Composing Written Material
The writing process involves many critical elements that come together to produce a product of writing. It involves a person to be able to successfully demonstrate the physical mechanics of handwriting along with the cognitive aspect of organizing, creating or composing material. During the written process the student must be able to engage in problem solving while thinking, planning and making decisions. There are five steps to the writing process they include:
1. Prewriting- planning your writing, organizing your thoughts, do research
2. Drafting- organize thoughts in your own words on paper, create sentences/paragraphs
3. Revising- edit your work, rearrange sentences/words, add/take out information
4. Proofreading- check for complete sentences, grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, recopy your work
5. Publishing- share your work with others; read aloud, put on display, illustrate
The composition of writing includes the ability of a student to express their ideas and apply them to other situations in real life. Some students can find it difficult to think of things to write about, organize their thoughts and get a good vision of what to write about. A student with a disability such as ADHD, learning disabilities and autism can struggle greatly with all of the components involved with the composition of writing. The writing process can be very overwhelming to them and they can find it hard to plan to do writing, organize their thoughts, take notes, form letters, spell words, manipulate a pencil and perform tasks that involve using fine motor skills. However, there are assistive technology devices out there that can assist these students with the writing process.
1. Prewriting- planning your writing, organizing your thoughts, do research
2. Drafting- organize thoughts in your own words on paper, create sentences/paragraphs
3. Revising- edit your work, rearrange sentences/words, add/take out information
4. Proofreading- check for complete sentences, grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, recopy your work
5. Publishing- share your work with others; read aloud, put on display, illustrate
The composition of writing includes the ability of a student to express their ideas and apply them to other situations in real life. Some students can find it difficult to think of things to write about, organize their thoughts and get a good vision of what to write about. A student with a disability such as ADHD, learning disabilities and autism can struggle greatly with all of the components involved with the composition of writing. The writing process can be very overwhelming to them and they can find it hard to plan to do writing, organize their thoughts, take notes, form letters, spell words, manipulate a pencil and perform tasks that involve using fine motor skills. However, there are assistive technology devices out there that can assist these students with the writing process.
Low Tech Tools:
Word Walls: A word wall is a chart/display placed on the wall of the classroom that includes words related to the curriculum in the classroom. Word walls can help students learn how to spell words correctly that they may want to use in their writing. It can also give them ideas of topics or subjects they can write about. Word walls provide special needs students with a visual of words and can help them with their spelling. This can especially help those students who have an idea of what to write but are struggling with the spelling aspect of it. Therefore, they can focus on the content of their writing rather than becoming frustrated because they do not know how to spell a word.
Graphic Organizers: Graphic organizers are visual displays that allow students to organize information effectively. It helps them to organize their thoughts onto paper. A graphic organizer can assist the student in their writing by breaking down the writing process step by step to allow them to access information one at a time. This way they can brainstorm their ideas on paper and plan what they are going to write. Also, graphic organizers are good for special needs students because they give them a visual of the information and provide them with prompts to generate ideas from their head onto paper. Teachers can choose graphic organizers specific to the writing assignment the student is asked to complete.
Examples of graphic organizers include, story maps, T-charts, Venn diagrams and concept maps.
A good website for graphic organizers is http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers
Examples of graphic organizers include, story maps, T-charts, Venn diagrams and concept maps.
A good website for graphic organizers is http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers
Mid Tech Tools:
Portable talking spell checker and electronic dictionary: This can help a student with poor spelling to know the correct spelling of words and the meaning of them. Therefore, they can spell and use the word correctly in their writing. This allows them to make fewer mistakes during writing. Also, it helps greatly with the proofreading component of the writing process where they have to correct spelling, capitalization and punctuation. The electronic dictionary reads the definition of the word out loud to the student so they can understand it better. The spell checker also reads out loud the word the student selects so they can hear the pronunciation of the word. An example of a portable talking spell checker is Children’s Talking Dictionary and Spell Checker by Franklin.
Some notable features of Children’s Talking Dictionary and Spell Checker are:
o Adjustable volume control and headphone-capable so your child doesn't disturb her or his classmates Features Phonetic Spell Correction (type the word like it sounds)
o Animated handwriting guide to show your child how to form the letters in printing or in cursive
o Create a personal vocabulary word list
o Rhyme finder and Homophone guide
o 5 word-building games and 2 skill levels, including: Flashcards, Guess the Word, Hangman, Jumble and Tic Tac Toe (1 or 2 player)
Some notable features of Children’s Talking Dictionary and Spell Checker are:
o Adjustable volume control and headphone-capable so your child doesn't disturb her or his classmates Features Phonetic Spell Correction (type the word like it sounds)
o Animated handwriting guide to show your child how to form the letters in printing or in cursive
o Create a personal vocabulary word list
o Rhyme finder and Homophone guide
o 5 word-building games and 2 skill levels, including: Flashcards, Guess the Word, Hangman, Jumble and Tic Tac Toe (1 or 2 player)
Word Processing Program: A word processing program can help students to record, edit and publish their ideas more efficiently. It allows them to customize their writing and use features such as changing the font size, font type and font color. Also, they can easily add pictures to their work and make it more creative. Word processing software programs include features such as grammar checkers, spell checkers, suggestions for synonyms and various formatting options. Students can underline, bold, center text and use their own creative font. This helps special needs students in many ways to improve their writing by reducing the amount of errors a student makes. It also makes them less hesitant to write certain words and phrases in their writing.
