LD.ORG > NCLD Talks > LD and Written Expression

Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
Welcome to LD Talk, the Web's only online discussion devoted to topics of interest to the learning disabilities community.

My name is Dr. Sheldon Horowitz, and I am the director of professional services at the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Today's LD Talk topic is, "LD and Written Expression." Our guest experts are Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris.

When you stop to think about the wide range of skills that are needed to be a good writer, it is no surprise that so many students with learning disabilities struggle with written expression. For example, children with reading disabilities often have serious difficulties with spelling, which in turn has an adverse affect on their ability to communicate in writing. Also vulnerable are children who have weaknesses in areas such as vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension, word retrieval, and those who have trouble with the basic mechanics of writing (e.g., handwriting, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure).

And surely those students who struggle due to poor organization skills and information procesing deficits that impact their ability to engage in the self-regulation strategies critical to writing are likely to be at risk for problems in the area of written expression. For children who struggle with writing, and consequently develop negative attitudes about themselves as writers, what motivational techniques can we use to change these students' perceptions of writing?

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1. All of the stages of instruction can be seen in both elementary and middle school classrooms in the video, "Teaching students with learning disabilities: Using learning strategies" produced by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.This video offers the most complete view of the process of SRSD, as two classes are followed throughout instruction.
2. A free, online interactive tutorial on SRSD is available through Vanderbilt University. The tutorial includes all stages of instruction and video clips from the ASCD video. From the IRIS homepage, select Resources, and then select Star Legacy Modules. Next, click on "Using Learning Strategies: Instruction to Enhance Learning." There is also a module on the persuasive writing strategy POW + TREE for elementary students. To get to this one, locate the header "Differentiated Instruction," then click on the module titled "Improving Writing Performance: A Strategy for Writing Expository Essays."
3. Robert Reid at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a fantastic Web site devoted to strategies instruction at http://www.unl.edu/csi.

Additional Detailed Print Descriptions of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) instruction are available in the following resources:

1. Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (coming out in late summer, 2007). Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
   
   Going into printing now, this book includes a discussion of how and why to use SRSD for writing, followed by lesson plans for all of the strategies we have developed for elementary through high school, as well as prompts and support materials for instruction. We are very excited to have this book available to teachers and parent, as it gives everything needed to use SRSD in the classroom.
   
2. Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2005). Writing Better: Teaching Writing Processes and Self-Regulation to Students with Learning Difficulties.. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
   
   Our newer book gives great detail on each strategy and covers the SRSD approach. Strategies useful in elementary through high school are included.
   
3. Harris, K., & Graham, S. (1996). Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Brookline Books.
   
   In our original book there is greater detail on how to do SRSD and the self-regulation components here than in either of the other two books we have done. There are detailed chapters on preparing, implementing, and evaluation SRSD instruction.
   
4. Harris, K.R., Graham. S., & Mason, L. (2003). "Self-Regulated Strategy Development in the Classroom: Part of a balanced approach to writing instruction for students with disabilities." Focus on Exceptional Children, 35, 1-16. This article gives a detailed description of teaching a writing strategy in one classroom, and SRSD guidelines.

• Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2005). Writing Better: Teaching Writing Processes and Self-Regulation to Students with Learning Difficulties. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
• Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Mason, L., & Friedlander, B. (2007). Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
• Using Learning Strategies: Teaching students with learning disabilities in the regular classroom (2002).
• Video and Facilitator's Guide published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA.
• IRIS Center. (2006). Star Legacy Module: Improving Writing Performance: A Strategy for Writing Expository Essays.
• IRIS Center. (2006). Star Legacy Module: Using Learning Strategies: Instruction to Enhance Learning

 

1. Sentence frames. With sentence frames, students are given part of a sentence and asked to generate the rest of it. For example, students can be taught to write a simple sentence, with a single subject and predicate, by giving them a frame containing the subject (The dog ___________.) and asking them to complete the sentence by telling what happened (The dog ran.)
   
