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Before setting goals for students, you should assess what skills the student already has. Assessments should be formal and standardized, targeting both speaker and listener skills.

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While the mechanics of writing are important, it is more beneficial to put aside traditional ways of writing and make it meaningful to students. Writing can be made meaningful by giving students writing options that are interesting to them, writing words to request objects, or giving positive reinforcement immediately after good writing behaviors.

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Encourage students to copy words from books and other forms of print. Utilizing technology and copying words to a search engine can also be engaging for students. Connecting concrete objects to words can allow students to consult that object for correct spelling. Some students may need modifications or accommodations with technology when it comes to typing and fine motor skills.

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After learning to copy words, students should work towards spelling words after they are spoken. Strategies for teaching spelling skills include:

Backward chaining strategy: A written model for students to copy, incrementally removing letters of each word.

Computer-assisted instruction: Use technology to select letters to build a word.

Cover, copy, compare (CCC) technique: Fold a piece of paper into four columns with the first containing the target word. The student covers the word, copies it from memory, and then compares it to the target word.

Video models: Record a video of the teacher writing words, and give students time to type or write the words from memory.

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Provide sentence starters to encourage students to analyze the structure of a sentence. Reduce the length of sentence starters gradually, giving students independence in constructing sentences based on a single picture. After learning to write one sentence about a picture, encourage them to write multiple sentences, eventually removing the picture and writing solely based on knowledge.

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Narrative writing increases a student's ability to share their knowledge about the world around them. Narrative writing begins by understanding the purpose of a paragraph, it introduces a topic and expands on it. Begin the writing process with a picture to base the paragraph on and introduce graphic organizers to organize thoughts and ideas within a paragraph.

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Provide Editing and Revision Instruction

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Provide Editing and Revision Instruction

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Prompting students to check their own work improves the quality and clarity of their writing. Students should determine if all parts of a sentence are present, including a person and a thing. Ensure that end punctuation is used correctly, along with any missing ideas or information in sentences or paragraphs. Using checklists and graphs encourages students to continuously check their own work.