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Learning Disabilities

Teaching Writing to Students with LD

Effective writing instruction for students with disabilities incorporates three components: adhering to a basic framework of planning, writing, and revision; explicitly teaching critical steps in the writing process; and providing feedback guided by the information explicitly taught. Learn more about methods for using these components in this article.

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Adhering to a basic framework of planning, writing, and revision, explicitly teaching critical steps in the writing process, providing feedback guided by the information explicitly taught, specific methods.

A recent meta-analysis (Gersten & Baker, 1999) highlights research-based instructional approaches for teaching written expression to students with learning disabilities. Expressive writing was defined as writing for the purpose of displaying knowledge or supporting self- expression (Graham & Harris, 1989a).

This analysis asked, “Given a group of studies designed explicitly for the purpose of improving the writing of students with learning disabilities, which interventions and components were found to be most effective, and what is the strength of their effects?”

This definition and research question led the analysis to include studies of various interventions. Virtually all of the interventions studied were multifaceted.

Three components stood out as ones that reliably and consistently led to improved outcomes in teaching expressive writing to students with learning disabilities:

Teaching students to write requires showing them how to develop and organize what they want to say and guiding them in the process of getting it down on paper. Most of the interventions used a basic framework based on planning, writing, and revising .

These steps are part of a recursive, rather than linear, process, i.e., each step may be revisited during the writing process, and the steps do not always proceed in the same order.

In these studies, each step was taught explicitly, with several examples and often supported by a “think sheet,” a prompt card, or a mnemonic.

Well-developed plans for writing result in better first drafts. Teachers or peers who write well can verbalize the process they go through to help students develop their own “plans of action.”

One type of plan of action, called a “Planning Think Sheet,” uses a series of sequential, structured prompts. It specifies a topic and asks the following questions (Englert, Raphael & Anderson, 1992):

• “Who am I writing for?”
• “Why am I writing?”
• “What do I know?”
• “How can I group my ideas?”
• “How will I organize my ideas?”

Another technique is to use semantic mapping to help students plan their writing.

Creating a first draft.

Using a plan of action helps students create first drafts. The plan serves as a concrete map for engaging in the writing process and provides students with suggestions for what to do when they feel “stuck.” The plan of action provides a permanent reminder of the content and structure of the writing task.

A well-developed plan of action also gives the student and teacher a common language to use in discussing the writing. The dialogue between teacher and student represents a major advance in writing instruction over traditional methods that required students to work in relative isolation.

Revising and editing .

Revising and editing skills are critical to the writing process. Developing methods to help students refine and edit their work has been difficult, but a few researchers have begun to develop specific strategies that appear promising.

For example, Wong, Butler, Ficzere, and Kuperis (1996), in teaching students to write opinion essays, used peer editing as an instructional strategy for the students. Pairs of students alternated their roles as student-writer and student-critic. The student-critic identified ambiguities in the essay and asked the writer for clarification. Through this process, the student-writer had to explain his or her communicative intent to the peer and revise the essay to faithfully reflect it. In this way the trainees developed a sense of audience for their writing.

Explicitly teaching text structures provides a guide for the writing task, whether it is a persuasive essay, a personal narrative, or an essay comparing and contrasting two phenomena. Different types of writing are based on different structures. For example, a persuasive essay contains a thesis and supporting arguments, while narrative writing may contain character development and a story climax.

Instruction in text structures typically includes numerous explicit models and prompts. Although different writers may proceed with the structures in a different order, good writing involves what Englert & Mariage (1991) called “overlapping and recursive processes.” These processes do not proceed in a particular order, and one process may inform another in such a way that the author returns to previous steps to update or revise on a regular basis.

Again, a plan of action is helpful. The plan makes text structures more visible to students and helps to demystify the writing process.

A third component common to these successful interventions was frequent feedback to students on the overall quality of writing, missing elements, and strengths. When feedback is combined with instruction in the writing process, the dialogue between student and teacher is strengthened. Giving and receiving feedback also helps students to develop “reader sensitivity” and their own writing style.

