7 Steps to Teaching Writing Skills to Students with Disabilities by Caitlin Warren

1. Assess Students’ Current Repertoire

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-07 20:39:49 UTC

Assessments are a great way to establish the skills of the students. The motive of the assessments is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the students. The teacher can imply the tests to concentrate on speaker and listener skills.

2. Make Writing Meaningful

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-07 20:53:16 UTC

Students will be more motivated to complete assignments if it aligns with interest and if they are given the freedom for their own topics.

-For example, a student is shown a series of characters from a book allowing them to write about which ever character that sticks out to them.

Another way is having them spell out an object they want.

-For example, have the student spell out marker. Once they understand what they have spelled and spelled correctly, they can spell a color.

Lastly, it is crucial to praise the student for positive behavior toward writing. This could mean the student simply typing, scribbling, etc.

3. Encourage Imitation

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-07 21:12:54 UTC

Students can learn by copying words from sources, such as labels and books. The list of words can be looked up by students on the internet to have more of a deeper understanding of the word. Some students with disabilities have weakness in fine motor skills and will enhance knowledge more efficiently with assistive technology through a keyboard, etc.

4. Teach Emerging Spelling Skills

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-07 21:39:35 UTC

After student's successfully able to copy down words, the students can enhance onto oral spoken spelling words. Strategies of distributing spelling skills are:

Backward chaining- Say the word that is written and allow the student to trace the word.
Computer assisted instruction- A method to pair an image with the word. The student will select the letters that would spell what is the image of.
CCC technique: Cover, copy, compare- A paper divided into four columns. In the first column, the student will have the written spelling word and copy it in the second column. In the third column, the student will fold to cover the word and write it by memory. In the last column, the student will compare the spelling and copy three times if the word is spelled incorrectly.
Video models- Record a video to upload onto the computer of the teacher writing new words on the board. Meanwhile, the students will copy the word when the teacher pauses. Then, a black screen can demonstrate writing the word from memory.

5. Encourage Sentence Construction

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-08 01:45:42 UTC

There are many ways to engage students with sentence structure. One example of this is having students describe an image. Prompts can be given to assist the students with an outline, such as " I see a _____." It is important to note students need to acquire spelling skills and might need extra help with a selection-based writing computer software.

6. Teaching Narrative Writing

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-08 01:58:09 UTC

It is important to establish narrative writing to allow students to share their views and perspective. Students can begin writing simple paragraphs by allowing them to pick a topic and explain the topic.

-A strategy to help them describe the key theme of their paragraph is by giving them a picture to describe and have them highlight the key theme in the photo.

A visual organizer can assist students as a guide when planning and writing. Another visual can be a storytelling sequence with pictures to give students a more efficient idea of what is expected when writing.

7. Provide Editing and Revision Instruction

caitlinlwarren — 2024-04-08 02:04:36 UTC

A way to improve a student's writing is through editing and revision. Be sure to guide the students through a checklist of things to look for to ensure it is their best work. The checklist can include making sure there is a subject, establish any missing elements, and proper ending punctuation.

It is crucial as a teacher to monitor the progress to allow the students to grow as writers.