Improving Story Writing Skills of Students with Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors with Poor

1
Improving Story Writing Skills of Students with
Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors with
Poor Writing Skills Preliminary Findings of
Project WRITE

• Kathleen Lynne Lane, Karen Harris, and Steve
  Graham
• Vanderbilt University

Funded by IES, Project WRITE, The Effects of
Strategy and Self-Regulation Instruction on
Students Writing Performance and Behavior A
Preventative Approach
2
Students with EBD

• The prevalence estimates of students with EBD
  vary between 2-20 of the school population, with
  most realistic estimates of 3-6 (Kauffman, 2005)
• Behavioral, social, and academic deficits typical
  of this population become less amenable to
  intervention efforts over time, particularly
  after age 8 (Bullis Walker, 1994 Kazdin, 1987)
• Some treatment outcome studies conducted with
  students at-risk for EBD revealed that increased
  early literacy skills were associated with
  decreases in disruptive behavior in the classroom
  (Lane et al., 2001 Lane et al., 2003)

3
Academic Characteristics

• Moderate to severe, broad academic deficits
  (Greenbaum et al., 1996 Mattison et al., 1998).
• At best, the academic deficits characteristic of
  this population remain stable over time (Mattison
  et al., 2002) at worst, they deteriorate (Nelson
  et al., 2004).
• students with EBD probably experience less
  school success than any other subgroup of
  students with or without disabilities. (Landrum
  et al., 2003, p. 148).

4
Academic Interventions to Date

• Promising outcomes, yet limited by
• Inadequate attention given to middle and high
  school students
• Heavy emphasis on basic skills
• Absence of core components treatment integrity
  social validity and generalization and
  maintenance
• Incomplete intervention descriptions
• Few replications
• (Lane, 2004)

5
Interventions to Date

• Only a few studies have been conducted to explore
  how to best improve the writing skills of young
  students with EBD (Glomb West, 1990 Mason
  Shriner, in press Rumsey Ballard, 1985)
• Like reading, writing is critical to school
  success as it provides students with a vehicle
  for gathering, organizing, and sharing
  information as well as refining ones thoughts
  (Adams, Treiman, Pressley, 200 Bangert-Drowns,
  Hurley, Wilkinson, 2004 Graham, 2005)

6
Self-Regulated Strategies Development

• Addresses three major goals
• Students learn to carry out specific composing
  process
• Students develop the knowledge and
  self-regulatory procedures needed to apply the
  writing strategies and regulate their behavior
  during writing
• Enhance specific aspects of motivation, including
  self-efficacy and effort

7
Academic Support Is Essential

• The needs of students with EBD are many and the
  consequences of not adequately meeting these
  needs are deleterious.
• Thus, it is necessary to identify the most
  effective, efficient methods for supporting
  students who demonstrate clear behavioral and
  academic deficits that impede their educational
  progress.

8
Positive Behavior Support

• For students with behavioral challenges, PBS
  provides graduated support as needed to (a)
  prevent the development of behavioral problems
  that may lead to EBD and (b) support students
  with EBD via more intensive supports.

Primary Prevention Response 80 of Students
Secondary Prevention Response 10-15
of Students
Tertiary Prevention Response 1-5 of
Students
9
Concerns

• Many models are incomplete or underdeveloped
• Little attention to
• systematically identifying students who require
  more focused prevention efforts
• conducting scientifically rigorous investigations
  at the secondary level to meet the academic needs
  of students with or at risk for EBD (Cheney et
  al., 2004 Lane et al., 2003 Lane et al., 2002
  Walker et al., 2005).

10
SSBD Screening Process
11
Student Risk Screening Scale

• The SRSS is 7-item mass screener used to identify
  students who are at risk for antisocial behavior.
  
• Teachers evaluate each student on the following
  items
• - Steals - Low Achievement
• - Lies, Cheats, Sneaks - Negative Attitude
• - Behavior Problems - Aggressive Behavior
• - Peer Rejection
• Student Risk is divided into 3 categories
• Low 0 3
• Moderate 4 8
• High 9 21
• The SRSS is validated for use at the elementary
  school level.
• (SRSS Drummond, 1994)

12
Student Risk Screening Scale
13
Purpose

• This study examined the effectiveness of teaching
  second grade students at risk for EBD how to
  write stories using the SRSD model.
• Extends the literature by
• examining the effectiveness of a secondary
  writing intervention in the context of an
  established PBS model.
• applying the early intervention SRSD research to
  a new population students who are at risk for
  EBD and have co-occurring difficulties with
  writing

14
Elementary School Primary Plans

• Mission School-wide Expectations
• Procedures for Teaching
• Eagle Pledge
• Posters
• Procedures for Reinforcing
• Tickets
• Classroom Drawings and School-wide Quarterly
  Assemblies
• Procedures for Monitoring
• Student Outcomes
• Treatment Integrity Social Validity

15
(No Transcript)
16
Elementary Assessment Schedule
17
Project WRITE Overview
Screening 2nd grade student
Students exceeding criteria on writing screeners
Students exceeding criteria on behavioral
screeners
SRSD Instruction for each consenting student with
both writing and behavioral deficits
18
Participants

• Participants were 13 second-grade students (8
  boys, 5 girls) attending four inclusive, rural
  elementary schools in middle Tennessee.
• Students were identified using systematic
  screening procedures as having either
  internalizing (n 6) or externalizing (n 7)
  behavioral concerns in addition to poor writing
  skills.
• All students were Caucasian, ranging in age from
  7.03 to 9.01 years.
• Three students, Kate, Eva, and Chuck, had below
  average intellectual functioning and one student,
  Hector, had above average intellectual
  functioning as measured by a short form of the
  Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth
  Edition (WISC-IV Wechsler, 2003)