Wong et al. (1997) hypothesized that interactive dialogues, which led students through multiple cycles of reflection, realization, and redress of problems, helped students “see” their thoughts and write from another’s perspective.

Across the studies of successful writing instruction, teachers and students had an organizational framework and language to use in providing feedback on such aspects of writing as organization, originality, and interpretation.

Wong and her colleagues modeled procedures, for students and teachers, providing feedback so that they would attend to the surface features of writing (e.g., spelling and punctuation) as well as to the presentation of ideas.

Numerous methods for teaching written expression incorporate these three common principles. Two examples are Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) (Graham & Harris, 1989b) and Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing (Englert et al., 1995; Englert & Mariage, 1991).

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

The SRSD technique involves self-directed prompts that require the students to:

• consider their audience and reasons for writing
• develop a plan for what they intend to say using frames to generate or organize writing notes
• evaluate possible content by considering its impact on the reader
• continue the process of content generation and planning during the act of writing.

Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing

Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing includes brainstorming strategies for preparing to write, organizing strategies to relate and categorize the ideas, comprehension strategies as students read and gather information for their writing, and monitoring strategies as they clarify their thoughts and the relationships among their items of information. All of these strategies are applied prior to the actual writing.

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DeLaPaz, S. & Graham, S. (1997). Strategy instruction in planning: Effects on the writing performance and behavior of students with learning difficulties. Exceptional Children, 63(2), 167-181.

Englert, C.S., Garmon, A. Mariage, T. Rozendal, M. Tarrant, K. & Urba, J. (1995). The early literacy project: Connecting across the literacy curriculum. Learning Disability Quarterly, 18,253-275.

Englert, C. S., & Mariage, T. V. (1991). Shared understandings: Structuring the writing experience through dialogue. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 24(6), 330-342.

Englert, C. S., Raphael, T. E., & Anderson, L. M. (1992). Socially mediated instruction: Improving students’ knowledge and talk about writing. Elementary School Journal, 92, 411-449.

Gersten, R. & Baker, S. (1999). Teaching expressive writing to students with learning disabilities: a meta-analysis. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon.

Goldman, S. R., Hasselbring, T. S., and The Cognition Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1977). Achieving meaningful mathematics literacy for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30(2), 198-208.

Graham, S. and Harris, K. R. (1989a). Components analysis of cognitive strategy instruction: Effects on learning disabled students’ compositions and self- efficacy. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 353-361.

Graham, S. and Harris, K. R. (1989b). Improving learning disabled students’ skills at composing essays: Self-instructional strategy training. Exceptional Children, 56 (201-214).

Wong, B. Y. L., Butler, D. L., Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1997). Teaching adolescents with learning disabilities and low achievers to plan, write and revise compare-contrast essays. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 9(2), 78-90.

Wong, B. Y. L., Butler, D. L. Ficzere, S. A., & Kuperis, S. (1996). Teaching low achievers and students with learning disabilities to plan, write, and revise opinion essays. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20, 197-212.

Excerpted from: Gersten, R., Baker, S., & Edwards, L. (December, 1999). Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities. ERIC/OSEP Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, Council for Exceptional Children. Based on Gersten, R., & Baker, S. (1999). Teaching Expressive Writing To Students With Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis.

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Creative Writing Activities for a Special Needs Student

I always assigned creative writing activities on the first day of school to start the year off on the right foot. For instance, I wanted the students to share something from their Summer vacation right after lunch this particular school year.

However, one of my students had a hard time with the assignment.

“I can’t do this!” John said, slamming his pencil down. “These writing assignments are just too hard for me,” he continued.

“What is it about the assignment that makes it too hard for you, John,” I said.

“I’m just not good at writing, and I don’t know what to write about,” John said.

Writing is one of the hardest tasks for children who have special needs. The process of getting their thoughts and ideas down on paper is overwhelming for students.

