Scaffolding Student Writing

Improvement of student writing continues to be a focus for teachers.  An effective approach to scaffolding student writing is through the utilization of researched-based tools and strategies.  This study examined the effectiveness of teacher-prepared criteria/information handouts to the use of a teacher-adapted graphic organizer for improvement of student book-response writing.  Through a student-completed survey generalization, or environmental change, was also investigated.  Evidence supports generalization, and findings indicate significant increases within student book-response writing for the number of areas included for analysis, number of points made, and number of supporting points.  Implications for students, teachers, and future research are considered.