A good word processing software program to use is Microsoft Word.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/
A good word processing software program to use is Microsoft Word.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/
Abbreviation Expansion program: This is a program that is paired with another word prediction program to produce even more accurate typing. It helps to reduce the number of keystrokes that students use by recording the phrases they use most frequently. For example, the student can start typing a word and hit the space bar key and the word the program detects is being used will come on the screen.
The program Typeit4Me by Ettiresoftware has abbreviation expansion capabilities. It allows the user to type in a short abbreviation and then it expands it to a word or phrase. Typing becomes faster with this program which can really help special needs students when writing a paper.
The program Typeit4Me by Ettiresoftware has abbreviation expansion capabilities. It allows the user to type in a short abbreviation and then it expands it to a word or phrase. Typing becomes faster with this program which can really help special needs students when writing a paper.
High Tech Tools:
Kidspiration: This software program uses interactive graphic organizers to help students visually be able to organize their thoughts. This way students can see a visual representation of the ideas they need to write down. Kidspiration can help students to become better note takers, compare and contrast topics, organize information, relate a central topic to other topics and sequence their information. It includes different types of graphic organizers that can assist students in brainstorming their ideas for writing. They include:
Kidspiration:
o includes over 3,000 symbols to use
o helps develop vocabulary
o has word recognition
o improves writing and criical thinking skills
o includes definitions, synonyms and antonyms, parts of speech, sample sentences, images, and recorded speech to guide pronunciation of words
Here is a video on Kidspiration and its relation to assist special needs students:
- concept maps- relationships between 2 or more concepts that are linked by words to describe their relationship
- webs- display different categories of information and their relation to one another
- mind maps: focus on a central idea and all of the topics associated to that idea
Kidspiration:
o includes over 3,000 symbols to use
o helps develop vocabulary
o has word recognition
o improves writing and criical thinking skills
o includes definitions, synonyms and antonyms, parts of speech, sample sentences, images, and recorded speech to guide pronunciation of words
Here is a video on Kidspiration and its relation to assist special needs students:
Clicker 6(Text to speech software): Clicker 6 by Crick Software is a literacy tool program that includes a word processor, word predictor and text to speech capabilities. Students can type text and listen to the words on the screen. Clicker 6:
o uses pictures, words and sounds together to keep students engaged in their writing
o has an intelligent word predictor that suggests words that can fit the student's writing
o provides students with opportunities to learn new vocabulary to use in their writing and learn what the words mean
o includes a feature called clicker grids where the student is provided with words, phrases and pictures they can use in their work
o provides sentence starters, phrases, key words, color coding and picture support
These are all great features to help special needs students in the writing process!
o uses pictures, words and sounds together to keep students engaged in their writing
o has an intelligent word predictor that suggests words that can fit the student's writing
o provides students with opportunities to learn new vocabulary to use in their writing and learn what the words mean
o includes a feature called clicker grids where the student is provided with words, phrases and pictures they can use in their work
o provides sentence starters, phrases, key words, color coding and picture support
These are all great features to help special needs students in the writing process!
Resources:
Crick Software Inc. (2013). "Clicker 6". Retrieved February 11, 2013 from http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/tools/clicker/home.aspx
Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Enchanted Learning (2003-2010). "Graphic Organizers". Retreived February 10, 2013 from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers
Ettore Software (2013). "TypeIt4Me". Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://www.ettoresoftware.com/products/typeit4me/
Franklin. "Children's Talking Dictionary and Spell Corrector". Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://www.franklin.com/for-children/children-s-talking-dictionary-spell-corrector
Inspiration Software, Inc. (2013). "Kidspiration 3". Retrieved February 11, 2013, from http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration
Microsoft Inc. "Microsoft Word". Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/
Reading Rockets (2013). "Word Walls". Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls/
Stephany N (February 20, 2011). "Kidspiration as Assistive Technology in the K-5 Classroom". Retrieved on February 11, 2013 fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uXx1tATIM
Other Resources:
Inspiration Graphic Organizers:
http://www.inspiration.com/visual-learning/graphic-organizers
Reading Rockets:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/33078/
WATI Composition Written Material:
http://www.wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/Ch6-CompostionWrittenMaterial.pdf
Inspiration Graphic Organizers:
http://www.inspiration.com/visual-learning/graphic-organizers
Reading Rockets:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/33078/
WATI Composition Written Material:
http://www.wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/Ch6-CompostionWrittenMaterial.pdf