Creative Writing Activities for a Special Needs Student  

Although writing can be a tedious process, there are many different ways for students to express themselves through writing. Here are eleven great writing activities to try with your students. 

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11 Writing Activities Your Special Needs Students Will Enjoy

#1 comic book writing.

I have found that some of my students love writing comic book stories. They don’t feel overwhelmed like they do when they are assigned a five-paragraph essay. In addition, it is a creative way to practice writing in smaller sentences. 

You can find comic book-creating websites or templates online to help you plan the assignment. I have found that Make Beliefs Comix is a great online resource for those wanting to explore and write creatively. I have a student who uses this website, and he loves being able to create his own comic book. 

#2 Sensory Writing

Sensory writing is an engaging way to encourage students to use all of their senses in their writing.

Begin by offering your students a variety of sensory experiences, such as:

• Smelling different scents
• Touching various textures
• Listening to different sounds
• Looking at things in different ways, like under a microscope, magnifying glass, or in the dark with a flashlight

Then, have them describe these experiences using vivid language and detail. Sensory writing activities help students to develop their descriptive writing skills and connect their experiences to their writing.

#3 Memory Writing

Memory writing is an activity where students can reflect on something they read earlier in the week. The reading could be something that they read or experienced in reading groups. 

The students have a time limit to reflect and write so that everyone has an opportunity to write about what they remember. This creative writing activity is important because it encourages students to recall their memories, which builds stronger connections in the brain. 

#4 Reading Response Journals 

As a student, I hated work that seemed like a waste of time. One thing that I remember was that each week we had to write a reading response about something that we had read that week. 

A reading response journal is a series of entries from students’ reflections, opinions, and reactions to readings. This active learning technique encourages them to examine things thoroughly and relate what they’ve read to their prior knowledge and experiences.

Tips for Reading Response Journals

• Let your student know this is his journal. No one else has to read it, and he will not be graded on what he writes in it. 
• Give ample time for each student to write in their journal immediately after reading time when it is fresh on their mind. 
• Provide journal prompts so your students aren’t sitting there staring at the blank page, overwhelmed with what to write. Here are a couple of reading response journal prompts: 
• Reader Response Journal Prompts
• Reader Response Journal Questions

#5 Picture Storytelling

Visual aids can be a powerful tool to engage special needs students in creative writing. Provide your students with a selection of interesting images, such as landscapes, animals, or scenes from everyday life.

Encourage them to choose one image and write a short story based on what they see. This activity allows students to practice their descriptive writing skills while simultaneously stimulating their imagination.

#6 Group Storytelling

Group storytelling is a collaborative and interactive way to help your students practice their writing skills.

First, divide your students into small groups and give each group a story prompt or a sentence to start with. Then, have each student take turns adding a sentence or two to the story.

This activity helps students learn to work together, practice writing coherent narratives, and develop their listening skills.

#7 Sentence Structure Writing  Activities

There are many ways to practice writing skills. However, as a teacher, I always think of ways to get my students to work on their sentence structure that is not so boring or overwhelming. 

Ideas for Practicing Sentence Structure

• Give them a topic that they have to write about in under 100 words.
• Provide them one word to write a paragraph about what they know about that word. 
• Give them unique writing prompts that could have fun and creative endings. For example, “If they were to have a dinosaur for a pet, what would they do with their dinosaur?”
• Have them map out an outline of their paper using a specific topic. 
• Do a brainstorming activity using their research topic. 

#8 Mad Libs

Mad Libs is an activity that helps students practice their grammar and vocabulary skills in a fun way without pressure.

Create a simple story template with blanks for various parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.). Have your students fill in the blanks with their own choices of words.

When they’re done, read the completed Mad Libs story aloud, and enjoy the silly and creative results!

#9 Letter Writing

Letter writing can be an enjoyable way for students to practice their writing and communication skills. Encourage students to write letters to friends, family members, or even fictional characters.

