WeWrite

Description of the WeWrite Intervention 

Writing and reading comprehension share cognitive and metacognitive skills and both processes complement each other to improve literacy. Writing and reading comprehension require children to learn and apply many cognitive, metacognitive, and Developing children’s motivation to read and write are also integral to the success of any instructional program. affective skills to successfully utilize the power in learning and beyond the classroom.
WeWrite brings together two approaches that have been developed and perfected over 40 plus years. First, the Self-Regulated Strategies Development model for writing (SRSD) provides a teacher-managed framework for powerful writing instruction. Through a US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences funded development project we have introduced a web-based writing tutor (WeWrite) to enhance and extend the teacher-led classroom instruction about persuasive and informational writing. and the text structure strategy provides the support for reading comprehension in support of writing.

SRSD was designed and perfected by Dr. Karen R. Harris, has been deemed an evidence-based practice and has consistently shown stronger student performance on writing tasks than all other writing approaches available today. SRSD supports learning through six flexible and recursive stages of instruction focusing on learning to write, managing the writing process, and promoting the ownership and efficacy of the learned skills. Hallmarks of the SRSD approach include the writing processes, cognitive skills, metacognitive skills (e.g., planning, writing, revising), and efficacy skills.
The second component of WeWrite is the text structure strategy. The text structure strategy is designed to improve reading comprehension and in this application used as a method to select important ideas from source materials when children are preparing and planning for writing. The text structure strategy was developed in 1973 by Dr. Bonnie J.F. Meyer and has been extended and further refined by Drs. Kausalai (Kay) Wijekumar and Meyer. Within the WeWrite intervention children learn how to select important ideas from source materials using text structures (e.g., comparison, problem and solution). They also learn how to generate a main idea that can serve as a powerful introduction to an essay. The children also learn how signaling/linking words used in text structure make powerful transition words in essays.

Stay tuned for more information on how you can use this powerful method.