Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Recommendation 1 

(continued)

and writing process domains. The evidence 

largely supports both parts of the recom-

mendation, with eight studies examining 

both the explicit instruction of writing strate-

gies (Recommendation 1a) and the use of a 

Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle for 

teaching writing strategies (Recommendation 

1b).

14

 Seven studies provided a direct test of 

the recommendation, examining some or 

all of the recommended practices without 

other important practices.

15

 The other four 

studies examined interventions that included 

additional practices such as the integration 

of reading and writing instruction (Recom-

mendation 2),

16

 but the panel determined that 

the practices from Recommendation 1 were a 

critical part of the interventions. The studies 

were conducted in regions across the United 

States and in countries with similar educa-

tional contexts and written languages. The 

participating students were in grades 6–12, 

and the samples were diverse, including 

general education students, English learners, 

and students with learning disabilities.

This recommendation has a strong level of 

evidence because the supporting studies have 

high internal and external validity, and they 

found consistent positive effects on writing 

outcomes. More than half of the studies sup-

porting this recommendation provided a direct 

test of the recommendation, while the others 

examined interventions in which the recom-

mended practices were critical components.