INTERVENTIONS FOR IMPROVING WRITING FLUENCY

Integrated Writing Instruction

Students with writing disabilities typically find the act of writing to be both difficult and unrewarding. These students' resulting lack of motivation to write can lock them into a downward spiral, in which they avoid most writing tasks and fail to develop those writing skills in which they are deficient. Indeed, for some students, a diagnosed writing disability may not be neurologically based but instead can be explained by the student's simple lack of opportunities to practice and build competent writing skills.

MacArthur and colleagues (MacArthur, Graham, & Schwartz, 1993) have developed an integrated approach to classroom writing instruction designed to accommodate the special needs of disabled writers, as well as those of their non-disabled peers. In this instructional approach, the student writes about authentic topics that have a 'real-world' purpose and relevance.

Student writing is regularly shared with classmates and the instructor, with these audiences creating a sustaining social context to motivate and support the writer. Students receive instruction and feedback in an interactive manner, presented both in lecture format and through writing conferences with classmates. Technology (particularly computer word processing) is harnessed to help the writing disabled student to be more productive and to make use of software writing tools to extend his or her own capabilities in written expression.

The instructor follows a uniform daily instructional framework for writing instruction. First, the instructor checks in with students about the status of their current writing projects, then teaches a mini-lesson, next allows the group time to write and to conference with peers and the teacher, and finally arranges for the group to share or publish their work for a larger audience.

Status-checking. At the start of the writing session, the instructor quickly goes around the room, asking each student what writing goal(s) he or she plans to accomplish that day. The instructor records these responses for all to see.

Mini-Lesson. The instructor teaches a mini-lesson relevant to the writing process. Mini-lessons are a useful means to present explicit writing strategies (e.g., an outline for drafting an opinion essay), as well as a forum for reviewing the conventions of writing. Mini-lessons should be kept shore (e.g., 5-10 minutes) to hold the attention of the class.

Student Writing. During the session, substantial time is set aside for students to write. Their writing assignment might be one handed out by the instructor that day or part of a longer composition (e.g., story, extended essay) that the student is writing and editing across multiple days. When possible, student writers are encouraged use computers as aids in composing and editing their work. (Before students can compose efficiently on computers, of course, they must have been trained in keyboarding and use of word-processing software).

Peer & Teacher Conferences. Writers need timely, gentle, focused feedback from readers of their work in order to improve their compositions. At the end of the daily writing block, the student may sit with a classmate to review each other's work, using a structured peer editing strategy. During this discussion time, the teacher also holds brief individual conferences with students to review their work, have students evaluate how successfully they completed their writing goals for the day, and hear writers' thoughts about how they might plan to further develop a writing assignment.

Group Sharing or Publishing. At the end of each session, writing produced that day is shared with the whole class. Students might volunteer to read passages aloud from their compositions. Another method of sharing might be for the students to post their work on the classroom wall or bulletin board for everyone to read and respond to. Periodically, polished student work might be displayed in a public area of the school for all to read, published in an anthology of school writings, read aloud at school assemblies, or published on the Internet.

References

MacArthur, C., Graham, S., & Schwarz, S. (1993). Integrating strategy instruction and word processing into a process approach to writing instruction. School Psychology Review, 22, 671-681).

Website : http://www.interventioncentral,org

Written Conversation

Involves two people “talking” with each other about topics of interest (for example, a vacation)-on paper. As they write, the student and teacher (or another student) sit next to each other, exchanging the paper when ready for the next person’s response. This activity encourages the student to focus on ides and to write rapidly so he/she can respond quickly to his/her partner’s conversation.

Reference:

Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. ( 1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency . Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

Mind Mapping/Planning Strategy

A) Mind mapping or spider diagrams are a very useful way of recording information. It is a useful revision technique as well as being an excellent way of encouraging processing of information into chunks. Children “map” out (on paper) what they are going to write. (http://www.educational-psychologist.co.uk/mindmap.htm)

Example of a Mind Map:

Example of spatial represenation of items including word processor, planning, journal writing, and written conversation tied to improving writing fluency.

B) The planning strategy: It is introduced as part of a fiction unit using a basic story grammar structure. A mnemonic helps students to recall the basic parts of a story. The steps in the strategy are as follows:

1. Think Who, What?

Students think for whom they are writing and what kind of story they want to write (e.g., classmates, humorous story)

2. Use C-SPACE to take notes.

Students use the mnemonic C-SPACE (C = characters; S = setting; P = problem or purpose; A = action; C = conclusion; E = emotion) to generate content and make notes.

3. Write and say more.

Based on the notes they have made, students write their story. This step reminds students to add detail as they write, not just to write the bare bones of the outline.