Teach them about the different parts of a letter, such as the greeting, body, and closing. Letter writing helps students practice organizing their thoughts, expressing their feelings, and writing in a clear and structured manner.

You can even check out these pen pal programs for kids to write to astronauts, authors, and deployed soldiers.

#10 What If” Scenarios

Encourage your special needs students to think outside the box by presenting them with “what if” scenarios. Provide prompts that ask students to imagine alternate realities or situations, such as “What if…”

You could become invisible for a day?

The world was made of candy, you discovered a secret door in your house that led to a magical land, technology suddenly ceased to exist, everyone had the power to fly, you could communicate with animals, there was a potion that could grant any three wishes, humans could breathe underwater, time could be paused for an hour each day, you found a map to a hidden treasure.

Have your students write a short story or paragraph describing the scenario and its consequences. This activity fosters creativity and helps students explore new perspectives and ideas in their writing.

You could make this a What if  Wednesday activity that your students would look forward to each week.

#11 Rewrite

Lastly, another creative writing activity that is fun and gets children to think creatively is something I call “rewrite.” 

Many stories over the years have been rewritten with new endings. For example, Cinderella is a story that has multiple different endings.  

Give students a short story to rewrite that would change the story in some way. This assignment can be an excellent writing activity to teach them about plagiarism. In addition, you can instruct them on the best way to write the story without copying the author’s ideas or information. 

What Creative Writing Activities Do You Use In Your Classroom? 

Writing can be difficult for special needs students. However, creative writing activities can be a fun way for students to learn the basics of writing. Choose from any one of these five writing exercises, or try them all! 

No matter which you choose, we’re confident that they will help your student develop their language skills in ways that are both enjoyable and challenging.

Do you have an idea for another creative exercise or activity not listed here? Drop it in the comments below so we can add it to our list. We look forward to hearing how this helps your students!

Additional Resources 

• Writing Strategies Made Simple
• How to Easily Create Social Stories to Successfully Teach Children
• Reading And Writing Our Way Through Thanksgiving

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Teaching the Writing Process to Students with Special Needs

• Deb Killion
• Categories : Inclusion strategies for mainstreamed classrooms
• Tags : Special ed information for teachers & parents

I am a lifelong writer. Writing always came easy to me. I brought grades up in college from a “C” to an “A” because of this gift. But like any talent, the same gift was not bestowed on everyone. I struggled with Math, especially Algebra when I was a student. Some people struggle with Writing and English in the same way I struggled with Math. Once I realized that, I became a better teacher.

This series is meant to be a guide and a step-by-step lesson series on how to teach writing skills required for the standardized tests, as well as other contexts.

Teaching Writing to Resource Students

Knowing your students and where their strong points are is essential to helping them flourish with the changing demands of today’s current education system. So, first, assess what skills your students have, including content-writing skills, grammatical ability, spelling, and more, and analyze what they need to work on. But, in order to effectively teach writing, we must start with the most obvious: Content-writing. We will also look at the various steps of writing, and model it in the way students with special needs learn best.

Step 1: The Pre-WritingStage

There are many components to good writing, which include content, grammar, style, tone, voice, and sentence structure. All of these are important but can be difficult to teach to students who struggled with Language Arts skills and writing structure. One of the first things you should teach is content . Content is the fabric that holds the piece together. The rest are just vehicles to good writing. Without good content, you do not have anything. So, starting with good content about a topic is the first step.

To get students to think about what to write about, here are 10 idea starters that may serve to spur their imaginations:

One fun thing I did last summer was….

If I could do anything for a job, it would be….

My favorite memory of Christmas at home was….

The best car for the money right now is….

My goals for the future are…..

Cats make better pets than dogs because….

__________ is the best place to go on vacation because…

What Makes a Nice Person is…..

The Grand Canyon is much more than just a big hole in the ground….

People should not smoke because…..

