Effects of dictation and advanced planning instruction on the composing of students with writing and learning problems

This study examined the effects of dictation and explicit instruction in planning on the composing skills of students in 5th-, 6th-, and 7th-grade with learning disabilities. Students received instruction in either (a) planning, where students learned a strategy for developing, evaluating, and organizing ideas prior to composing, or (b) comparison, where students learned about essay structure,, revised sample essays, and composed and shared essays with peers. In both conditions, half the students dictated and half the students wrote their plans and essays. The combination of dictation and instruction in advanced planning resulted in more complete and qualitatively better essays in contrast to those written by students in the comparison condition on both a posttest and 2-week maintenance probe. Results indicate advanced planning is important when using dictation to compose.