2. Sentence expansion. With sentence expansion, students are given a kernel sentence and asked to expand it by adding additional words. For example, students can be taught to make sentences more colorful by adding descriptive words to a kernel sentence:
   
   Rewrite - The cat and dog like the toy - so that the sentence tells more about the cat and dog and the toy (i.e., The big dog and gray cat like the fuzzy little toy.)
   
3. Sentence combining. With sentence combining, students are taught how to combine two or more kernel sentences into a single sentence that is more complex. Students should work at a level of complexity that is appropriate for them. They learn to rewrite short, kernel sentences using:

• Placement of adjectives or adverbs
• Inserting phrases
• Using ’connectors’ (e.g., but, because, so)

Here are some examples we give to teachers:
Try this simple one:

The noodle was soft.
The noodle was on my plate.

Now try this one:

The noodles were long.
The noodles were skinny.
The noodles fell on the floor.
The noodles cracked into pieces.
The dinner was ruined.

And here is a more complex one (hint - this could end up as more than one sentence):

The snake was a cobra.

The mouse ran by.
The mouse was tiny.
It ran quickly.

The cobra’s mouth opened.
It opened menacingly.
The cobra struck.
The snake was lying in the grass.
The cobra was deadly.

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Question from chriscnaz. parent to 10yr old gifted student with written expression LD:
How can you seperate and address written expression deficits when there are severe dysgraphia issues? My son has better expressive skills than mechanical writing skills, but these 2 skill sets are always addressed together in SPED goals and objectives.

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
You really can't separate these two issues, as they influence each other. For example, the mechanics of writing are also very demanding for developing writers. Likewise, the thinking processes involved in writing are very demanding. Planning, drafting, monitoring, evaluating, revising, and editing all require considerable mental energy. Energy that children must expend to type or write letters or figure out how to spell a word is not available for carrying out essential writing processes such as planning, evaluating, revising, and so forth. In fact, the mechanics of writing are so demanding for young writers that they minimize their use of these thinking processes. Thus, an important goal is to help developing writers become fluent enough with mechanics so that they do not interfere with the thinking processes of writing.

Even though lower-level and higher-level processes are linked together we need to teach both, especially to students with LD. We offer tips below for teaching both handwriting and spelling.

Handwriting

Teaching Letter Formation

• Model how to form the letter
• Describe how the letter is similar and different from other letters.
• Use visual cues, such as numbered arrows, as a guide to letter formation.
• Provide practice tracing, copying, and writing the letter from memory.
• Keep instructional sessions short, with frequent review and practice.
• Ask children to identify or circle their best formed letter or letters.
• Encourage students to correct or rewrite poorly formed letters.
• Monitor their practice to ensure that letters are formed correctly.
• Reinforce their successful efforts and providing corrective feedback as needed.

More on Handwriting

• Make sure that each child develops a comfortable and efficient pencil grip.
• Encourage children to sit in an upright position, leaning slightly forward, as they write.
• Show them how to place or position their paper when writing.
• Provide children with plenty of opportunities to use different types of writing tools and paper.
• Implement appropriate procedures for left-handed writers, such as how to properly place or position their paper when writing.
• Monitor students’ handwriting, paying special attention to their instructional needs in letter formation, spacing, slant, alignment, size, and line quality.
• Encourage students to make all final drafts of papers neat and legible.
• Expect that students will inevitably develop their own handwriting style, adapting how they write letters so they can be produced more efficiently.
• Organize the class so that additional handwriting instruction can be provided to children who need it.
• Place special emphasis on the teaching of difficult letters, such as a, j, k, n, q, u,and z, as well as reversals.
• Ask children to set goals for improving specific aspects of handwriting.
• Dramatize children’s progress by posting neatly written papers
• Consider if an alternative to handwriting, such as an Alpha Smart keyboard, is warranted.
• Have the child copy a short passage several times, trying to write it a little faster each time to increase handwriting fluency.
• Help children develop a positive attitude about handwriting.

