

Article Details

How to Cite
Dunn, M. W. (2025). Programming for Students Who Struggle with Writing: How Strategy Instruction, Technology and Assessment can Promote Students’ Writing Improvement. Advances in Mobile Learning Educational Research, 5(2), 1463-1471. https://doi.org/10.25082/AMLER.2025.02.004
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

References

  1. Ahmed, Y., Kent, S., Cirino, P. T., & Keller-Margulis, M. (2021). The Not-So-Simple View of Writing in Struggling Readers/Writers. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 38(3), 272–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2021.1948374
  2. Alberta. (2022). Provincial Achievement Test. PAT results: Overview. https://www.alberta.ca
  3. Alkhataba, E. H. A., Abdul-Hamid, S., & Ibrahim, B. (2018). Technology-Supported Online Writing: An Overview of Six Major Web 2.0 Tools for Collaborative-Online Writing. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3151131
  4. Alneyadi, S., Abulibdeh, E., & Wardat, Y. (2023). The Impact of Digital Environment vs. Traditional Method on Literacy Skills; Reading and Writing of Emirati Fourth Graders. Sustainability, 15(4), 3418. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043418
  5. Australia. (2023). NAPLAN. Information for parents and carers. https://nap.edu.au
  6. California Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments. (2022). Detailed test results for: State of California. https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org
  7. Census Canada. (2021). Ontario. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca
  8. Chandler, B. W., Bourget, J. L., & Reno, E. A. (2021). Intensive intervention practice guide: Explicit instruction in sentence-combining for struggling writers. Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education.
  9. Chung, P. J., Patel, D. R., & Nizami, I. (2020). Disorder of written expression and dysgraphia: definition, diagnosis, and management. Translational Pediatrics, 9(S1), S46–S54. https://doi.org/10.21037/tp.2019.11.01
  10. CoWriterSOLO. https://www.donjohnston.com
  11. Deno, S. L. (2003). Developments in Curriculum-Based Measurement. The Journal of Special Education, 37(3), 184–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224669030370030801
  12. Dockrell, J. E., Connelly, V., & Arfè, B. (2019). Struggling writers in elementary school: Capturing drivers of performance. Learning and Instruction, 60, 75–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.11.009
  13. Education Northwest. (2024). 6+1 traits of writing. https://educationnorthwest.org/traits
  14. European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act. (2025). https://www.europarl.europa.eu
  15. Gautam, P. (2019). Writing Skill: An Instructional Overview. Journal of NELTA Gandaki, 2, 74–90. https://doi.org/10.3126/jong.v2i0.26605 %
  16. Graham, S. (2020). The Sciences of Reading and Writing Must Become More Fully Integrated. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.332
  17. Graham, S. (2019). Changing How Writing Is Taught. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 277–303. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x18821125
  18. Graham, S., Bañales, G., Ahumada, S., Muñoz, P., Alvarez, P., & Harris, K. R. (2020). Writing Strategies Interventions. Handbook of Strategies and Strategic Processing, 141–158. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429423635-9
  19. Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2019). Evidence-based practices in writing. Best practices in writing instruction, 3, 3-28.
  20. Graham, S., and Hebert, M. A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
  21. Graham, S., Tavsanli, O. F., & Kaldirim, A. (2021). Improving Writing Skills of Students in Turkey: a Meta-analysis of Writing Interventions. Educational Psychology Review, 34(2), 889–934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09639-0
  22. Grammarly. (2024). How to create effective AI prompts with examples. https://www.grammarly.com
  23. Griffin, T. (2020). Why writing still matters in today's tech-driven world. Forbes Technology Council. https://www.forbes.com
  24. Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2017). Self-Regulated Strategy Development: Theoretical Bases, Critical Instructional Elements, and Future Research. Design Principles for Teaching Effective Writing, 119–151. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004270480_007
  25. Harvey, S. (2023). Nonfiction Matters. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032681849
  26. Heong, Y. M. (2013). Contributing factors towards difficulties in generating ideas among technical students. Journal of Technical Education and Training, 5(1).
  27. ISET. ISET -– ISET connects the dots! https://www.isetcec.org
  28. Keathley, M. (2022). Why is writing important? It’s a critical skill employers want. Purdue Global. https://www.purdueglobal.edu
  29. Kim, Y. S. G. (2020). Interactive Dynamic Literacy Model: An Integrative Theoretical Framework for Reading-Writing Relations. Reading-Writing Connections, 11–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38811-9_2
  30. Kim, Y. S. G., & Graham, S. (2022). Expanding the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (DIEW): Reading–writing relations, and dynamic relations as a function of measurement/dimensions of written composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(2), 215–238. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000564
