The Development Of Writing And Instruction For Students With Learning Disabilities

Writing can be a daunting task for students in any grade. Teachers have to implement new basic components for those struggling to write. Finding new methods and being able to execute them requires teachers to design lesson plans that help

Writing is an essential tool and has been noted as a precursor for great speaking by teachers at all grade levels. However, with writing being an important aspect throughout one’s academic career and beyond, it is one of the most tedious tasks to teach. It sounds like a cliché, but in order to get better at something, one has to keep completing the task and each time, accomplish something different while maintaining prior knowledge. There are various ways that enhance a student’s writing abilities and the focus of these research strategies will prove that encouraging students to write enhances writing.

This entails working on the Seven Steps to Writing Success will be taught twice a week and writing tasks will also be included during literacy groups. Sizzling Starts and recounts will be the focus text in term one. Narrative and creative writing will be taught too and in both cases the emphasis will be on creating strong sentences with good structure. The lesson format for sizzling starts and narrative/creative writing will be explicit teaching to the whole class. My role as a teacher will be to identify the student’s level and provide appropriate feedback to support to move students toward the next level.

I would structure writing groups so as this student is grouped with others of the same ability. Duchesne (2013) provides information on evidence that suggests this would be successful as when students compare themselves to someone of the same or lower ability, this secures their self-concept. I would also reflect on how I can continue to create a supportive classroom environment. Am I providing enough opportunities for students to use a combination of printed, spoken, visual and digital processes? Providing such opportunities contributes to their eagerness to write, as it places emphasise on writing versus the focus on neatness and accuracy of spelling (Annandale, 2005). If it is a free choice task, the student may be struggling to make a start due to not knowing what to write about. A print walk around the room to revisit charts they have made for writing prompts and word walls that support writing, will reiterate the supportive classroom environment (Annandale, 2005). I would be flexible in my planning and allow for creative thinking to occur through allowing the students to discuss their writing topic. Collaboration involves asking questions, exploring ideas and generating ideas to spark imagination and creativity (Lyons, Ford, & Slee,

In chapter 9, Writing Across the Curriculum, the process of reading and writing was investigated and explained in comparison to one another. The reading-writing connection focuses on drawing from students’ prior knowledge and cognitive processes in order to build learning. The authors mentioned that the writing process is a strong tool for exploring and clarifying meaning and the two major instructional components used are writing to learn (WTL) and writing in disciplines (WID). The chapter also focused on the subareas of academic journals and writing disciplines.

As part of students IEP resource program and RtI services, I provide instruction for the development of written expression, as evidenced by my Professional Growth Experience #2. My methodology for writing instruction has evolved dramatically. Now I see each student as an individual somewhere on the path to independent “author.” I work to meet each student’s learning need at their level. Currently, students work at their own level and I provide individual or small group mini-lessons to support weaker skills. I learned from experience to create quality, high interest prompts that address a real audience to teach “voice.” My format support Common Core’s informative/explanatory writing standard and engages critical thinking and motivation. To

The process of writing was one that as a kid loomed over me because the idea of expressing the feelings that were inside out onto a paper always stumped me. How could I be asked to take what was held privately in my head and manage to make sense of it all, enough that others could understand? The struggle to manage my feelings into tangible ideas stemmed from my minor dyslexia and it was apparent in my ability to read and write. The spelling errors that riddled my writing and my inability to differentiate opposites while speaking were clear indicators that my minor dyslexia was something that I would have to live with. Going through the typical public school tract was not one that favored those with learning disabilities. In elementary and

Students with disabilities are at a higher at-risk for dropping out of high school at a greater rate than typically developing peers (Pyle & Wexler, 2012). Students with identified disabilities are required to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) according to law, and these students have unique needs that general education curriculum cannot meet on its own. However, there is abundant research that discusses various literacy interventions and strategies that can be effective. These interventions can be used in a school setting by any certified teacher (regular education or special education). This literature review will discuss some of the various reading and writing strategies as well as best practices for literacy in order to ensure students with disabilities are given the best chance for success. By providing timely interventions, monitoring progress, and analyzing data, it can be possible to increase achievement for those students with identified disabilities.

Just some of the accommodations that a student can be offered is to write with soft tipped pens that allow for less pressure, offered larger lined paper to help with visual difficulties, and classroom notes available either given in chunks or with guided notes, where the key words are missing to allow the student to be active in the lesson but to alleviate some of the writing and to prevent fatigue. (Howard, 182)

The article titled "Improving Expository Writing Skills with Explicit and Strategy Instructional Methods in Inclusive Middle School Classrooms" by David Cihak and Kristin Castle (2011) basically examines the potential effects of an intervention program on the writing skills of students with and without learning disabilities. As part of the study's methodology, the researchers decided to conduct the intervention program with forty-eight-grade students as participants. A number of these subjects were enrolled in Language Arts inclusion classrooms and forty-two percent of them received special education. The intervention to these students resulted in a positive note and the researchers concluded by suggesting its success in improving

Because communicating effectively in writing is so critical, we want our students to have the skills necessary to express one’s ideas in writing. To address this need, PRA has included two major improvement strategies around writing on the Universal Improvement Plan (UIP). Our first improvement strategy states that educators will provide consistent and effective writing instruction using innovative, relevant, and engaging strategies. Our second improvement strategy explains that teachers will score student writing using common rubrics associated with established curriculum, both independently and collaboratively. The improvement strategies were written to specifically address the vetted root causes-- Lack of student engagement and effort were identified as causes for lack of growth in writing. A common language for teaching writing across the curriculum and over many grades will address this

As a student, I have struggled with dyslexia, which makes English and writing classes much harder for me. I have pushed myself to comprehend spelling, grammar, and punctuations. As a result of this disability that causes my spelling and punctuation errors, I never received an A in a writing class, I have always earned low Bs or C’s. Over the last year, I have learned how to properly use writing techniques, which in turn has also bettered my writing skills. I have put my best effort into every paper I have written for this class. As a result, my abilities as a writer have improved as I progressed.

The quality of writing is unacceptable. Three important qualities mentioned in the article that supports student outcomes were: graphing results of interventions, comparing pre-and post-intervention data and using systematic classroom observations. However, team members could not use these resources because they had no knowledge of their use. Only trained professionals, like Special educators and school psychologists received the training and skills to work these technical

A review specified that there is mixed evidence to support key components of Talk for Writing, enthusiasm by teachers was not mirrored by changes in the pupil’s work, any positive effects that were evident in the pupil’s work was insignificant and took an extensive time to be evident; the evaluation did not find any evidence that the programme was specifically beneficial for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (Dockrell,

“Writing is one of the most complex skills that students must learn, and it is not surprising that some have difficulty in achieving proficiency.” (Westwood, 2015, p.122). A significant increase of attention has been given to improving student’s ability to write to an appropriate standard. A study conducted in the United Kingdom (2008) found that ninety-five per cent of eleven to twelve-year-olds did not reach the standard speed of twenty-five words per minute when writing. A suggested reason for this was that students spent too long pausing, due to the inability to keep up with the cognitive requirements of writing, those being spelling and composing sentence structure (Westwood, 2015). Westwood, (2015), goes on to highlight the difficulties in written expression, being a higher-order skill as it requires expression of the individual, vocabulary, imagination as well as knowledge and an idea of the intended audience. Furthermore, planning and reviewing (such as self-editing) is required by the students.