Spelling Learning Spelling Words on the Weekly List

• Administer a pretest to identify which words need to be studied.
• Teach students an effective strategy for studying words.
• Have children practice their words together.
• Administer a posttest to determine which words were mastered.
• Ask that words misspelled during testing are corrected.
• Monitor that students continue to correctly spell mastered words over time.
• Provid additional study for words that were not mastered or maintained over time.
• Reinforce the correct spelling of taught words in children’s writing.

Learning the Skills to Spell unknown words

Make sure that each child can segment words into sounds as well as add, delete, and substitute one sound for another in a word.

• Show students how the sounds in a word are related to print.
• Teach them common sound/symbol associations, spelling patterns, and helpful spelling rules.
• Have students build words from letters or letters and phonograms (e.g., c - at).
• Teach strategies for determining and checking the spelling of unknown words.

What else can I do?

 

• Provide students with plenty of opportunities to read and write, as new spellings are learned through both of these activities.
• Model correct spelling when I write something in front of the class.
• Encourage students to correct misspellings in all final drafts of papers.
• Providing instruction and practice in proofreading.
• Encouraging children to use spell checkers, dictionaries, and so forth to determine the correct spelling of unknown words.
• Organize class so that I can provide additional spelling instruction to those who need it.
• Adjust the number of words students have to learn each week, as struggling spellers will know fewer words at the start on their weekly spelling list.
• Provide students with a personalized list of words to study.
• Ask children to set goals for how many new words they will learn to spell each week.
• Set aside additional time for them to study their spelling words at school.
• Present only a few words to be studied at a time.
• Test students’ daily progress on the words they are studying.
• Encourage them to monitor their study behavior and subsequent spelling performance.
• Use spelling games and computer programs to reinforce the learning of spelling words and skills.
• Teach children spelling mnemonics for words that are especially difficult to spell.
• Providing them with a personalized dictionary that contains an alphabetical listing of the correct spellings of words they are likely to misspell.
• Place spelling demons and other difficult words on wall charts.
• Dramatize progress in spelling by posting papers with little or no misspellings.
• Help students develop a positive attitude about spelling.

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
    Many parents have written NCLD saying that only a small amount of time is spent teaching writing at their children's schools. Thoughts?

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
     Good writing requires an awful lot, and takes many years to develop. Knowledge of the different types of writing; mastery of basic writing skills; strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing; self-regulation of the writing process; as well as motivation must come together to create a paper that is clear and effectively achieves the writer's purpose. Such writing is characterized by the following seven traits:

 

• Clearly presented and fully developed ideas
• Writing that is easy to follow and logically organized.
• Effective and precise word choice
• Varied use of sentence structure to promote fluency, rhythm, and natural speech patterns.
• Writing that captures appropriate tone or mood to make the desired impact on the reader.
• Correct spelling, usage, and grammar.
• A written product that is legible, attractive, and accessible.

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
Karen talked about "Reading with a Writer's Eye" at a recent conference. Can you explain what you mean by that and how it is part of writing instruction?

Answer: Knowledge about the different purposes and forms of writing can be acquired or strengthened in part through reading. As students read stories, for example, they will see (with teacher guidance as needed) that the main character is often trying to solve a problem or achieve a particular goal. They can also see that some stories have a message or try to teach you something about life. They may even notice that some authors use techniques, such as cliff hangers, to enhance the reader's interest.

While students clearly acquire some knowledge through reading, how much they learn is unknown, and they may not apply what they learn in their own writing. One method for doing this is to have students "read with a writer's eye." This involves thinking carefully about, and discussing, how the author crafted text to achieve certain purposes. For example, after reading a mystery, the teacher can encourage discussion, directing students' attention to important features of text, such as how the author planted a false lead to make the story more interesting and complex. Students are then encouraged to use the same technique in a mystery they write.

