Adaptations for Struggling Writers

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These strategies can be used for students who require additional assistance in mastering skills.

Accommodations in the Learning Environment

  • Increase instructional time for writing.
  • Provide quiet and comfortable spaces for students to work.
  • Provide unimpeded access to writing tools.
  • Let students identify and select meaningful reinforcements for achieving writing goals (e.g., a reinforcement menu).
  • Consult with an occupational therapist to identify specialized adaptations (e.g., chair and desk height).

Accommodations in Instructional Materials

  • Simplify language of writing prompts.
  • Highlight (e.g., color code) key words and phrases.
  • Transition from simple to more elaborate graphic organizers and procedural checklists.
  • Post strategies, graphic organizers, and checklists in classroom and give students personal copies.
  • Develop individualized spelling lists.
  • Have students keep a personal dictionary of “demon” words and frequently used spelling vocabulary.
  • Provide paper positioning marks on students’ desks.
  • Provide pencil grips for students.
  • Provide raised- or colored-lined paper.
  • Provide students with personal copies of alphabet strips.

Accommodations in Teaching Strategies

  • Devote more instructional time to writing mechanics.
  • Provide physical assistance during handwriting practice.
  • Re-teach writing skills and strategies.
  • Expect and support mastery learning of skills and strategies (e.g., memorization of strategy steps).
  • Use cross-age peer tutors to reinforce skills and strategies.
  • Assign homework designed to reinforce writing instruction.
  • Help students set specific and challenging yet attainable goals for the writing process (e.g., completing a planning sheet before beginning to draft) and written products (e.g., a quantity goal of including 10 descriptive words in a story, which is perhaps linked to a quality goal of improving word choice by two points on an analytic quality scale).
  • Help students develop self-instructions (e.g., “I can handle this if I go slow.”) and self-questions (e.g., “Am I following my plan?”) that focus on positive attributions for success and task progress.
  • Teach students to evaluate and adjust their writing behaviors and writing strategy use to improve their writing productivity and performance.
  • Promote maintenance and generalization of writing strategies by doing the following:

-- Modeling and discussing how strategies may be used in multiple contexts;
-- Relating writing performance to strategy use;
-- Having students teach others how to use strategies;
-- Having students keep a strategy notebook which they can consult at any time;
-- Ensuring all staff and caregivers are familiar with and prompt the use of the strategies; and
-- Reviewing strategies often.

Modifications to Task Demands

  • Increase amount of time allotted for completing written assignments.
  • Decrease the length and/or complexity of written assignments.
  • Have students complete text frames (i.e., partially finished texts).
  • Reduce or eliminate copying demands (e.g., teach students abbreviations for note taking, supply worksheets with math problems from textbook).
  • Allow students to use temporary/invented spelling.
  • Pre-teach spelling vocabulary for assignments.
  • Evaluate spelling using correct letter sequences (e.g., hopping has 8 possible correct letter sequences) rather than number of words spelled correctly to measure and reward incremental progress attributable to partial correct spelling.
  • Permit students to dictate written work to a scribe.
  • If students have adequately developed keyboarding skills, permit them to write papers with a word processor.
  • Permit students to use outlining and semantic mapping software to facilitate planning.
  • Permit students to use voice recognition technology to facilitate text transcription.
  • Permit students to use integrated spell checker and/or word prediction software to facilitate correct spelling.
  • Permit students to use speech synthesis technology to facilitate revising and editing.
  • Selectively weight grading for content, organization, style, and conventions.
  • Grade assignments based on the amount of improvement rather than absolute performance.
  • Assign letter grades for body of work collected over time (i.e., portfolio assessment) rather than for each paper.
  • Provide feedback on content, organization, style, and conventions for some rather than all assignments (which may reduce students’ anxiety about writing).
  • Provide feedback on targeted aspects of writing rather than all aspects to avoid overwhelming students.

Modifications to Learning Tasks

  • Permit students to dramatize or orally present a written assignment, either in lieu of writing or in preparation for writing.
  • Assign students suitable roles (e.g., brainstorm manager) for the creation of a group-generated paper.

 

Note that these accommodations and modifications possess face validity. Many of them have not been empirically validated for struggling writers.

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