ABSTRACT

The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007) indicated that about 40% of fourth-grade students in U.S. public schools had difficulty demonstrating proficiency with writing at a basic level. State assessments for writing also reflect this national profile (e.g., Washington State’s Assessment of Student Learning, 2009). The underlying question is why writing would pose more difficulty for children than other literacy domains such as reading. A plausible reason is that writing is a more complex activity in that it requires other skills in addition to writing that have to be integrated with writing. For example, writing may require reading source material and writing a final draft requires not only generating a text but also reading it to make edits for a publishable copy (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). Even with proficient reading skills, writing can pose additional challenges.