Strengthening Writing with the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Model (CIRC)

Challenges and Inclusive Strategies

Abstract

The developmental journey of writing skills in students' school contexts has often been described by neuroeducational and pedagogical studies as characterized by heterogeneous challenges. Writing represents a complex process that goes beyond graphic transcription, configuring itself as an expression of thought and a means of communication involving diverse cognitive and metacognitive processes (Filippello, 2009). Its development depends on the simultaneous acquisition of multiple skills (problem solving, working memory, selective attention and planning). Therefore, the difficulties reported by students in learning the mechanisms of writing can be traced to at least two causes: the non-exclusively linguistic nature of cognitive processes, ideation and organization of texts, and the fact that-as indicated by the neural reciclying hypothesis-the ability to write, along with the ability to read, are relatively recent mental functions from an evolutionary point of view (Dehaene, 2007). In order to synchronously enhance the different cognitive components involved in writing, a number of instructional models based on cooperative learning (Johnson,2003), including the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Model (CIRC), have proved effective.This paper aims to investigate, from an inclusive perspective, how CIRC can foster the development of writing skills.