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2 The Neurodevelopmental Constructs Neurodevelopmental TermUniversal Terms AttentionConcentration Higher Order CognitionThinking Skills LanguageCommunication MemoryRemembering Neuromotor FunctionsMotor Abilities Social CognitionMaking and Keeping Friends Spatial OrderingUsing Space Temporal-Sequential OrderingKeeping Track of Time/ Ordering

3 ANALYSIS OF THE NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DEMANDS OF WRITING

4 ATTENTION AND WRITING  Mental Energy Controls: > Having the “fuel” and sustaining it > Time of day > Amount of writing required at one time

5 ATTENTION AND WRITING  Processing Controls: > Saliency Determination: distractibility > Satisfaction level: focusing on the writing task even if the task is not interesting

6 ATTENTION AND WRITING  Production Controls: Output  Previewing: navigating while writing  Pacing: finding the right speed  Self-monitoring: thinking about what you’re doing while doing it

7 MEMORY AND WRITING >Active Working Memory: >Juggling the different demands >Proximal-distal goals >Putting the pieces together

8 MEMORY AND WRITING  Long Term Memory:  Rapid access of words and information  Retrieving spelling, punctuation, capitalization, letter formation, vocabulary, ideas, concepts, assignment

9 MEMORY AND WRITING  What you might see:  Words in txt misspelled in multiple ways in one piece of tects  Spelling. Better speling in isolation than in context  Grammar using is incorrect

10 LANGUAGE AND WRITING  Semantic use: word meanings  Sentence formulation: building sentences  Discourse production: verbal fluency, elaboration, sentence formulation, creating discourse  Verbal Elaboration: using descriptive language

11 LANGUAGE AND WRITING > What you might see: My Place in the Wood Sounds Like... The birds you can hear there songs. So plazit, so pesful, so joyful. The planse over head blocks out the birds song. Now that stinks if you now what I mean. You can hear the trees reuel far deep inot the woods. If you walk you hear crunch, crunch, crunch. The branches and the leaves russel when the wind blowes.

12 ORDERING SYSTEMS AND WRITING  Temporal-Sequential Ordering:  Organizing ideas in a logical order, steps to the writing process  Organizing time to complete the writing assignment

13 ORDERING SYSTEMS AND WRITING  Spatial Ordering:  Organizing materials  Arranging the words on the paper

14 ORDERING SYSTEMS AND WRITING  What you might see:

15 HIGHER ORDER COGNITION AND WRITING  Concept formation  Critical thinking  Creativity/Brainstorming  Problem solving  Rule use  Reasoning/Logical Thinking

16 HIGHER ORDER COGNITION AND WRITING  What you might see: My Best Friend My best friend is Tom. He is a great guy that always knows how to have a fun time. Once, we went to a pond and made a muskrat trap that was really cool. We used mainly sticks, but also some pieces of string to tie the sticks together. Because it was made of wood it floated, so we had to figure out a way of holding it down in water so the muskrats could swim in…

17 HIGHER ORDER COGNITION AND WRITING  What you might see: My Best Friend My best friend is Tom. He is my best friend because he is interesting, fun and lives close to me. We do interesting things together like building muskrat traps. He has lots of fun ideas. He is my next door neighbor. That is why Tom is my best friend.

18 GRAPHOMOTOR FUNCTION AND WRITING  Sending signals to the right muscles to form letters  Pre-visualization: seeing the letters and words  Print vs. cursive  Automaticity

19 GRAPHOMOTOR PRODUCTION DYSFUNCTIONS  Difficulty assigning specific muscle groups to specific roles while writing  Initially unstable, changing pencil grasp  Tight hooked grip and/or perpendicular grip

20 GRAPHOMOTOR FUNCTION AND WRITING  What you might see:

21 SOCIAL COGNITION AND WRITING  Code switching: who is the audience?  Interpretation of feelings – how do the characters speak to each other?  Humor regulation – gauging the joke with the assignment.

22 SOCIAL COGNITION AND WRITING  What you might see:

23 USING A NEURODEVELOPMENTAL LENS TO LOOK AT STUDENTS AND THEIR WORK CASE STUDY

24 CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: Darren Part l What Do You See?  Read the Darren case study material (in your handouts)  Make notes in the side column about Darren’s strengths, weaknesses and affinities  Note strengths and weaknesses in Darren’s writing sample (e.g., poor spelling, great ideas) Part II What Do You Think?  Look back at your supporting evidence on “What do you see?” Use your resources to identify the Neurodevelopmental Constructs and/or Functions that are associated with the evidence  Record your hypothesis support from all resources Part III What Do You Do?

25 Essential Component: Problem-Solving Method (What is not the problem?) What is the problem? Why is it happening? What should be done about it? Did it work? 1: 2: 3: 4:

26 Extended Practice: When Writing Doesn’t “Measure Up”  Ideas: Use TAKS as example of analyzing writing samples against a rubric, generating feedback and plan of action for student.  Work sample and writing inventory tools.  Writer’s workshop, revisited