What are some tips to teach writing to elementary students with learning disabilities?

Question

I am a special education teacher and I believe I do well at creating a safe, orderly community within my classroom. I also have done a decent job of promoting student achievement in math and reading- decoding and comprehension. However, i struggle to get my students to produce quality writing pieces. We are supposed to teach the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) in the workshop model. What kind of modifications can I make for them to be successful in writing and producing written work?

Answer 1

I think that the person who said to use the "brainstorming" piece of the writing process is correct. Poor writers have trouble inventing and organizing their ideas. By brainstorming, you will put several topics on the board that are generated by the students.

The other thing that is very helpful for these learners is to use graphic organizers that will help organize their ideas, once they have them. Just put, "writing graphic organizers" in your search engine and you will find plenty at all levels. Many LD kids have various memory or processing deficits, so this keeps them on track.

The other thing I did with my students was to prove to them that they spoke perfect English. I would challenge them to say a perfect sentence by telling me something about their morning. Then I would write exactly what they said on the board and show them that it was perfect English. I did this with a number of kids to prove to them that they spoke perfect English.

Next I told them that the way to write perfect English was to say their sentence before writing it. We would practice this with answers to easy questions such as, "What is your favorite food?" Then I would go around the group and have them say a sentence about their favorite food. "My favorite food is pizza." I would right a couple on the board, again proving the point about perfect English.

Finally, I had them write the sentence they had just said. After that, we went on to more complex sentences and ideas, gradually of course.

I have found that teaching the rules of grammar does not work for kids that have LD. They are already having trouble just dealing with the organization of their own minds and having to put meaningless information in there just doesn't work.

Answer 2

what about brainstorming before the writing, kids could get theideas out then write. they do writing in elementary wuw thats amazing. also possibly give them a sample of a well writen one early in the process.

Answer 3

Have them write about something they are good at. Something that they like to do. Maybe about their pet, or favorite game. Give them a chance to show what they can do.