The Effect of Goal Constraints on the Writing Performance of Urban Learning Disabled Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two types of goal constraints on fables written by 5th and 6th grade learning disabled students from inner city schools. Student compositions were evaluated by independent raters using three measures of writing quality. In addition, students were asked to report on their concerns during the writing process through a Q-sort task that immediately followed the writing session. A significant difference between groups was found in concerns regarding what to write next; both story ending conditions resulted in more story development planning, as reflected in “what comes next” concerns, than the story starter (control) condition. The increased story planning by the two experimental groups, however, did not result in significantly better compositions.

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