Reference:

MacArthur, C. & Graham, S. (1993). Integrating strategy instruction and word processing into a process approach to writing instruction. School Psychology Review , 22, 671-681.

Other Writing Activities and Tips

Guidelines for teaching writing to students experiencing Difficulty

Allocate adequate time for writing - minimum of 30 minutes.

Provide a range of writing activities – students should write about what they know (hint: use post-it notes to ask students question about their interests).

Create a social climate that promotes and encourages writing – teacher shares his writing with class too.

Integrate writing with other academic subjects.

Extra time spent focusing on ‘process’ extremely beneficial to the reluctant writer.

Focus on composing and mechanics once writing is complete.

Ask students to identify their goals for improving their writing –self-select their own papers to critique.

Helping Students to Monitor Their Writing

Students may find the following tips helpful for monitoring their writing.

I found a quiet place to work.

I thought about the reader as I wrote.

I set up a schedule for when I would work on my paper.

I thought about what I wanted to accomplish as I wrote

I read or listened to the teacher’s directions carefully.

I continued to develop my plans as I wrote.

I thought about who would read my paper.

I checked what I wrote to make sure the reader would understand it.

I started planning my paper before I actually started writing it.

I reread my paper before turning it in.

I tried to remember everything I already knew about the topic before I stated to write.

I asked other students, the teacher, or my family members when I needed help.

I got all the information I needed before starting to write.

I rewarded myself when I finished my paper.

I organized my paper before starting to write.

References:

Vaughn, S., Bos, C., & Schumm, J. S. (2003). Teaching exceptional, diverse, and at-risk students in the general education classroom (3 rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Learning Strategies Instruction

Please see explanation of learning strategies instruction as described in the last section of the Reading Comprehension Section. The following learning strategies may assist students with paragraph and essay writing,

The PLEASE Strategy (paragraph writing)

P = Pick the topic, audience, and paragraph type.

L = List information about the topic

E = Evaluate whether the list is complete and determine how to order the items in the list.

A = Activate your writing by starting with a topic sentence.

S = Supply supporting details sentences using items from list.

E = End with strong concluding sentence and evaluate the paragraph by revising and editing.

The TREE Strategy ( essay writing)

T = Write a topic sentence.

R = (think of) Reasons to support the topic.

E = Examine your reasons

E = (think of) Ending or conclusion

Reference:

Vaughn, S., Bos, C., & Schumm, J. S. (2003). Teaching exceptional, diverse, and at-risk students in the general education classroom (3 rd ed.). Boston: Ally & Bacon.

Early Intervention

Writing is used to teach and extend word identification skills.

It has long been recognized that asking students to write words (not copy them) is a very effective approach to developing word recognition and reading skills (Adams, 1990; Clay, 1985). For example, in the Early Intervention in Reading Program the students select a sentence to write. The teacher then encourages each student to think about the spelling of each word and to write as much of the word as he or she can. Teacher support is offered only as needed in order to ensure that the students write the word accurately. For example, for children who are having difficulty with phonemic awareness (the conscious awareness that spoken words are composed of units called sounds and the ability to manipulate those sounds), the teacher draws a box for each of the sounds in the word. The children are guided to think about the number of sounds in a word and the letters that represent those sounds. For example, the teacher would draw three boxes for the word teach, grouping the ea and ch in separate boxes since in that word ea and ch represent single sounds.

The writing used in the early intervention programs is somewhat different in nature than writing instruction in a regular language arts program. In a regular language arts program, the primary emphasis is upon communication, expression, and organization of ideas. In first drafts, children are encouraged to use "temporary" (also called "invented") spellings in order to move on with their ideas, and then, as they move through process writing, to revise and edit their writing. In the early intervention program, communication remains a purpose, and the writing is always meaningful, often based, for example, on something of interest to children or on a book just read; however, the writing is also more specifically used to draw students' attention to the details of printed words in order to reinforce and extend a student's growing word identification skills. As Clay, who developed Reading Recovery procedures, puts it, "A case can be made for the theory that learning to write letters, words, and sentences actually helps the child to make the visual discriminations of detailed print that he will use in his reading" (Clay, 1985, p. 28).

Given the brief amount of daily instructional time available in each of these early intervention programs, teachers must make choices about where to focus their instruction. As noted earlier, these programs are not comprehensive language arts programs. The area of writing is a good example. The child who participates in an early intervention program still needs classroom writing instruction that focuses more pointedly on organizing and clearly communicating ideas through writing and in engaging in the full process of writing, including revising and editing.

References:

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Clay, M. M. (1985). The early detection of reading difficulties. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

From: Pikulski, J.J. (1997) Preventing Reading Problems: Factors Common to Successful Early Intervention Programs. Retrieved April 27, 2006 from http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/prevent.html