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While writing poses
significant challenges for many students with
disabilities, good teaching can help them overcome
these barriers. The writing of students with
disabilities typically contains more mechanical
errors than that of their nondisabled peers and is
less polished, expansive, coherent, and effective.
Difficulties may exist because students with
disabilities tend to:
- Know less than their
peers about the characteristics of good writing.
- Begin writing with little
or no planning.
- Limit revisions to minor
corrections.
- Have problems with
transcription processes (e.g., spelling,
handwriting, punctuation).
To help students with
disabilities perform at their best on writing
assessments, teachers can use the following
techniques:
- Use the three principles
of effective writing instruction.
- Prepare students to
participate in writing assessments.
- Use assistive technology
in instruction and testing.
- Provide students with
appropriate accommodations during testing and
ensure that the accommodations correspond to
those used during instruction.
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Research shows that students
with disabilities can be taught to write and to
write better. This conclusion was borne out in a
meta-analysis of research on teaching expressive
writing to students with learning disabilities
(Gersten, Baker & Edwards, 1999).
[Meta-analysis is a way of quantitatively
analyzing the results of many studies on a single
topic in order to obtain an overall picture of
research results on the topic.] Virtually all
the interventions analyzed were multifaceted and
involved students writing every day. Three
principles were identified as being critical to
effective writing instruction:
- Using a basic framework
of planning, writing, and revision.
- Instructing students in
steps of the writing process and the features
and conventions of the writing genre.
- Providing feedback guided
by the information explicitly taught.
One of many interventions
that follow these principles is Self-Regulated
Strategy Development (SRSD). Although researchers
Karen Harris and Steve Graham designed SRSD for
students with learning disabilities and other
severe learning difficulties, students in general
education also have been found to benefit. With
SRSD, students are explicitly taught writing
strategies and self-regulation procedures (e.g.,
goal-setting, self-monitoring, self- instruction,
and self-reinforcement).
The goals of the SRSD
approach are to
- Assist students in
mastering the cognitive processes of planning,
producing, revising, and editing written
language.
- Help students further
develop the capability to monitor and manage
their own writing.
- Aid students in
developing positive attitudes about writing and
about themselves as writers.
Because many students have
developed negative attitudes about their ability to
write, teachers address student attitudes first.
They help students understand that while writing
does require effort, making the effort to learn and
use the strategy will enable them to write. Then
teachers follow a sequence to introduce and
integrate the strategy and self-regulation
components of SRSD:
- Teacher and students work
together to develop student background knowledge
and pre-skills needed to learn the strategy.
- Teacher and students
discuss the strategy. This includes providing
the rationale for the strategy, explaining each
step, and pointing out mnemonics. For example,
on an opinion essay, students may plan what to
say using the TREE strategy- Topic sentence,
note Reasons, Examine reasons, and note Ending.
Self-regulation is built into the strategy.
Students learn when to use the strategy.
- Teacher models the
self-regulated use of the strategy as much as
needed by individual students.
- Students memorize the
strategy, then employ the strategy and
self-regulation procedures as they compose.
Teachers provide as much support as needed.
- Students transition to
independent performance.
SRSD is not a pre-packaged
model. It can be individualized for students and
should be regarded as part of a total writing
program.
Harris and Graham offer
suggestions for teachers using SRSD:
- Start with one strategy
and take it slowly. Let students progress at
their own pace. Do not plan to teach a strategy
in a set period of time.
- Offer encouragement.
Point to evidence that shows students are
writing better.
- Be flexible--e.g., some
students may need more modeling or more explicit
goal setting than others.
- Post strategy charts to
aid students' memories.
- Ask students what is
working and not working.
More than 20 empirical
studies have shown that SRSD helps students become
better writers.
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