I am an LD teacher in British Columbia, Canada. I have to prepare my Grade 12 students to write a provincial exam in an adapted version of English worth 40% of their final mark. They will receive adjudications from the ministry which will allow them extra time, a reader and some will also have a scribe. My dilemna is that they also must write an essay ( only 250 -300 words ) in which they are given a choice of two topics. No prompting is allowed. I have a couple of students who seem to have no ability to generate ideas themselves. As we are in the final stretch I want to give them some ideas about how to generate those ideas. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.
I think the ability to generate ideas is in everybody but like Dorothy’s red shoes we don’t always know we already have everything right at hand.
Have them choose topics with which they are very familar and tell them they have to explain those topics to someone who knows nothing about them. What would be the three most important things to share about…. skateboarding, rock music, whatever.
When they write those three most important things become their three supporting paragraphs.
Go through that process several times with topics that are of their interest and only then move to other topics. I find students often labor under the belief that there is always a right answer and that belief freezes them. They don’t “get it” that essays are most often “filler” and there aren’t three “right” points but myraid points that could offered in explanation. They don’t get that essays aren’t about “right answers” but about a process and whether they can engage in that process of making intelligent points about the assigned subject.
Tell them it’s like politics. It doesn’t so much matter what they say as that they say it and seem to have said it well.