Reverse Engineering Paragraph

Writing Instructional Design

Learning Disabilities Worldwide 30th World Conference
9/3/2022
Kathy B. Ewoldt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Special Education
What is Reverse Engineering? (Eilam, 2005, Ingle, 1994)

Decomposition of the whole

Seek understanding component
Component’s role & responsibility in functioning of the whole
Rebuild/recreate, possibly with improvements

Applied to Special Education

Step is not impetus for next step (i.e., reverse chaining; Spooner & Spooner, 1984)
Not determining how to arrive at a final objective (i.e., backward design; Wiggins & McTighe,
2005)

May occur within self-regulated strategy design (Harris & Graham, 1985)
Graphic-Organizers as Working Memory Support

Reduce cognitive load (Kellog, 2008)

Increase comprehensibility of new information (Dexter, 2001)
Organize/chunk information (Dye, 2000)
Free working memory capacity to attend to other attributes (McCutchen, 1996)
Individuals with LD have WM capacity lower than peers (Swanson & Siegel, 2001)
 Draft

Typical writing Graphic

Draft
process Organizer

Sentence Types Backed into

Reverse Analyzed Draft
& Graphic
Engineered x2
Characteristics Organizer x2

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
 Intervention Training Lessons
L1 Background knowledge: Two-column notes
L2 Background knowledge: Flashcards
REVERSE

L3 Analyze & label exemplar paragraph A

L3 Analyze & label exemplar paragraph B
L4 Graphic organizer for exemplar paragraph A
L4 Graphic organizer for exemplar paragraph B
L5 Prompt, graphic organizer
WARD
FOR-

L6 Draft
    
Sentence Types and Characteristics
Type  Characteristics Label
(Study-dependent)
Topic Sentence States main idea Tp
Keeps the idea general/broad Blue
Only 1 main idea Triangle
Detail Sentence Gives specific information about the topic Dt
Answers the “What” question Pink
Square
Explanation Gives information about the detail Exp
Sentence Answers the “Why” or “How” question  Yellow
Oval
Conclusion General statement about the topic CCl
Sentence Similar idea of topic sentence using different words Blue
Wraps up the paragraph Triangle
Signals reader paragraph is ending (or transitioning to new
paragraph)
Typically the last sentence
May include the author’s general feeling/attitude

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
 Letter Code
• Systematic, constant
– Topic: Tp
– Detail: Dt
– Explanation: Exp
– Conclusion: CCl

TOPIC DETAIL EXPLANATION

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Letter code
Nodes & relationships identified
Letter Code 25
Paragraph Quality

Pre/Post
20 19.6

3rd – 5th grade

15
n = 10 (5 English Learners)
Resource Special Education 10
8
Classroom
22-point rubric 5

Wilcoxon signed rank test

0
Pre Post
z = 2.812, p = .005, r = .629.

Teacher Feedback “This will forever change how I teach paragraph writing.”

(Ewoldt & Morgan, 2021)

 Color Code
• Systematic, constant
– Blue: topic & conclusion
– Pink: detail
– Yellow: explanation

TOPIC DETAIL EXPLANATION

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Sample graphic organizer

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Color Code
Single case; multiple probe across participants; pre/post

4th & 5th grade

n=5
504/IEP Dyslexia and/or Dysgraphia
 Paragraph Quality Scores
Bentle Franci
Zed Bajha Diego*
22
y s
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

Baseline mean Post-intervention Maintenance mean

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
 Sample results by prompt
Prompt: The third week in October is school lunch week.
If you could create the perfect school lunch, what would it
be? Write a paragraph that describes your perfect lunch.
(3.3)

• “My perfect lunch would be pizza from Mystic Pizza, with Jello and fresh-baked
cookies.“
• “My perfect lunch would be thin, soft crust, pepperoni pizza. Right from the oven.”
• “My perfect school lunch is like this. In my perfect school lunch, we’ll have duck.
Duck is super tasty. Another reason duck would be in my perfect lunch is because it
is juicy. Another thing in my perfect school lunch would be green beans. Green
beans would be in my lunch because they are super good to eat, tasty. Also,
chocolate mousse would be in my perfect school lunch is because it is so light it
melts in your mouth. It tastes like heaven. And that is my favorite lunch for school
lunch week.”
College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
 Sample results by prompt
Prompt: Listening to music can make people happy. What
is your favorite kind of music? Write a paragraph telling
why this kind of music is your favorite. (5.9)

• “My favorite kind of music is piano. I like piano music because it is calming. Piano
music is nice. And piano music can capture so many feelings. Because of all these
reasons, piano music is my favorite.”
• “Punk rock is exciting because it is superfast. It is fun to dance to, and I listen to it a
lot.“
• “I have a lot of favorite types of music. One of my favorites is upbeat. Because it
pumps you up and makes you happy. One more type of music I like is country,
because it’s slower. One more reason is because it could be happy or sad. The last
type of music I like is different varieties of music. Because it can surprise you with
all different music and emotions. And those are the reasons I like those types of
music.”
College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Color V Shapes
Multiple baseline; dyads; component analysis