These 10 writing starter ideas include many of the most important skills tested on the Benchmark exams. They include the skills the standardized test creators expect them to know, including analysis, comparison, persuasive language, and evaluation. They also include the skill of research in some cases, such as defending why a certain place is the best place to go on vacation, or what the Grand Canyon is, besides a big hole in the ground. In addition, they require students to use their imaginations to come up with ideas on their own. These writing starter ideas are only meant to get a kid’s imagination going, and hopefully spur them on to their own ideas. They all require analytical thinking; some require comparison writing, and other skills they should learn to effectively communicate their own ideas.

Content is really about what they know. This requires some former knowledge, but this is also something teachers can teach. Brainstorming is the most essential element of writing at the pre-writing stage. During this stage, get students to think of everything about the topic they possibly can within 5 minutes. They should write everything that pops into their heads. The good writer has often said, “Don’t think. Write.” This is true in this initial stage while working on ideas for content. The revising and perfecting stage comes later.

So in this part, simply have students write everything they can think of, organize their notes, then “weed their garden,” so that their essay will not be too broad. Once they have decided on a topic and developed the ideas, they are ready to move on to step 2: The Writing Stage

• http://www.readingrockets.org/article/215/
• http://www.weac.org/Issues _Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/speced_links.aspx
• http://specialeducatorswebpages.com/

This post is part of the series: The Five Step Writing Process for Students with Special Needs

The 5 steps to good writing include: 1) Pre-writing (Brainstorming), 2) Writing (Content), 3) Rewriting/Revising, 4) Editing/Proofreading, 5) Publishing. This series goes through each step, outlining some ideas to try for students who struggle.

• Teaching Writing to Students with Special Needs
• Teaching Students with Special Needs: The Writing Phase
• Rewriting and Revising: Teaching Students with Special Needs
• Proofreading & Publishing: The Final Stage in the Writing Process

Feeling stuck writing your IEPs? Download the 10 IEP Writing Commandments for FREE here!

Sentence Building Activities for Special Ed

Do you have students in your special education classroom who struggle with writing sentences? Or maybe they struggle with putting words together to form a sentence?

Today I would like to introduce you to Sentence Building .

This resource was created out of a desperate need for my own self-contained classroom. Students in my classroom, verbal and nonverbal, were struggling with sentences… writing them, putting them together… the whole nine yards… but they had IEP goals to meet and I had zero curriculum to help them achieve their annual goals.

So I created it for them, providing models and guidance to promote independence with the task…

…and it worked!

Sometimes it is difficult for some of our students to figure out how to organize words in a sentence. There are so many different reasons your students may be struggling, including ( but not limited to ):

• spelling, handwriting, lack of success previously, can verbalize sentences, but not put the ideas on paper…

I understand both you and your student’s frustrations. Writing sentences is tough! There’s so much that goes into it, but it is a life-long skill our students need to learn and master.

You can use this full-year resource to teach students how to write a sentence, or to reinforce the skills through interactive sentence building practice. These leveled activities can be used in small or whole group, in literacy centers, as morning or word work, in sensory bins or in intervention groups.

Daily sentence writing allows students to:

• practice spelling and identify spelling patterns
• use their thinking skills to create a complete sentence, and
• improve comprehension and writing skills.

With differentiated practice, students will feel confident to:

• write a sentence
• read and spell common words and sight words
• answer comprehension questions about the text
• visual how sentences come together by putting words in order
• use pictures to guide their writing, and
• demonstrate growth

Other skills practiced when using Sentence Builders:  capitalization and punctuation, letter formation, spacing between words, parts of speech, cutting and gluing practice, and more!

• 40 weeks of writing and sentence building instruction • 5 levels of differentiation, print and implement ready!

How is this resource differentiated to meet the needs of all of my learners? There are 3 different levels of sentences: Level 1 – 6 sentences with 3 or 4 words per sentence. Level 2 – 6 sentences with 6 words per sentence. Level 3 – 6 sentences with 8 to 12 words per sentence.

