Over the past 25 years, the body of research on writing has grown from
investigating technical and grammatical
requirements to identifying the types of skills and strategies that good writers use when they write. This research has revealed that skilled writers spend time planning, monitoring, evaluating, revising, and managing the writing process. Poor writers, in contrast, often do not employ any of these skills (Gersten & Baker, 2001; Graham & Harris, 2003). Teaching struggling students the very skills and strategies used by expert writers has been the sensible next step and key focus of many expressive writing interventions.

One of the instructional interventions with the strongest and most consistent research base is Self-Regulated Strategy Development, or SRSD for short. Pioneered by Steve Graham and Karen Harris at the University of Maryland, SRSD has been used in spelling, reading, and math, but the area receiving the most focused attention has been SRSD in writing. Self-regulated strategy development is a method designed to help students learn and use--and eventually adopt as their own--the strategies used by skilled writers. SRSD is more than simply strategy instruction. It encourages students to monitor, evaluate, and revise their writing--promoting self-regulation skills, increasing content knowledge, and improving motivation.

SRSD instruction is built upon six underlying stages :

1. Develop and activate background knowledge (Class)
2. Discuss the strategy, including benefits and expectations (Class)
3. Model the strategy (Teacher)
4. Memorize the strategy (Student)
5. Support the strategy collaboratively (Teacher & Class)
6. Use the strategy by yourself, independently (Student)

In turn, these instructional stages are meshed with four general strategies that students are taught to use on their own (hence, the term self-regulation):

1. Goal setting
2. Self-instruction (e.g., talk-aloud)
3. Self-monitoring
4. Self-reinforcement

Together, the process of explicit strategy instruction and extensive self-regulation has proven effective for students as early as the 2nd grade, improving not only the quality of student writing, but also their knowledge of the writing process.

Fundamental features of SRSD include:

• Explicit and extensive strategy instruction on writing, self-regulation, and content knowledge
• Interactive learning and active collaboration
• Individualized instructional support and feedback tailored to student needs and abilities
• Self-paced learning, with proficiency demonstrations required in order to progress from one stage of instruction to the next
• The continuous introduction of new strategies and novel ways to use previously taught strategies

For more information on SRSD:
The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University has an interactive tutorial, including video clips and "how to" information, at:
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/srs/chalcycle.htm