Teaching Writing Strategies and Self-Regulation Procedures to Middle School Students with Learning Disabilities.

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a major grant to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA) to define content standards for the English language arts, grades K-12. After more than 3 years and the involvement of thousands of contributors (including teachers, parents, administrators, researchers, and policy analysts), a set of 12 standards was established, defining what the IRA and NCTE believe students should know and be able to do with language by the time they complete their secondary schooling (NCTE/IRA, 1996). These standards, though listed as a set of 12 interrelated ideas, can be subgrouped into areas of understanding (via reading and appreciating text from a variety of cultures, ethnic groups, and so on), language use (including spoken, written, and "visual" language), conducting research (to pose and answer problems via a variety of informational sources), and lifelong learning (as a member of a literate community and for individually set purposes). Three of the English content standards relate directly to written language proficiency, although each was written more broadly to include other forms of language use as well.