Central Question: How does prewriting stage of the writing process improve

metacognitive skills in students?

Source:
Barbeiro, L. F. (2011). What happens when I write? pupils' writing about writing. Reading &
Writing, 24(7), 813-834. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9226-2
Key Ideas:

Engaging students in metawriting demonstrates metacognition

Students aware of underlying processes of writing and importance of prewriting

have a better understanding of how to write well

Conferencing prewriting strategies especially benefit metacognition

Key Quotes:
There are significant differences concerning the number of processes mobilised by the pupils to
describe the writing process and the operations that take place within it. The increase in
awareness is particularly salient in the case of planning during pre-writing.
Ruttle (2004) emphasizes the contribution of interaction and shared discourse to childrens
development of metacognition: Childrens developing metacognition is expressed through a
metalanguage, which is itself developed through shared constructions of meaning developed
through classroom discussions and reflections
Connections:

The resource discusses directly how metacognition and the prewriting stage interact and
the benefits of prewriting strategies for developing metacognitive skills.
Source:
Baroudy, I. (2008). Process writing: Successful and unsuccessful writers; discovering
writing behaviours. International Journal of English Studies, 8(2), 43-63. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/docview/236949418?accountid=7113
Key Ideas:

Many of the writing skills of a good writer cross L1 and L2 barriers

Good writing is goal-directed even in the prewriting stage and students thinking

about their thinking/message

Strategies like the silent interview method aid students in the prewriting process

Key Quotes:
During all phases of composition, good student-writers work constructing representations of not
only the assignment and the audience, but also of their own private goals regarding their intended
meaning, the reader, and the constraints of the genre.
Accordingly, as White and Arndt (1991) assert, writing serves as a cyclical process. For
instance, while students are revising, they might have to return to the prewriting phase to develop
and expand their ideas.
Connections:

Through the discussion of process writing (non-product oriented writing) and different
strategies for improving the thinking of student writers, this article demonstrates that the
development of metacognitive and good writing skills work to improve upon each other.
Source:
First, C. G., MacMillan, B., & Levy, C. (1995). Writing process versatility. Intervention in
School and Clinic, 31(1), 21-27. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/58300183?accountid=7113
Key Ideas:

Writing done as a drill does not develop metacognitive skills

Engaging sensory language in the brainstorming/prewriting stage helps to expand

these skills

Adapting writing for exceptional students using techniques like clustering

Key Quotes:
Recursive describes the flexibility of a piece of writing by allowing the author to revise, rewrite,
and perhaps repeat the prewriting stages as she or he deems necessary
An exciting prewriting technique often used to facilitate the writing process is clustering, a tool
that meets Boiarsky's criteria for prewriting activities. In clustering, the writer is an active
participant in a teacher-directed, visually organized experience
Connections:

As the article discusses, when writing is used as a means of expression and prewriting
utilizes appropriate strategies, the metacognitive skills of the student are engaged.
Source:
Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing
instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology,
104(4), 879-896. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ994038&scop
e=site; http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029185
Key Ideas:

Teaching prewriting skills is highly beneficial for students of all ages

Focus on grammar skills does not benefit students critical thinking or writing skills

The study discusses which instructional strategies were shown to be most effective

in increasing writing skills such as self-regulation

Key Quotes:
Although the meta-analyses conducted by Hillocks (1986) and Graham and Perin (2007a,
2007c) were conducted almost 20 years apart and differed somewhat in terms of grade level,
there was some overlap in their findings. In both reviews grammar instruction was ineffective in
improving writing, but sentence-combining instruction, study and emulation of good models of
writing, and inquiry activities improved the quality of students' writing.
Connections:

According to the article, self-regulation involves thinking about ones own processes, a
form of metacognition, which has shown to be one of the most effective way of engaging
students in the writing process from the beginning.
Source:
Laski, E. (2013). Portfolio Picks: An Approach for Developing Children's Metacognition. YC:
Young Children, 68(3), 38-43.
Key Ideas:

Purposeful work extends thinking

Metacognition benefits reading comprehension and writing skills

Writing strategies can improve metacognition even at very early ages

Key Quotes:
In time, children can monitor and regulate their thinking during a task and plan
appropriately before a task.
Connections:
Though prewriting is not directly mentioned, the authors focus on metacognition is beneficial
for the analysis of ways in which to improve metacognition, which will in turn improve the
prewriting process eventually.
Source:

Morris, P. (2012). Planning at a higher level: Ideas, form, and academic language in student
prewriting. English Journal, 102(2), 85-92. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1003151&sco
pe=site; http://www.ncte.org/journals/ej/issues/v102-2
Key Ideas:

Prewriting should not be done to satisfy a grade or be overly formulaic

Prewriting should engage higher-order thinking skills

Conceptual and evaluative thinking about writing and reading and allowing the

student to analyze the way they read and write aids the writing process
Key Quotes:
The prewriting I teach consists of two main, interlinked activities, one primarily to help students
focus their ideas, the other to give them shape. Together, they are designed to stimulate decisionmaking and to channel higher-order thinking processes, including selecting and connecting,
clustering and abstracting, and prioritizing and arranging. The second component is more
conceptually oriented, helping students to transform their newly found focus into a series of
related idea-families and then to arrange these according to both logical principles and rhetorical
impact.
Formulaic essays tend to be organized as laundry lists, a series of discrete, often concrete,
parallel ideas in random order. As Linda Flower has argued, such essays are developmentally
limiting, inclined to privilege loose connections rather than push students into forming more
abstract, logic-based concepts. Lev Vygotsky's developmental theory identifies higher-order

thinking as dependent on complex and conceptual operations (76)-the ability to sort information
into networks and, ultimately, and more importantly, to draw from these relations generalizations
that are more than the sum of the constituent parts.
Connections:
This text directly relates to the inquiry as it discusses the use of metacognitive strategy to
improve the prewriting process, demonstrating that the two work in tandem.
Source:
Mourssi, A. (2013). Theoretical and practical linguistic shifting from Product/Guided
writing to process writing and recently to the innovated writing process approach
in teaching writing for Second/Foreign language learners. International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(5), 731-751. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1437525008?accountid=7113
Key Ideas:

