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Introduction
Writing is an important part of our lives as humans. Although we may not think of it, we use different forms of writing every day. It seems as if writing is a skill that we pick up over the years, however, 1 in 5 students in the U.S. struggle with various learning disabilities which can hinder their ability to write. There has been an increasing amount of awareness for students with learning disabilities. However, students with learning disabilities still experience difficulties in all different kinds of ways, especially in writing. In the classroom, students are taught using standardized methods that do not cater to the needs of students with learning disabilities. These disabilities make it difficult for specifically younger students to understand the writing process, causing them to fall behind their peers.
Case Study 1: The CSIW Strategy
The journal article Expanding the Writing Process to Accommodate Students With Learning Disabilities reflects on research that was done on learning disabilities and different teaching approaches to help them. The first case study in the article includes a small group of students with learning disabilities. Throughout the study, the students wrote two papers over the course of a year using a learning approach called CSIW; Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing. This approach is broken into three parts. The first part requires students to break their writing down into multiple steps. These include planning, organizing, writing, editing, and revising. This gives students a broken down way of producing a piece of writing, instead of writing one large piece as a whole, which can be confusing and overwhelming. The second part of this approach is giving students the opportunity to think aloud to reflect their ideas with their teachers and their peers. The last step is giving students an opportunity to collaborate with other students or an audience so they are able to connect their writing to a real-life social situation. “Collaborative writing provides opportunities for students to "try out" their ideas on others, as well as to experience the support of peers as they develop their writing skills” (Abadiano, H. & Turner, J. p.76) This method is used to allow students to collaborate with each other during the writing process to help them see a purpose in their writing.
Results
The case study revealed that this method of teaching improved the students’ quality of writing as well as their understanding of the writing process. CSIW allows students to learn writing in a collaborative and engaging way. It gives all students an opportunity to improve as writers together using each other to improve. This collaborative strategy can help bridge the gap between different students and their success in writing. Although this approach may take longer for teachers to explain or teach, the time is made up in the quality of writing from students.
Case Study 2: The Writing Wheel
“The Writing Wheel” is another approach that was studied in this article. The study was done on a student with a learning disability. This approach gives students a visual representation of how the writing process is broken down. The wheel is shown similar to a pie chart. It shows each step of the process in order and how to approach each step. The first section of the chart represents prewriting and takes up half of the circle. It then lists different aspects of the prewriting process and how to approach them. The rest of the chart is split evenly between drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, respectively. This approach gives students who struggle with writing a visual to look at when they may be stuck on what to do next. It also gives students more of an opportunity to work independently, without relying so much on teachers’ guidance. Another benefit of the layout of the writing wheel is that it breaks down the process so that students aren’t overwhelmed with accomplishing the entire process as a whole. Learning disabilities can make it difficult for students to complete tasks, so the writing wheel breaks down the process into manageable steps that can be accomplished one step at a time.
Results
The student in this case study claimed that the writing wheel was a useful tool for his writing. “Dave himself acknowledged the support he enjoyed from using the Wheel: ‘It worked out because it has all the details on it-what you have to do. All I have to do is look at my Wheel’....” (p. 223). (Abadiano, H. & Turner, J., p. 77). This student was able to appreciate the writing wheel as well as recognizing the benefits of using this learning tool. Not only did his writing improve while having access to the writing wheel, but the student also improved in his task completion over the course of the case study.
Conclusion
Although these teaching approaches seem small, they can make a world of difference for students all over the world who struggle with writing. The ability to write is a skill that most of us take for granted. Students in the past with learning disabilities have often been overlooked. These students often aren’t able to meet their full potential, not because they are any less than other students, but because their needs haven’t been met. As the world becomes more aware of different learning disabilities, teachers and students everywhere will be able to come together and make learning and writing less difficult for students with disabilities. Hopefully, we will be able to close the gap between “normal” students and students with learning disabilities. All students deserve to learn and reach their full potential.
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