I may have asked this question already, so if I did, I apologize!!
My brother, 14, diagnosed, APD, dyslexic, dysgraphia, and basic overall verbal learning problems. He is in high school and is in all special Ed classes. One teacher is insistent that he writes. He must write a paragraph after he completes each book.
The first problem is that he has no idea how to write a paragraph, doesn’t understand topic, supporting, and ending sentences. Secondly, he has no idea on the proper use of capitalization, punctuation, spelling. Finally, he is dysgraphia. He has an alpha smart but she said he could only use it to take notes. She must see that he does the writing. I originally thought this was a good comprise until I spoke to my advocate.
She said at this age there is not reasoning behind forcing him to write. This is also a reading assistance class, it isn’t English. I would like to see him gain confidence and skill with the use of a laptop. I don’t know too many adults who write the old fashioned way anymore anyway! I think he would benefit more from learning practical writing skills like, how to fill out a job application, write a check, etc!!
Am I way off base here? His writing is very slow and because of the lack of spelling skills, very difficult to decipher.
I appreciate any suggestions!
K.
Re: Writing
That is where I get confused, she is supposed to be the reading remediation teacher? Why she feels the need to see him write is beyond me. If she is trying to determine that he has comprehended the book, then it shouldn’t matter if it is type written or orally given to her, right?
K.
Re: Writing
Check his IEP to see if using assistive technology, such as a computer or keyboard is required. If it isn’t, have a meeting with the team and get that stipulation in there. Then set up a meeting with the teacher, and ask the teacher why she feels that he needs to write? Ask her what her goal is for him. If she doesn’t have a good answer, tell her that she is in violation of his IEP, and that is against the law. Let your brother attend this meeting??? to express why writing is such an ordeal. Get the special ed teacher or the case manager to explain what disgraphia is all about.
Good luck,
Fern
Re: Writing
I understand! The following may be helpful. For my son, I think things need to be taken one at a time for it to work best. From this perspective I recommend that any writing tasks be broken down into STEPS that are SHORT and EASILY UNDERSTOOD by him. These steps could ID or provide an example. They are used as a reference to guide his way through the writing process. He could (with help?) brainstorm what to write or verbally say something to write. Paragraphs- write what a topic sentence is , what supporting sentences mean, and so on as a reference, maybe even include an example or two. With guided assistance have him write a topic sentence, and so on. Just for practice he could locate and/or write a topic sentence whenever. When he’s learned this, he could ID and/or write supporting sentences. Continue through the rest of a paragraph. After he’s done writing, using a reference chart he could locate the end of a sentence and add a period . If necessary, he could go through it and change it to a question mark. Then he goes through it and puts a capitol letter at the beginning of each sentence and so on. If he can, as he is doing each step automatically, add another step. For spelling , the following may help: a book titled Morrison’s Sound It Out Speller: A Phonic Key to English on-line at Stone Cloud Phonics. An on-line phonetic dictionary at ultralingua.net. E-mail me if you or anyone else has any other questions. I highly recommend a book called Multi-sensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills.
I’d get him out of that class and let him take an elective that is fun or go home, and spend half an hour a day working from “When They Can’t WRite” by CHarlotte MOrgan that starts at the two-word sentence level and builds to paragraphs (www.yorkpress.com)
If she were actually *teaching* him cursive, then “seeing him do the writing” would sort of make sense. It sounds like she thinks teaching means saying “do this” and then letting the student know they messed up. If he needs to learn writing he can do that — but not *while* he’s also having to learn to compose and organize and do all that capitalization and grammar stuff.