Another way to facilitate students' acquisition and use of writing knowledge is to provide them with models of specific types of writing. For instance, when introducing students to story writing, a good starting place is to examine one or more stories to identify common features, such as placing the story in a particular place and time. Once the basic elements of a story are established, model stories can be used to explore other aspects of good story writing, such as using words that create a clear image. After "reading with a writer's eye," students can be asked to use what they have learned when writing their own stories. One way to do this is to have them generate possible ideas for each of the basic parts of the story before writing it. Models also provide a concrete example of a finished product - one which can be emulated by students.

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Question from Penny Colgan-Davis, Principal, Frankford Friends School:
How can teachers in regular ed. classrooms support children who have struggles in writing? We're a very small school with no learning support services. We notice that students who have either struggled to learn to read or who have been evaluated and found to have some kind of learning disability find writing especially hard (so many skills coming together in one activity, I'm assuming). Often they "freeze" when it comes to writing and sit there and sit there, saying they "can't think of anything" to write about. We incorporate a lot of "pre-writing" think-alouds and discussions/mini-lessons, using Lucy Calkins and Nancy Atwell as models, but still, when push comes to shove and children have to write, they seem so overwhelmed, they don't get anything down that even comes close to what they had "wanted to say." We hate to see these kids fear writing so and want to unlock whatever it is that makes them shut down so they can begin to tell their stories. Thanks.

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
It is critical that all children receive effective instruction in the regular classroom, but especially students who find writing challenging. I am enclosing in this response a list of evidenced based-practices that have a proven track record (from research) in enhancing how well students write. I first list what has worked with students in general. Then I list activities that have been repeatedly observed when researchers have studied writing teachers who obtain exceptional writing progress with students. Finally, I present writing practices that have a proven track record with struggling writers and children with special needs.

Also, please note that writing process approaches may not be very effective unless the teacher is pretty skilled. Visit the Alliance for Excellent Education's, Publications page and click on the link for "Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools"

Finally, you may want to look at the book:

Graham, S., MacArthur, C., & Fitzgerald, J. (2007). Best Practices in Writing Instruction. NY: Guilford.

In this publication, be sure to review sections entitled, "Evidence-Based Practices in the Regular Classroom;" "Practices of Exceptional Teachers," and "Practices that Work with Struggling Writers."

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
Can you talk about how parents and teachers can foster students’ interest in writing and promote an "I can do" attitude?

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:

• Have students write for real purposes and real audiences;
• Teach and develop powerful writing strategies and self-regulation of the use of these strategies-there is a lot to be said for the old adage, nothing succeeds like success!
• Create a classroom environment that is supportive, pleasant, and low-risk
• Allow students to make their own decisions and accomplish as much on their own as possible;
• Foster a sense of accomplishment.
• Look for ways to motivate students everyday.

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
The following was submitted by Eddy Graham, Teacher: "Most of my students do not like to write, and to be honest, I am not too crazy about it either. What can I do to make writing more fun and motivating?"

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
Most children like to write when they first start school, but they often become less enamored with writing over time, and for children who find this skill difficult, many of them learn to hate it. We list a 19 things below that teachers can do to help promote more positive attitudes and a positive classroom environment.

1. Make sure that your writing assignments have a real purpose. Have students identify why they are writing and what they hope to accomplish. Likewise, when providing writing instruction, make sure students know what they are learning, why they are learning it, and where they can apply it.
   
2. Have students share their writing with others. They are more likely to do their best writing when there is an audience. Sharing should be an integral part of your writing program. Students can share their plans, an initial draft, a portion of their composition, or the completed paper with you, their peers, or other children or adults. Before writing, students should be encouraged to think about their audience and how they plan to maximize their impact on the reader.
   
3. Establish clear rules for student behavior during the writing period. Keep the rules simple and reasonable in number. Consistently reinforce them. Students' are not likely to enjoy writing (or learn well) if the classroom is chaotic.
   
4. Create a risk free environment where students feel comfortable taking risks with their writing. This means being accepting and encouraging of students' efforts and encouraging them to act in the same manner. For example, make it a rule in your class that when someone shares their writing, the first thing that you or your students do is to say what you liked most about it.
   