  31. Laurinavicius, T. (2024). 11 Writing tools to 10x your writing in 2024 (free & paid). BestWriting. https://www.bestwriting.com
  32. Literacy Rates. (2024). Literacy Statistics 2024 -- 2025 (Where we are now). https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com
  33. MacArthur, C. A., Traga Philippakos, Z. A., May, H., & Compello, J. (2022). Strategy instruction with self-regulation in college developmental writing courses: Results from a randomized experiment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(4), 815–832. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000705
  34. Mason, L. H., Meadan, H., Hedin, L. R., & Cramer, A. M. (2023). Avoiding the Struggle: Instruction That Supports Students’ Motivation in Reading and Writing About Content Material. Motivating Writers in Class, 70–96. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003416814-5
  35. Mastropieri, M., & Scruggs, T. (2024). The inclusive classroom: Strategies for effective differentiated instruction. Pearson.
  36. McMaster, K. L., Lembke, E. S., Shin, J., Poch, A. L., Smith, R. A., Jung, P.-G., Allen, A. A., & Wagner, K. (2020). Supporting teachers’ use of data-based instruction to improve students’ early writing skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000358
  37. Montiel, I., Delgado-Ceballos, J., Ortiz-de-Mandojana, N., & Antolin-Lopez, R. (2019). New Ways of Teaching: Using Technology and Mobile Apps to Educate on Societal Grand Challenges. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(2), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04184-x
  38. National Assessment of Educational Progress Writing. (2017). Assessments -- Writing. https://www.ed.gov
  39. National Park Service. (2024). The Civil War: Causes. Causes -- The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov
  40. Nelson, N., & King, J. R. (2022). Discourse synthesis: Textual transformations in writing from sources. Reading and Writing, 36(4), 769–808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10243-5
  41. Nugroho, S. A. (2021). Enhancing the students’ skill in writing a narrative text using peer-editing. Wanastra: Jurnal Bahasa Dan Sastra, 13(1), 72–78. https://doi.org/10.31294/w.v13i1.9801
  42. Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). (2022). Framework. Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). https://www.eqao.com
  43. Oozeerally, S., Ramma, Y., & Bholoa, A. (2020). Multiliteracies—New London Group. Science Education in Theory and Practice, 323–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43620-9_22
  44. PARCC District of Columbia. (2021-22). 2021-22 Assessment esults. https://osse.dc.gov
  45. PISA 2022 Results (Volume I). (2022). The state of learning and equity in education. https://www.oecd.org
  46. PISA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). (2024). Overview. https://www.oecd.org
  47. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). (2024). About PISA. https://www.oecd.org
  48. Saddler, B., Moran, S., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2004). Preventing Writing Difficulties: The Effects of Planning Strategy Instruction on the Writing Performance of Struggling Writers. Exceptionality, 12(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327035ex1201_2
  49. Schunk, D. H. (2020). Learning theories: An educational perspective. Pearson Education, Inc.
  50. Salvagno, M., Taccone, F. S., & Gerli, A. G. (2023). Can artificial intelligence help for scientific writing? Critical Care, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-023-04380-2
  51. Selvarasu, E., Thomas, A., Sundareswaran, I., Abdul Rahaman, Farzana, S., & Pareli, M. K. (2021). Teaching Writing Using Online Tools: An Experimental Study at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 4(6), 196–201. https://doi.org/10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.6.22
  52. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. (2014). Smarter balanced scoring guide. https://portal.smarterbalanced.org
  53. Peterson, S. S., McClay, J., & Main, K. (2011). An analysis of large-scale writing assessments in Canada (Grades 5-8). Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 57(4), 424-445. https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v57i4.55527
  54. Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., Boud, D., Dawson, P., & Panadero, E. (2017). Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work. Higher Education, 76(3), 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0220-3
  55. Tate, T. P., Steiss, J., Bailey, D., Graham, S., Moon, Y., Ritchie, D., Tseng, W., & Warschauer, M. (2024). Can AI provide useful holistic essay scoring? Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 7, 100255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100255
  56. Troia, G. A. (2021). Children and Young People with Written Language Disorders. Handbook of Pragmatic Language Disorders, 651–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74985-9_24
  57. UK Government. (2024). What is the research evidence on writing? https://www.publishing.service.gov.uk
  58. United Kingdom. (2023). Standards and Testing Agency. Guidance: Key stage 2 teacher assessment guidance 2023. https://www.gov.uk
  59. United Nations Educational. (2025). Scientific and Cultural Organization. Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. https://www.unesco.org
  60. U.S. (2022). Census Bureau. District of Columbia. https://www.census.gov