Students’ achievement in writing has been identified as problematic (Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003) with only 28% of fourth graders, 31% of eighth graders, and 24% of twelfth graders performing at or above the competent level of writing performance expected for their grade level.

The reasons for this are varied. Writing, the learning of writing, and the teaching of writing are identified as complex, interactive components.

These components are influenced by factors both within the environment (e.g. presence of tools and resources for writing, meaningful writing assignments) and within the student (e.g. awareness of purpose for writing, motivation/engagement, and mastery of surface/mechanical skills such as spelling).

Effective instruction in this domain requires explicit teaching of a wide variety of strategies appropriate for the diverse learners and learning styles found in today’s classrooms.

Meanwhile, standards-based assessment of writing is required in most states and the resulting pressures to increase all
students’ performances in writing can be overwhelming for teachers.

Teachers are often ill-equipped and unsupported in fulfilling this mandate. Often, they have neither enough training in their pre-service studies to be effective teachers of writing, nor adequate in-service professional development to improve their knowledge of ‘best practices’ for the teaching of writing.

In addition, given all the curriculum demands, teachers often do not have the time to prepare adequately for addressing the many and distinct needs of their students.

The goal of this paper is to describe the research base underlying the design of Write Brain, a software program which
supports the teaching and learning of writing.

It will show how Write Brain can support teachers in differentiating instruction and preparing students to achieve better results through learning and applying writing strategies that will serve them throughout their academic and post-academic lives.