{ Grab the Sentence Builder Bundle here . }

So let’s take a look at how it works, the different levels, and the recommendations for use in the classroom.

There are 6 sentences within each level. This is Level 1, so each sentence has 3 or 4 words.

I recommend printing these cards on cardstock and laminating so you can reuse them each year.

Have students work on one sentence at a time. Using the picture cards, have students put the words in order to form the sentence correctly.

Next is getting the cut and paste worksheet ready.

For some students, I will have them cut their own sentence strips apart. For others ( or if we are short on time ), I will cut them out ( typically while they are putting the sentence together ).

Now it’s time to paste!

With this worksheet, there are 4 options available. As shown ( errorless, with pictures ), errorless with words, and just pictures or just words. Having these different levels of differentiation will help you meet the needs of all learners in your classroom, while working on the same thing.

Paste the sentence strip onto the worksheet. We love using our glue sponges !

This first step, putting the sentences together and cutting/pasting activity, is typically done on the first and second day of writing instruction.

As we move into day two, start by having students put the sentences in order again. You can mix all of the picture cards up, have students sort the cards, and then put the sentences in correct order.

Then you will move into the third day of writing instruction with either the trace or write Sentence Builder ( depending upon student skill level ).

Students will use the picture cards as a model to write the sentence in correct order, as well as spell all of the words correctly.

Typically if students finish early, we have this “extra” Sentence Builder activity to complete… and sometimes we will complete this on a Thursday if we’ve completed the rest of our writing work.

This challenge activity provides two options for students. One, use the words given with each picture to write 2 new sentences about that picture with the words. Two, the extra challenge at the bottom asks students to write their own sentence about each image.

This really gets students thinking outside of the box and gives them an opportunity to showcase lesson mastery and creativity.

Level 2 – each sentence has 6 words per sentence. All of the activities are identical to Level 1.

You can easily have students working on the same week’s topic ( this post shows the weather set ), but on different levels. All of the images are the same within each level, but the sentence difficulty increases.

Level 3 – each sentence has 8 to 12 words per sentence. All activities are, again, identical to Level 1.

What are other teachers, like you, saying about Sentence Builders?

“ The sentences are formulated in such a way that they work on sentence structure as well as grammar and can also be used as comprehension activities if you come up with questions for them. ” – Samantha W.

“ I am so excited for this resource!!! Differentiating writing in my class is challenging as they just want to copy each other. Now they have their own personalized stuff. ” – Macy B.

“ LOVE LOVE LOVE! This is differentiated to my lower level writers but also to my writers who need challenged. It is a great resource and I use it in independent writing centers. ” – Passion2Teach

“ What a wonderful, comprehensive resource for writing! I love the differentiated levels- all of my students will be able to participate! ” – Annie A.

If you’d like to try a set out for free, you can download a free set of Level 2 in the Resource Library .

{ Grab the Holiday Sentence Builder Bundle here . }

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

• Getting Students Excited to Write in Any Classroom
• Accommodating Guided Reading Levels: Part 2

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Functional Writing Activities In Special Education

Instruction and Lesson Plans

Writing is often a subject or skill students in special education classes dread. Students who have language and fine motor delays are better served when we focus on functional writing. Functional writing activities focus on written communication students will need life long. Here are 10 different writing activities to try with reluctant writers.

Community based writing activities

These writing skills are fantastic to weave into your life skills units .

• Practice signing in and out: This is a functional writing skill students will need for doctor’s offices, work sites, etc. Students will be expected to be able to write their first and last. They’ll also be expected to stay within the provided space when they write.
• Practice their signature: Students need to be able to sign their name at the bank, doctor’ office, stores, etc. Students should be able to consistently sign their name.
• Fill out an application: Whether it be for housing or a job, students need to know and be able to write (or communicate) their personal information. We use the leveled ask and answer sets to practice writing answers to WH questions. It’s differentiated so we can use it with non-writers as well.

Functional social writing activities

We use written communication in a variety of ways. Students need to practice functional writing skills in these ways.

