LD Resources

© Jaena L.H. Smith
jlhsmith@aol.com

The following techniques were developed to get the best results in creating young writers in a resource room instruction setting. These techniques were developed and refined over a period of nine years while I was an elementary resource teacher in a small school district. They are for students who have written language disabilities and who do not like writing. The students were in first through fourth grades. The classes were as small as five students to as large as 22 students.

Monday – Oral Language
The teacher presents an on grade level story orally to the class. The students act out the story. The teacher asks a series of questions from high level thinking to knowledge level questions for the students to answer orally. Then the students, one at a time, take turns answering questions from their classmates. If time permits, students take turns retelling the story orally to the class.

Tuesday – Writing
The students are presented with a writing paper that has four to eight illustration boxes and lines underneath. The students with more experience and more skills are presented with more boxes. The students are given five to ten minutes to fill in the illustration boxes with their drawings about the story that was presented on Monday. For the remaining class period, students are allowed to work on writing a sentence for each illustration box. If a student wants help with spelling a word, he or she will write the word in his or her spelling journal. Then the teacher will point out what is correct about the word the student wrote, give the student a score with the number of correct letters spelled, and finally write the correct word in the journal. As the students are writing the teacher walks around the room, she helps individual students identify the ends of their sentences by having them listen to her clap. The clap indicates a period. Then the student is encouraged to make another sentence and show the teacher where it ends by making a clap. Students are highly encouraged to use correct capitalization, spelling and punctuation. Students may take the project home for homework and return it on Thursday. Students may extend the story written in class and add more detail.

Wednesday – Written Language Instruction
First, the students are asked to find all the mistakes in a paragraph written on the board. The mistakes are from previously learned written language skills. Note: this can be very exciting and fun for both the students and the teacher especially if made into a class game. Then a written language lesson is presented to the class. Afterwards, the students may practice the skill on computers or worksheets. They may work in groups to find the solutions to the problems or the vocabulary. Note: the more fun and engaging the activity, the more the students are likely to learn and want to participate.

Thursday – Presentation
Students present their illustrations and story to the class. The student asks the class a series of questions about the story. Then the class asks a series of questions about story to the writer. Then the teacher asks a series of “what if” and higher level thinking questions about the student’s story to both the class and the writer.

Friday – Testing and Centers
The students work about six centers including computers. Students change centers about every ten minutes. The teacher test individual students for spelling on timed test. If the student does not master the test, the student may try again during the class period. Each test is marked with a positive number right. Then the student is encouraged to beat his past score. This method helps students overcome their anxiety about timed test.

Students are graded with a rubric for each skill except spelling. The stories and illustrations are combined together into a book for the parents at the end of the grading period.

This method of instruction worked for me. It was better than trying to teach a skill from a textbook or a worksheet. What I liked about this method was that the students wanted more time to work on their illustrations and they wanted more time to write. When the students became active learners, many of their regular education teachers wanted them back in their classes for more time. This method may not work for all students. Remember to stress the positive and the amount of improvement a student makes each day and grade based on the amount of improvement a student makes.

I would like to know what else has worked for anyone else.