At some point, all students can benefit in their development by receiving direct instruction in basic writing techniques such as calligraphy, spelling, punctuation, and sentence construction. For many students with writing problems, difficulties in these techniques represent a significant barrier to writing. These students need to spend extra time teaching explicitly and practicing basic techniques. This instruction must be carefully planned and must include regular monitoring of the student's progress. However, it must also be efficient, so that you do my paper not dominate teaching or writing time.

Calligraphy

The basic objective of teaching calligraphy is to help students develop handwriting that is legible and fluent, that is, relatively fast and effortless 2. As in reading, fluency is important. When students are not fluent in writing and have to pay attention to handwriting, it interferes with other aspects of the writing process. Both italics and block letters can be effective. Instruction should include how to shape letters correctly, and how to hold pencil and paper. Short daily classes of 10-15 minutes followed by applying writing to meaningful tasks are the most effective. Handwriting fluency is promoted by writing frequently and develops over time. Teaching children with handwriting difficulties in the primary grades can help prevent later writing problems. In addition to this type of instruction,

Orthography

Spelling and decoding techniques are strongly interconnected. Both require phonetic knowledge and techniques, knowledge of spelling patterns, and familiarity with high-frequency words. Therefore, spelling is part of teaching reading and writing. Students with reading and writing problems generally need explicit and intensive instruction in decoding and spelling that emphasizes the relationships and patterns between sound and symbol. In writing, the practice of “inventive spelling” in the primary grades helps students develop their phonemic awareness and awareness. Instructional methods that emphasize spelling patterns by grouping words with a similar pattern are effective.

Additionally, students with spelling problems need help memorizing how to spell frequently used irregular words (for example in Spanish. Word lists, word walls, custom spelling dictionaries, and strategies for studying how words are spelled are common ways to help learn frequently used words.

In addition to teaching, students need opportunities to practice spelling the words on the list and within the context of writing. Some recommendations apply specifically to writing.

  • First, teaching must pay particular attention to the words most commonly used in the student's writing.
  • Second, because many students with learning disabilities will continue to have spelling problems even after learning to read fluently, these students must learn is important that these students learn strategies for checking their writing.
  • Third, they must also learn to use tools, including dictionaries and spelling checkers, to monitor and correct their spelling. Custom dictionaries, in which students write a paper for me the words they are learning, can be helpful.

Construction of sentences

Even good writers sometimes pause to decide how to express their ideas in sentences. For struggling writers, writing correct and effective sentences is a major problem. In addition to learning to write grammatically correct sentences, they should learn to write subordinate sentences, write topic sentences that introduce main ideas, use transition words, and write introductory sentences. There is less research on instructional methods in this area than for spelling and penmanship, and some of the research results contradict common sense or common practice. For example, teaching traditional grammar, which focuses on rules for correct writing, has very little impact on the quality of students' writing.

Three methods supported by research or by effective teacher practice are Sentence Expansion, Sentence Combination, and Teaching Sentences Within Paragraph Types. All of these methods require that instead of learning grammar rules, the student applies his sense of language (asking himself, "Does that sound good?") To write increasingly complex sentences. In Sentence Expansion, students start with basic sentences (Kernel) made up of a subject and a verb, for example: “Juan runs”. They then add items to expand the sentence to say more about "who, what, why, when, and how." In the combination of sentences, students start with several short sentences and learn to combine them to form longer and more complex sentences. In paragraph-based methods, students learn sentence patterns for topic, detail, and conclusion sentences in different types of writing, such as sequential paragraphs or persuasive paragraphs. As always, when learning a technique, students must have the opportunity to practice it on meaningful writing assignments and receive feedback regularly.

