Writing Disabilities/Intro to Behavior SPED 780 Class 7 Writing Disabilities/Intro to Behavior Judith Mack, MSEd, MSW Adjunct Professor Department of Special Education

Agenda Group presentation 20min Debrief online class 5 Writing disabilities lecture 20 Writing activity 10 Vocabulary Centers 40 Debrief-Discuss 15 Synthesizing what we have learned about Reading and Writing (small groups) 20

Writing Handwriting Spelling/Vocabulary Composition

What Handwriting Problems Do Students Experience? Dysgraphia is a written language disorder involving the mechanical writing skill. Problems with letter formation Include malformation of letters, poor spacing, and extremely slow writing Problems with fluency Slow, labored handwriting may have negative effects on performance in other areas of written expression. Handwriting problems are often associated with other problems, especially in spelling and composition.

How Is Handwriting Performance Assessed? Experienced teachers can readily recognize poor handwriting, so formal tests are not essential. Planning handwriting instruction It is important that students with handwriting problems keep writing. Monitoring handwriting progress Teachers can use curriculum-based assessment to evaluate both the legibility and the speed of handwriting. Freewriting, dictation, near point copying, far point copying

What Interventions Can Help with Handwriting Difficulties? The fundamental question of whether to teach manuscript or cursive has yet to be resolved. Effective teaching practices in handwriting emphasize teacher modeling and student practice. Reinforcement and self-instruction training are other effective practices. Tracing Assistive Technology You are unlikely to be doing handwriting instruction. Handwriting without Tears, PAF Keyboarding skills are going to be more important for your students. Unfortunately, there are still school situations which require them to hand write.

What Spelling Problems Do Students Experience? Because the English language appears irregular in its spellings, it is difficult to learn to spell. There are 251 different spellings for the 44 sounds of English.

Spelling Errors and Effects of Spelling Problems Most misspellings are phonetically acceptable, made in the middle of words, and involve alterations of a single phoneme. Difficulty with consonant clusters. Difficulty segmenting words into consonant clusters. Students who have substantial spelling problems can be expected to have difficulties in reading, in part, because of difficulties with phonemic awareness.

How Is Spelling Performance Assessed? The three basic methods used to determine the status of a student’s spelling skills are: Dictation Connected writing Recognition Most standardized achievement batteries include measures of spelling skills. Teachers sometimes analyze spelling errors for consistent patterns in student’s mistakes. Informal spelling inventories and monitoring spelling progress (curriculum-based assessment) are two instructional methods.

What Interventions Help Students’ Spelling Difficulties? LESS EFFECTIVE MORE EFFECTIVE Memorization Presenting words in sentences or paragraphs Using the study-test method Ignoring errors Presenting extensive lists of words to be learned each week Having students devise their own methods of studying Treating spelling as uninteresting and unimportant Learning phoneme/grapheme correspondence Presenting words in lists Using the test-study-test method Requiring students to practice mistaken words, pointing out mistakes Using brief lists of only 3 words per day Providing specific strategies for studying, including peer tutoring Rewarding achievement, using spelling games

Developmental Interventions and Remedial Interventions For best results, teachers should: Teach spelling skills directly Include only a few spelling words a day Provide distributed practices Teach for generalization Promote self-correction Words their Way

Types of Spelling Words Regular words: cat High-frequency less regular words: said Homophonous words: they’re, there, their Demon words: misspell

What about Vocabulary? Stages of Word Learning: I never saw it before. I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it means. I recognize it in context – it has something to do with… I know it. Practice A lot of content related vocab in high school… Teaching morphology can be very useful0

Writing Activity

Words Their Way Core Principles Use assessments to guide “just right” instruction Follow a continuum of support Actively involve students with high-level thinking Provide multiple opportunities across contexts Engage your students

3 Level Framework for Choosing Words to Teach Words Not to Teach Words your students already know Words that do not serve your lesson objectives When in doubt, stick with no more than 8-10 words per week Foot-in-the-Door Words May be either content-specific or core academic words Do not require deep knowledge, rather basic understanding Deep knowledge words: Essential for understanding text or overall lesson or unit Or they are high-utility words that students will see in newspapers or magazines A word you want your students to use 5 years from now Important enough to spend a chunk of classroom time teaching Less is more with struggling readers

Words Their Way Developmental stages Instruction linked to assessment Word sorts, group activities, games Some teacher-led, some independent

Effective Teaching Procedures In addition to those practices listed in Table 13.2, teachers can use these five techniques: Test-study-test Practice procedures Time delay Morphographic spelling Add-a-word Test study test-includes a pre-test and post-test Daily practice, repitition Morphographic-intense highly structured program Flow lists, substitute in words that are known

What Composition Problems Do Students Experience? Research results indicate that students with learning disabilities are more likely to have difficulty with: Basic writing skills Planning, organizing paragraphs, and revising Thematic maturity and sentence complexity Word usage, style, and vocabulary Incorporation of important elements Problems with reading, spelling, and handwriting are related to difficulties with composition. Huge-lots of essays in HS—regents, structure

How Is Composition Performance Assessed? Screening Screening for writing disabilities is difficult because many students other than those with learning disabilities write poorly Planning composition instruction Requires detailed information about students’ writing skills The PSLT and TOWL are two norm-referenced instruments that require students to compose writing samples Monitoring progress in composition Can be easily done by regularly sampling students’ writing and comparing samples taken at different times

What Interventions Help Students with Composition Difficulties? Teachers should encourage expression, but the fundamental aspects of writing must not be disregarded. Many authorities recommend students learn to write simply by extensive practice in writing. Students should plan, write, edit, and revise. One remedial intervention developed for students with writing problems or learning disabilities is called Expressive Writing. Writing Workshop

Effective Teaching Procedures Self-regulated strategy development Learning strategy interventions Explicit teaching of the steps in the writing process Explicit teaching of the conventions of a writing genre Guided feedback Reinforcement Story grammar Cognitive-behavioral techniques SRSD-COPS POWER some meta cognitive strategies Sentence structure, paragraph, error monitoring, theme writing Cog-beh. Self regulation, check assignments according to specific guidelines

Text Structure Narrative vs. Expository Types of expository Description Sequence Compare/Contrast Problem/Solution Cause/Effect Useful to understand for reading and writing--

Planning Sheet for Compare-and-Contrast Essays Graphic organizers are very helpful! As are frames and prompts Think sheets, plan sheets Rehearsing verbally

Vocabulary Centers Groups of 5 4 Centers Complete the activity at your station-about 15 minutes Change centers Debrief 4 groups 15 minutes at each station

Reading and Writing Small groups

For Tomorrow Bring Hallahan book to class Reading: Required: Hallahan, Chapter 7 Swanson Recommended: Huntington