ELLs benefit most from innovative writing practices which aid in their language

development as well as their writing development

Metacognitive strategies learned in the writing process benefit language acquisition

as well

Product oriented writing is often unhelpful to ELLs and other students because it is

too rigid in structure

Key Quotes:

Writing is a complex cognitive activity in which foreign language learners are required to pay
attention simultaneously to content, sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and
letter formation. Therefore, there can be no guarantee that an effective teaching method in one
context would result in effective student learning in another.
There is an assumption suggesting that, when teachers teach students how to write target-like
forms, the process helps the latter to learn the underlying structures of the language as well.
Raimes (1983, p. 3) posited that the use of writing as a medium for communication reinforces
grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary. Thus, teaching writing provides a unique way to
reinforce learning.
Connections:
The discussion of how writing benefits ELLs and develops thinking skills relates to the
inquiry as it provides a different perspective on process writing, which is a way to
encourage metacognitive development, which benefits both language learning and the
prewriting process.
Source:
Roessing, L., Frey, N., & Lisa, S. F. (2006). What's in a name? A whole lot of talking,
researching, and writing. Voices from the Middle, 14(2), 22-30. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/213930629?accountid=7113
Key Ideas:

Personal interest in writing subjects increases student productivity

The skills of prewriting can be learned through indirect means by shifting focus

Self-analysis can lead to better thinking skills and writing skills

Key Quotes:
We achieve this through a combination of teacher lecture, print and Internet research, interviews
with family members, and the exploration and noting of personal feelings and experiences. But
what I am actually teaching-the lesson behind the lessons-is a study of the characteristics of good
writing: content, focus, organization, style (including voice), and conventions.
After discussing the concept of focus as a single, controlling point made about the topic, the
students are to look over their collected data to decide what point each wishes to make about his
or her name. I share a transparency with the data I collected about my name. Together the class
brainstorms the possible points I could make about my name. They come up with three: that I
have never liked any part of my name; that my name reflects my heritage; that my name is more
multicultural than I am. For each focus, the class decides which of the data that I have collected
would be appropriate support, and we highlight it on my information sheet. We choose the focus
that either has the most support or is the most interesting to me as the author.
Connections:
The specific prewriting strategy discussed in the article demonstrate a way for an educator
to engage their students in analyzing aspects of themselves and consider the way in which
they plan and think of writing before even beginning to put pen to paper, which relates
quite obviously to the metacognition-centric inquiry.

Source:
Warne, B. M. (2008). Writing steps: A recursive and individual experience. English
Journal, 97(5), 23-27. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/237301241?accountid=7113
Key Ideas:

Prewriting can occur simultaneously with other parts of the writing process

Giving students freedom in writing can help propel them forward

Writing is a process that is cerebral; it occurs almost all through thinking and is a

cyclical process of input/output

Key Quotes:
When students step into my room on the first day with new notebooks and unused pens, we
freewrite. In June, they'll carry out a bound class anthology and a writing portfolio. In between,
we'll spend part of each day on some step of the writing process, cycling through it repeatedly
and, in time, comfortably. But in August, the students' writing reminds me of my neighbor's
littlest child feeling her way down the porch steps. Unpracticed toddlers and unpracticed writers
both hesitate. For students to feel comfortable with the writing process, they must take the word
journey one step at a time, and many times over.
Mary's writing processes followed the thinking paradigm Janet Emig describes: "The processes
of writing do not proceed in a linear sequence: rather, they are recursive-we not only plan, then
write, then revise; but we also revise, then plan, then write" (140). Mary had revised the piece

about her cancer treatment and then planned and written another piece about her father's words
and actions.
Connections:
Though the subject matter is broader than just prewriting, the discussion of all of the steps
happening simultaneously and how much consideration and self-evaluation that writing
takes applies to the inquiry quite well.
Source:
Welch, M. (1992). The PLEASE strategy: A metacognitive learning strategy for improving
the paragraph writing of students with mild learning disabilities. Learning Disability
Quarterly, 15(2), 119-28. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ489552&scop
e=site
Key Ideas:

Process oriented writing is beneficial to students with cognitive disabilities

Students who have trouble with idea generation may need more scaffolding and

cues in order to make headway in the process

Process oriented writing takes the pressure off of low-achieving students because

the focus away from a finished product allows them room for creative exploration and
metacognition

Key Quotes:
The writing process consists of specific cognitive behaviors (Flower & Hayes, 1981; Raphael,
Englert, & Kirschner, 1989) that involve interactive subprocesses, which compete for writers'
cognitive resources (McCutchen, 1988). Effective writing, therefore, is the result of the writer's
selection of strategic behaviors from a repertoire of actions to complete the subprocesses of
planning, writing, and revision. This selective behavior reflects the writer's understanding and
control of the cognitive processes needed to express ideas in writing
A key component of the effectiveness of process-oriented approaches to writing instruction
appears to be related to recall and application of metacognitive processes. Metacognitive
proficiency enables students to efficiently engage in prewriting planning, actual composition,
and revision by means of overt cues.
Connections:
This article demonstrates the usefulness of process oriented writing and its relation to
metacognition, and how it allows students with exceptionalities to make forays into
prewriting.