Strategies for Teaching Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities
 From the October 2001 Education newsletter.
Although current practice calls for the writing process or writer's workshop approaches to be used to teach children how to write stories, compositions, persuasive essays, and the like, these approaches often fall short for children with learning disabilities. Steve Graham and Karen Harris, professors of special education at the University of Maryland, offer their ideas for effective writing instruction for students with learning disabilities:
- Before skill instruction even begins, teachers need to address students' attitudes about writing. Often, explains Dr. Harris, children who struggle with writing form negative opinions about themselves and writing. "We need to deal directly with their emotions from the beginning or we'll never reach them," she says. Teachers and students should discuss feelings about writing, and then teachers can reassure students that they'll be taught the skills they need to be successful.
- First and foremost, says Dr. Harris, teachers "need to teach explicitly. Kids with learning disabilities don't get a lot through induction and can't capture things in short instructional periods."
- Intensive instruction (that can take place during writing workshop time) should focus on the following: writing strategies, knowledge of the elements of various genres (story, persuasive essay, exposition, etc.)and self-regulation strategies (goal-setting, how to talk oneself through the writing process, assessing their progress in meeting goals).
- Teachers need to provide continuous support. The first writing project can even be written together by the teacher and the student. Even as students begin to write independently, teachers should provide prompts, graphic organizers, and mnemonics to help students remember the steps they need to follow to complete assignments.
- Teach grammar and through intensive instruction. Dr. Harris stresses that the mini-lessons used to teach all students are not enough for students who struggle. But Dr. Harris cautions teachers that this instruction should not take away from writing time.
- Dr. Graham recommends handwriting instruction focus on legibility and fluency. Children with learning disabilities often find the mechanics of handwriting to be frustrating. Therefore, teachers should work with students to help them form letters efficiently. Once children are taught how to form letters through modeling and tracing, they should have many opportunities to practice writing. Dr. Graham suggests having students who struggle copy a certain selection several times with the goal of increasing their speed each time. Dr. Graham advises teachers to space handwriting practice over time. If a child struggles with either print or cursive writing, the teacher should allow the child to switch to the other form.
Drs. Graham and Harris are co-directors of the Center on Accelerating Student Learning (CASL), a 5-year collaborative research effort supported by OSEP. In addition to the University of Maryland, Teachers College of Columbia University and Vanderbilt University are also participating institutions.
Drs. Graham and Harris are also research faculty members of the Maryland Literacy Research Center.
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