Implementing Vygotskian theories to improve writing in middle level students

With the increasing pressure on teachers to ensure that their students are prepared for standardized testing, there is a need for effective strategies that will strengthen students’ cognitive processes. Writing is an important task that involves many cognitive processes (Vanderburg 2005). When teaching writing, it is important to know and understand models of writing to guide students with a process that they can systematically start with. The goal is to have students eventually internalize the process and form a habit of using the process in their writing. This paper will provide strategies that will help teachers to improve the writing of their students based on the study of a program that derives its strategies from literature of writing theories, and more specifically, writing theories based on Vygotskian literature and the Flowers and Hayes model (1980).