• Learn to write cards: Practice writing invitations, thank you cards, birthday cards, etc. with your students. It’s a great way to target social skills as well as writing.

• Practice addressing envelopes: Work on how and where to write addresses on the envelope, staying in the space, etc.

Personal writing ideas

• Making lists : teach students to make and use their own visual supports. For example, making a to do list or a grocery list. Writing lists on paper and devices is the best way to practice this functional writing activity.
• Journaling: Help students see the value in self-reflecting and writing it down. It’s a great way to incorporate discussions on coping strategies and reflecting on what did or didn’t work.

• Writing phone messages: Have students practice listen to and write down a verbal message for someone else.
• How to write directions: There are lots of different reasons we need to write directions. It could be to get to a place, care for a pet, make something, etc. Practice writing directions in a variety of ways with your students to ensure that they are able to generalize this functional writing skill.
• Sending an email and text : Online communication is something our students need to know and practice. To be truly functional, teach students to write both formal and informally.

More functional writing ideas

Read these blog posts to see how to sneak in more writing & incorporate math.

• How To Fit Extra Writing Practice Into The School Day
• Combine Math and Writing For Extra Practice

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7 Steps to Teaching Writing Skills to Students with Disabilities

Written expression is a huge part of life inside and outside the classroom. When students with disabilities learn to write, type, and/or select appropriate communicative responses, it opens the door to greater opportunities to reach their learning goals, communicate their preferences, and establish rapport with the people around them.

Today’s post shares 7 important steps to consider when designing programs for teaching written expression to students with disabilities. These are excerpted and adapted from the excellent guidebook More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities, edited by Diane M. Browder and Fred Spooner.

Assess Students’ Current Repertoire

Which words and communicative responses does the student already use? Before you select a student’s instructional targets, start by determining his or her current writing and communication repertoires through formal and standardized assessments. An assessment of communicative functioning should target:

• Speaker skills, or expressive skills: communication skills that affect the behaviors of others
• Listener skills, or receptive skills: communication skills that involve responding to the words of others

To help you easily determine instruction objectives, you might also use a curriculum-based assessment tool that uncovers information about a broad array of skills relevant to writing, such as a student’s fine motor skills, communication, visual discrimination, and imitation.

Make Writing Meaningful

• Ask what’s important and potentially reinforcing to students, and use the answers as engaging topics for written narratives. Try presenting pictures of characters from a book and asking the student, “Whom would you like to write about?” Let the student select their three most preferred characters to focus on during writing instruction.
• Teach students to request desired objects by exchanging pre-written words for preferred items. For example, you might instruct a student to get a cookie by handing the written word cookie to a partner. Once the student masters this, he or she can be taught to combine the written words big and cookie to communicate a desire for a larger cookie. This is a powerful way to give students direct control over their environment as they learn the functional use of written words. As a bonus, it allows students to use pre-written words without having to learn more complex fine motor and cognitive skills first.
• Deliver reinforcement right away. When your student displays any type of writing or prewriting behavior—holding a crayon, scribbling, pressing keys on a computer, drawing on a SMART Board—follow it up with immediate praise and reinforcement. This will hopefully increase the frequency of their writing behavior and improve the fine motor skills they need for handwriting or keyboarding.

Encourage Imitation

When learning to copy words, some students may need assistive technology to circumvent weaknesses in fine motor skills. You may need to use adapted keyboards (alphabetical, onehanded, large print), AAC selection displays, and/or scanning technology for students who have physical disabilities that affect their gross and fine motor functioning.

