Hello,
I am a fourth grade inclusion teacher for students who need support in the classroom. I have an IEP approaching for a student who troubles me. In his writing he lacks any organization or expression. He spells every word outloud as he writes it. i feel this is slowing down his writing and ability to process his thoughts. He is not a poor speller. He lacks motivation and struggles with organization. I am looking for modifications or adaptations I could make to his curriculum to help him be more successful in the classroom. Any ideas?????
Wheels for Writing
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/teaching_techniques/wheels_writing.html has a writing strategy. Or, click on “For teachers” in the boxes at the top, then scroll down to “oral and written language” and click on in. There are several other articles that have strategies and accommodations.
It sure sounds like he’s all focused on the mechanics of the writing and not the content — and possibly because his problem area is in content and comprehension and that sort of thing… so it’s not that he’s having to work so hard on the spelling (the more common situation) but that he really doesn’t know how to work on the content. How’s the “writing process” being taught? What if he dictates to someone… is he suddenly at a loss, or does that free him up? I’d want an adaptation to be designed to focus his effort on the ideas — so if he sometimes did an “idea wheel” instead of writing (though if this were difficult he might resist… you may have to win him over on the value of getting ideas down and figure out hwat’s important to him so you can get him motivated to do it).
Have you already considred asking him to structure his writing through some form of organizer? The type really depends on the purpose of the writing and subject. Even a simple wheel with topic in the center and spokes off the edges is good to get main ideas down.