Reflections as Part of a Problem-Solving Delivery Service

The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of the social interactions during a cooperative writing structure and explore how interactions relate to the quality of the written stories. During a 12-week period, Mexican American and Anglo American students with learning disabilities were videotaped while they wrote stories in ethnically heterogeneous and homogeneous dyads using a simple word processing program. In general, the data suggest that both groups of students were skilled in maintaining positive and assertive reciprocal interactions during writing together, whether paired with a partner of the same or different ethnicity. The students helped one another with spelling; however, there was a negative relation between the total initiation-response exchanges and the length and coherence of the stories. Implications for instruction of second language learners and students with learning disabilities are discussed.