Teach Spelling Skills

• Backward chaining strategy. Present the spoken word and then provide a written model for the student to trace. Fade the written model by incrementally removing the letters in the word from the last letter to the first.
• Computer-assisted instruction. Show the student a word/picture combination, and then ask him to select letters from a computer-based array to construct the word shown.
• Cover, copy, compare (CCC) technique. Give the student a piece of paper divided into four columns. The first column contains the targeted spelling word. The student copies the word and writes it in the second column. Then the student folds the first column on the left toward the center (covering the second column) and writes the word from memory in the third column. The student unfolds the paper and compares, and if she’s made an error, she copies the word three times in the final column.
• Video models. Record a video of yourself writing new words on a chalkboard, and display the video on a computer while students type or write the words. Insert a pause in the video to allow the student time to copy the word. Then insert a blank screen, during which the student writes the word from memory, and show the original model once more. (Share the videos with parents to help them support their child in practicing writing skills outside the classroom.)

Encourage Sentence Construction

• Once students have acquired a small word-to-picture repertoire of about 50 words, start using sentence starters (“I see a _____,” “The boy is ______”) to expand the length of these responses.
• Fade the sentence starters gradually so that students are independently constructing sentences.
• Once students can write a single sentence about a picture, encourage them to write multiple sentences about a picture. Present pictures containing a variety of stimuli and highlight features of the picture to help students identify content in which to describe or label. These prompts can then be faded to ensure students can choose to write about the stimuli that they deem important.
• Fade the use of pictures so that students can eventually write about things they have learned. Slowly increase the amount of time between the observation of the picture and the writing response. This fading is important, since students will rarely be asked to write about things immediately present in their environment.

Note: If students have not acquired sufficient spelling skills to write sentences, then they may require the use of selection-based writing software in which words or combinations of words are presented within arrays on a computer screen.

Teach Narrative Writing

• Begin by teaching students to write simple paragraphs. Show them that a paragraph names a topic and then tells more about that topic.
• Teach students to apply this rule when writing a paragraph about a picture. Help the student to identify the content of a topic sentence by highlighting a key element within the picture.
• Present a visual organizer and show the student how to use it during planning and while writing his or her paragraphs.
• To give students a model for simple storytelling, show them a series of pictured events or video recordings of real-life events (e.g., child plays ball, child falls down, child cries). You might also give students a series of pictures to sequence themselves before they write a story.
• Once students can write or construct a paragraph about a picture or other visual aid, fade the use of visual supports.

Provide Editing and Revision Instruction

• After teaching a student to write simple sentences, instruct the student to identify whether he or she has included both a person or a thing and something more about the subject.
• Direct the student to look for ending punctuation.
• Ask students to identify missing elements in their stories. Have them practice by presenting a variety of examples and having the student record the presence or absence of the elements.
• Teach students to use checklists to increase the inclusion of critical elements during writing activities.
• Show students how to graph their use of writing elements and monitor their own progress, so they can become more independent and effective writers.

KEEP READING

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• Communication & Language
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MULIANI BT ABU BAKAR says

I need an advice(s) the teaching strategies to kids with learning difficulties. Starting by teaching phonics , hoe else should I proceed. Fitzroy Readers are so far very effective. Tqvm

jlillis says

Hi! You can find our complete list of books related to teaching children with learning disabilities here: https://products.brookespublishing.com/Learning-Disabilities-C1059.aspx. Many of these have sections on teaching literacy skills, including writing, to students with learning difficulties.

Daisy Simpson says

Amazing article. All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students. I want to add one more method by which you can try to teach them writing skills. You can ask students to read some story of their choice and ask them to write the same story in their own words, it will help them to write on the beginning stage because they know the story and just need to write by themselves. Writing a story without reading can be difficult for students but if they have read the story can write it.

Thank you, Daisy! Great suggestion!

maheshsea says

Thanks for sharing the significant information. It helped my children and will help others a lot. Nice.. ...All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students

Basudeb Das says

Well explained

Andi Duferense says

Amazing article. All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students. I want to add one more method by which you can try to teach https://www.google.com/ writing skills. You can ask students to read some story of their choice and ask them to write the same story in their own words, it will help them to write on the beginning stage because they know the story and just need to write by themselves. Writing a story without reading can be difficult for students but if they have read the story can write it.

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