A to Z
Guide
for
Inclusion
Creative Writing Skills
Many children with learning disabilities tend to have difficulties when it comes to writing, be it with spelling, creativity, imagination, sequencing and putting ideas down as a written piece. A big fuss is made about this due to the fact that almost all testing in Malta is done by written exams, tests and assessments, where the students are requested to write essays.
Teachers often ask themselves "What strategies should I use to help these students?". Below is a list of six strategies that may answer this question.
Graphic Organizers
This will include visuals such as stickers, drawings and cutouts. This keeps the student's comfort level steady when new pieces of writings are being learnt. This is done by using the visuals to create charts, figures and or tables.
Literature Circles
Daniels' (2001) theory of literature circles have proven to show great success when teaching writing skills. This consists of placing students in a circle while writing this way students find difficulty may easily pick up strategies from other peers.
Think Aloud
This is Graves' (1994) theory. Here a piece of writing is placed on a chart and the teacher talks aloud about the piece while the students observe the writing and listen to what the teacher is saying. Students can then give their input.
Begin a Few Times
When students are pressured with time it makes writing much harder, students with a learning disability should be given more time to be able to start again from the beginning. Students with learning disabilities become better writers with frequent opportunities to review their teachers tips.
LIST
List Ideas & Sequence Them, is a very good and effective technique to help students who find it difficult to sequence their ideas into a written piece if work. This is a form of organization done before the student begins to write.
STOP
Stop & Think Of Purpose, helps students that find it difficult to write pieces of work. Here the student would need to stop and think of a purpose to link to the writing, once the writing has a purpose the ideas and creativity will flow.
Motivation is the key to learning, if the students are simply asked to write a piece about topics that are irrelevant to their life, the writing will be poor, where as if a written assignment is given a purpose I can assure you that the writing will be of a much better standard.
As a adult it should not be difficult to come up with titles with a purpose since writing is a part of everyday life, more so with the presence of technology. Here are a few ideas to help you:
E-mail a friend, parent, sibling or company
Write an advert for a shop
Write an invitation for a party
Write about a movie you have watched
Write a timeline for chores, vacations ...
Write a memo to the school staff suggesting school improvements
Students with certain learning and physical disabilities may find it difficult to write with a pen/pencil and paper. This student should not be seen as not being about to write an interesting well-structured piece of work. Instead such a student should be given the opportunity to use different media to produce their writing assignment such as, keyboards, computers, manipulation and other forms of technology. Teachers should not limit students to use a paper and pencil, we need to teach our students how to be created and how to sequence their pieces of work and not how to be calligraphers.