5. Do not circle every misspelled word or write "Awkward" next to every grammar error or clumsy wording. Intensive concentration on students’ miscues can make children more aware of their limitations and less willing to write. This is not to say that you should ignore these miscues, but select only 1 or 2 to concentrate on at a time. Otherwise, you are likely to overwhelm a beginning writer.
   
6. Support students as they begin to apply the knowledge, skills, or strategies you teach them. This can include reteaching, providing useful hints and reminders, giving useful feedback, and initially helping students apply what was taught.
   
7. Have students help each other as they plan, draft, revise, edit, and/or publish their work. This is most effective when the process of working together is structured. For instance, students are more likely to give good advice for revising, if they are asked to focus on specific aspects of the composition, such as identifying places where the writing is unclear or more detail is needed.
8. Make writing more motivating by allowing students to choose their own writing topics some of the time. For example, when the class is working on story writing, students should create the subject or the plot that their story will revolve around. Students don't need to choose the topic for every writing assignment, as they also need to learn how to respond to assigned topics as well, such as using writing to further extend their thinking about something they have read.
9. Increase student's ownership of an assigned writing topic by allowing the child to develop unique interpretations of them. For example, author and drama critic Peter Benchley modified what he saw as a boring final exam on the point of view of Great Britain and the United States on international fishing by writing from the point of view of fish.
10. Encourage students to take ownership of their writing. This includes allowing them to arrange a suitable writing environment, construct a personal plan for accomplishing the writing task, work at their own pace (when possible), and to decide what feedback from peers and the teacher is most pertinent for revising a paper.
11. Celebrate student success by displaying their very best work. This can be done by prominently displaying it in the classroom or in other places in the school. Students can also be asked to publish such work in a class or school newspaper, read their composition aloud to children in other classes, or share their paper at a special event.
12. Look for opportunities to give students positive feedback about their work. Let them know when they have done something well in their writing. Praise works best when it identifies what the child did well. Praise should be used when it is warranted, as overusing it can blunt its effectiveness.
13. Encourage students to monitor their own progress. This can be done by having them select their very best writing to keep in their writing portfolio, identifying why they selected each piece. Students can also be asked to compare a composition written early in the school year with one written later, identifying how their writing has improved.
14. Foster an "I can do" attitude among your students. Constantly emphasize that the key to good writing is effort and the use of what you have learned.
15. Monitor students' writing progress. Conference with them about what they are doing well and what you plan to help them do better. Establish how you will help them develop needed knowledge, skills, or strategies.
16. Make writing motivating by setting an exciting mood. Be enthusiastic about writing and what your students' write.
17. Show your students that you are a writer too. Share your own writing with them. Talk about the different ways you use writing each day.
18. Connect writing to students' lives and the world in general. Have them document the types of writing they do outside of school. Develop a wall chart where the class identifies how they use writing away from school.
19. Provide incentives for writing at home. For example, have parents document that their child writes for 20 minutes at home every school night for a month. Provide a special party for these children, allowing each to select a book to own from an array of books donated by parents or a sponsoring business partner.

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• students who have speech and language difficulties are at-risk for writing problems.
• Likewise, students with classic early signals in terms of learning disabilities and behavior disorders are at-risk because most of these children eventually end up with writing problems.
• Children who have difficulty hearing and manipulating sounds in words (phonological awareness) are at risk , as this is a critical skill in spelling, and spelling is an important early predictor to writing success.
• Likewise students who have unusual difficulty in learning to write the letters of the alphabet in kindergarten are at risk, because handwriting, especially handwriting fluency, is an even more powerful predictor than spelling.
• Finally, children who resist engaging in writing activities when they are 4 and 5 are at-risk. Most children start school liking to write (although this starts to take a nose dive pretty quickly), and it is unusual for a child to dislike writing early on.

Because we do not have a solid research base on these early precursors to writing disabilities, it is important to keep a level head about all of this.