19
Students with Internalizing Behaviors
20
Students with Externalizing Behaviors
21
Identifying Nonresponsive Students with Behavior
Writing Concerns

• Behavior Concern
• Systematic Screening for Behavior
  Disorders(SSBD Walker Severson, 1992)
• Exceeding norms Internalizing or Externalizing
• Writing Difficulties
• Test of Written Language-3 (TOWL-3 Hammill
  Larsen, 1996)
• At or below 25th percentile
• Consenting
• Obtained teacher consent (100)
• Obtained parent consent (87)
• Obtained student assent (100)

22
Intervention Description

• Self-Regulated Strategy Development(SRSD Harris
  Graham, 1996)
• Behavioral Component
• 3 days a week 30-min sessions delivered 11 by a
  research assistant
• Fidelity collected on 35.77 of sessions

23
SRSD Stages Modifications

• Modifications
• Increased time and opportunities to master the
  first two stages
• Instructional sequence student self-evaluation
  and graphing of a pre-instruction story moved
  from Discuss It to Support It
• Verbal reinforcement opportunities to respond
• PBS Tickets
• Practice test

• Stages
• Develop Background Knowledge
• Discuss It
• Model It
• Memorize It
• Support It
• Independent Performance

24
Two Mnemonic Strategies for Story Writing
1. POW for planning Pick my idea Organize my
notes Write and say more
2. WWW, What2, How2 Who? When? Where? What
does main character do? What happens then? How
does the story end? How does the main character
feel?
25
Assessment

• Writing probes
• Story elements (0-7)
• Length
• Quality
• Social validity
• Treatment integrity
• Descriptive measures

26
Experimental Design Statistical Analysis

• Multiple baseline across participants design with
  multiple probes during baseline (Kennedy, 2005)
• Data analyzed via visual inspection to examine
  stability, level, and trend, as well as mean
  changes by phase and percentage of
  non-overlapping data points.
• Phase changes were based on number of story
  elements.

27
Story Elements Overtime Students with
Internalizing Behaviors
28
Story Elements Students with Internalizing
Behaviors Leg 1
29
Story Elements Students with Internalizing
Behaviors Leg 2
30
Story Elements Students with Internalizing
Behaviors Leg 3
31
Story Elements Overtime Students with
Externalizing Behaviors
32
Story Elements Students with Externalizing
Behaviors Leg 1
33
Story Elements Students with Externalizing
Behaviors Leg 2
34
Story Elements Students with Externalizing
Behaviors Leg 3
35
Results

• In addition to changes in the number of story
  elements present, there were also changes in the
  story length and, to a lesser extent, quality.

36
Pre Intervention Probe Sample from
Internalizing Group Brian

• My big dog is so heavy that I cant pull the
  wagon. I cant even pick up my dog.

37
Post Intervention ProbeSample from
Internalizing Group Brian

• This happened many years ago. There was a little
  dog and a big dog on an island. The little dog
  jumped out to sea. He wanted to get to the
  island. He swam to the island. He felt sad
  because the little dog jumped in the sea.

38
Maintenance ProbeSample from Internalizing
Group Brian

• Years ago, the birds were in a tree. They wanted
  to eat the dragonfly. They started fighting
  because the other birds wanted to eat the
  dragonfly. They stopped fighting. They were happy
  because they stopped fighting.

39
Pre Intervention Probe Sample from
Externalizing Group Kay

• The Casper High was making a play Alex was a
  star Jim was the sun and Tim was the cloud.

40
Post Intervention Probe Sample from
Externalizing Group Kay

• Tiger was having a birthday party. Joey, Lennie,
  Oscar, and Fritz were going to have a surprise
  party. They set up all the decorations. Oscar
  made a cake. Joey blew up the balloons. Lennie
  got the activities. Fritz did the final thing, he
  got Tiger to come over. When he got in the party
  started. Tiger said it was the best party he ever
  had.

41
Maintenance Intervention Probe Sample from
Externalizing Group Kay

• Jordan went to Fisher Lake and caught the
  biggest fish in the lake. She brought the fish
  home. When she got home Jordan showed it to her
  dad. Jordans dad was scared when he saw the
  fish. Jordan had an idea. They had a big lake.
  Jordan threw the fish into the lake and the fish
  swam away.

42
Students with Internalizing Behaviors
43
Students with Externalizing Behavior
44
Discussions/Conclusions

• SRSD instruction for story writing effective in
  improving the number of essential elements
  included and the length of stories produced by
  students with and at-risk for EBD and limited
  writing skills within a PBS model
• Most pronounced improvements in story elements
• Improvements in quality to a lesser extent

45
Discussions/Conclusions

• Collateral effects of SRSD instruction on
  behavior was measured but not established
• Expands utility of SRSD for writing to students
  with internalizing behavior patterns
• Extends Lane et al. (in press) on the utility of
  proving academic supports within the context of a
  PBS model

46
Project WRITE Next Steps

• Question 1 Does SRSD instruction in planning
  improve the writing performance of students at
  high-risk for EBD who have poor writing skills?
• Question 2 Is both individualized SRSD
  instruction effective in improving the writing
  skills and behavior of students at high risk for
  EBD who have poor writing skills?
• Question 3 Are there differences in how students
  with externalizing and internalizing behaviors
  and poor writing skills respond to SRSD
  instruction?