4th & 6th grade

n=5
Virtual
Dyslexia; ADHD
Students with ADHD had more improvement in paragraph quality (+12.25, +17) than students with dyslexia (+6.8,
+9.5, +10).
4/5 Participants had large jumps in writing quality at Lesson 5 (double or more baseline averages). Visual analysis
of the slope indicates color coding outperformed shape coding
 Shape Code
• Systematic, constant
– Triangle: topic & conclusion
– Rectangle: detail
– Oval: explanation

Topic Detail Explanation

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
20

16 Lesson 6
Alika (4th grade, Dyslexia,
12 ADHD, Dysgraphia)
8

20 Lesson 5
16
Bartoli, 4th grade, Dyslexia
12
8
4
0
20 Lesson 5
Lesson 2
16
Adam, 6th grade, ADHD
12
8
4
0
20
Lesson 5
16 Eddy, 6th grade, Dyslexia,
12 Reading, Writing
8
4
0
Lesson 5
20

16

12 Lesson 4 Carmen, 6th grade, ADHD

8

0
1 2 3College
4 of Education and Human Development, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Sample results by prompt
Prompt: The third week in October is school lunch week. If you could create the perfect school
lunch, what would it be? Write a paragraph that describes your perfect lunch. (3.3)

Baseline paragraph 6th grader: Maintenance paragraph 6th grader:

My favorite lunch would be
spaghetti, Oreos, sour patch kids,
ice cream, and some fruit.
Creating a good school lunch is part of a good day. You
need to have a healthy balance. Tomatoes make a good
fruit and a good way to get vitamins. Ham is a good
protein. Lettuce will make a good crunch. Now the
unhealthy parts make the sandwich more attractive.
Bread is not that healthy but it holds the meat together.
Cookies make you want to open the lunchbox. Chips are
a crunchy filler. It has to be made perfectly. It has to
have the right amount of time. You have to eat it
correctly. You can’t put the tomato up against the bread.
That’s how to make a good ham sandwich.”
Sample Results by Prompt
Prompt: Some people remember parts of their dreams, but the places and people in the dreams can
be unclear. What’s the best dream you ever had? Write a paragraph that describes what you
remember. (4.1)
Baseline paragraph 6th grader: Maintenance paragraph 4th grader:
Dreams are hard to explain and I Copper is my first pet. He died before my dream. In my
can’t explain anything about one dream I was in the house. It was a bad dream. I was
in particular. Most people can standing. It was about Copper. He was a dog. He is nice. I
agree that dreams take a gifted remember him. I found Copper by the window. I asked
mind to understand. my parents how he got back and they said he ran away. I
remembered he did not run away. The vet put him to
sleep and had his heart stop beating, and I woke up and
had to go to school. Copper was a very nice dog.
Findings & Observations
Reverse engineering improved student knowledge of expository paragraph
component parts and expository paragraph writing quality.

English learners with LD outperformed students with LD, but not statistically
significant difference.

When comparing color to shape GO, color led to slightly better performance.

Constant product afforded students self-regulatory behaviors.

**What they read (i.e, thought they’d written) did not match what they wrote

Higher order writing skills (i.e., content, details) improved (see samples).
 References
Dexter, D. D. (2001). Graphic organizers and their effectiveness for students with learning disabilities. Thalamus, 26,
53–67.
Dye, G. A. (2000). Graphic organizers to the rescue: Helping students link and remember information. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 32(3), 72–76. doi: 10.1177/004005990003200311
Eilam, E. (2005). Reversing: Secrets of reverse engineering. Wiley.
Ewoldt, K. B., & Morgan, J. J. (2022). Reverse Engineering the Initial Steps of the Writing Process for Students with
Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 27(1).
Harris, K. & Graham, S. (1985). Improving learning disabled students’ composition skills: Self-control strategy training.
Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 8, 27–36.
Ingel, K. A. (1994). Reverse engineering. McGraw-Hill.
Kellog, 2008))
McCutchen, D. (1996). A capacity theory of writing: Working memory in composition. Educational Psychology Review,
8, 299–325.
Spooner, F., & Spooner, D. (1984). A review of chaining techniques: Implications for future research. Education and
Training of the Mentally Retarded, 19, 114–124.
Swanson, H. L., & Siegel, L. (2011). Learning disabilities as a working memory deficit. Experimental
Psychology, 49(1), 5-28.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Backward design. In Understanding by design (2nd ed., pp. 13–34). Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ACSD).
References

Contacts:
Kathy.ewolt@utsa.edu
Suzanne.byrne@utsa.edu