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
Genres are different types of writing: story writing, report writing, personal narrative, persuasive writing, and so on. By the end of elementary school, students need to be able to use writing to:

• Communicate with others (e.g., personal letters, business letters, notes, cards, email);
• Create personal narratives (e.g., journal writing, autobiography, writing about a personal event, and so forth)
• Entertain (e.g., stories, plays, poems, and so forth)
   
• Learn (e.g., learning log, reports, journal entries, summarizing, biography)
• Inform (e.g., writing lists, explaining how to do something, describing an object or place, describing an event, news report, reports, biography)
• Respond to literature (e.g., book evaluations, book reports, book reviews)
• Persuade (e.g., advertisements, opinion about a controversial topic)
• Demonstrate knowledge (traditional classroom tests, high stakes tests involving writing, and high stakes tests involving multiple choice answers) 
•  Ask students to set the goal, breaking it into sub-steps as needed.
• Have students devise a plan for meeting the goal and assessing progress.
• Set the plan into operation.
• Require students to monitor progress.
• Reset or revise goal(s) as necessary.

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
Many schools still use the "whole language approach" for reading and writing. For children who still struggle, even in that environment, what would you suggest?

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
As we have argued often in our writing, the whole language and writers’ workshop approaches have a lot to offer in terms of good writing instruction, and fit a lot of what we noted in our earlier answer about good writing instruction.

In fact, we have two favorite books in this area: for older students: Nancy Atwell, In the Middle (check out other books by her as well); for Elementary/Middle grade students: Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. These are great books, and there are others out there that are very helpful in setting up good writing instruction and fostering motivation. But, research indicates that whole language and writers' workshop alone are not enough for many students, if not most - not just students with LD. Writing simply does not develop "naturally" for most of us, in other words, by having children write for real purposes and real audiences.

While students must write frequently and for many purposes, they also need to be explicitly taught critical writing skills, processes, and knowledge. The key is to create a balanced writing program that involves a judicious combination of writing, explicit instruction, and less formal techniques such as conferencing and capitalizing on teachable moments.

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Question from Steve Street, Asso. Prof. SLD Licensure, MN State Univl. Moorhead:
Dr. Graham...I am a nut about the work KU-CRL continues to do with the Kansas Strategies and Content Enhancement Routines. I am also driven by the concept of successive approximations in developing writing skills for students with SLD learning needs. I continue to be challenged by "getting started" ideas for non-writers at the secondary level given their writing failures for years. What suggestions do you have in developing "getting started" in writing ideas for secondary students with SLD learning needs? Thanks.

Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris:
This is always a tough question, as the difficulties these youngsters have encountered have developed over years, and there is no easy to fix. Often when a student learns to dislike writing, they frequently continue to dislike it, even if they become relatively skilled with it. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions.

Providing choice in the topics students write about can motivate some students to write. There may be a particular topic they are interested in and letting them initially write about it or related topics can sometimes get these youngsters moving.

Having a writing partner (one who will not take over the whole process) to discuss ideas for a piece in advance and each of writers take responsibility for specific parts of the task can get some struggling writers going. This is probably better if the writing partner theme is a classwide approach.

Before students start to write about an assigned topic holding classroom discussions about it, and listing the most salient ideas on the board can be helpful for some students who are challenged by getting started. These students may still need some guidance on selecting the focus for their paper and organizing ideas, but content (or much of it is already generated in the group discussion).

Of course trouble getting started may not be just a motivational issue; it may also be an issue of having slow handwriting skills, poor spelling, or ineffective planning and revising strategies. As you already know from your work with the KU strategies these problems can be addressed directly.

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Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
Self-monitoring is another part of the self-regulation of writing. Please expl

Read more about Karen R. Harris
Read more about Steve Graham

Dr. Sheldon Horowitz (Moderator):
That concludes our discussion for today. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful questions and thanks to our experts, Dr. Steve Graham and Dr. Karen Harris, for their time today. A transcript of the LD Talk will be made available shortly.