Strategies for planning, reviewing, and self-regulation

Competent writers have sophisticated strategies for planning and evaluating their writing. They:

  • set goals for communicating with an audience
  • use knowledge of gender to generate and organize content
  • assess their writing against their overall writing goals and standards
  • they generally review extensively

In contrast, struggling writers plan very little and simply limit their review to correcting mistakes. Research on the cognitive process of good writers has been used to develop strategies that helpless competent writers. For example, we can teach students to plan strategies that help them use their knowledge of text organization (eg, persuasive writing, stance, reasons, evidence, and conclusion) to generate and organize their narrative. Research provides clear evidence that we can successfully teach struggling writers to use more effective planning and proofreading strategies, and therefore help them substantially improve their writing. 5 Luckily, teaching strategies are effective for the average student as well as struggling writers, making it a good method for general education classes that include students with disabilities.

Figure 1 below provides an example of a strategy for revising a text 6. This strategy requires the participation of a couple of students who come together to help each other by reviewing their writing. The steps are written as instructions for the student serving as the editor. To teach strategy, the teacher exemplifies the use of assessment questions to sample writing and makes revisions to improve writing. The teacher engages the students to apply the strategy collaboratively until the students are ready to practice in groups of two. Note in step 3 that a broad evaluation criterion can be used. The strategy provides a routine to support students in evaluation and review like the process used by proficient writers.

Figure 1: Peer review strategy

  1. LISTEN and READ as the author reads his story
  2. TELL what the story is about and what you liked the most
  3. READ the story to yourself and note about:
  1. CLARITY Is there something you don't understand?
  2. DETAILS What information can be added?
  • DISCUSS your suggestions with the author
  • The author decides what changes to make

Effective teaching of strategies for planning and revising a text requires that the teacher:

  • Provide an explicit explanation of how the strategy works.
  • Demonstrate or model the strategy while “thinking aloud” to explain to students the cognitive process involved.
  • Provide an opportunity for a guided practice in which students can test the initiative with teacher support.
  • Provide independent practice and application in other situations.

"It usually takes several weeks to teach a strategy effectively, so typically teachers only teach 3-4 strategies per year."

Another important part of teaching strategies is helping students develop strategies for self-regulation. Various aspects of self-regulation can be included along with teaching strategies.

  • First, self-regulation includes the ability to select strategies and monitor whether they are working. Therefore, teachers should spend time discussing why the strategy is important and when and how it can be used. In addition, it teaches students to evaluate their writing and decide if the strategy is working or not.
  • Second, self-regulation includes homework management, for teachers to discuss with students how to set aside time and space for writing.
  • Third, it includes strategies for dealing with difficulties and for staying persistent. Teachers help students learn things to say to themselves to maintain a positive attitude and to praise or reward themselves for doing a good job. The strategy teaching model designed by Steven Graham. and Karen Harris, Self-Regulation Strategy Development, as the name implies, includes several procedures to improve self-regulation.

Motivation and final words

One of the biggest difficulties in working with students with writing problems is increasing their motivation. One cannot consider the teaching of writing to be successful unless, in addition to teaching techniques and strategies, the student is helped to develop a positive attitude towards writing. Without that positive attitude, it is highly unlikely that the student will write outside of school or continue to develop their skills.

I would like to end by mentioning two important aspects of a writing program that contribute to motivation. First, writing instruction should get students to write about something self-fulfilling. When writing is taught as part of an exercise that only emphasizes correct writing or passing a test, not only are students left unmotivated, but they are less likely to learn what they are taught because they are not there. related to anything that has a significant purpose. On the contrary, when students write for meaningful reasons, they can choose the topic and share and publish their work for their peers, parents, and others, they develop a positive appreciation of the value of writing.

Second, failure is one of the biggest causes of poor motivation. Students who expect to fail in writing assignments generally participate in the same reluctance or not at all. The antidote to failure is explicit teaching, which helps students use effective writing processes and provides adequate practice so they can develop mastery of the subject. Students want to know "how to do it," and teaching them is the teacher's job. When students work in an environment where they write about something that matters to them and teachers provide explicit instruction on how to write effectively, a lack of motivation to learn to write is rarely a problem.

When parents understand the challenges students with learning disabilities face as they strive to become better writers, they are better equipped to help their children cope with frustrations with writing, to provide opportunities at home for children to practice. writing about things that matter to them and advocating for the child's learning needs in the classroom.

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