Teaching composing to students with learning disabilities: Scientifically supported recommendations

Abstract

[Extract] Learning how to write well is not an easy task. This fact was illustrated in the most recent national assessment of students’ writing. Two out of every three students in grades 4, 8, and 12 did not write well enough to meet expected grade-level demands (Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). Difficulties in mastering writing are even more pronounced for students with learning disabilities (LD), as they experience problems with multiple aspects of the composing process, including setting goals for writing, generating and organizing ideas, transforming ideas into acceptable sentences, transcribing these sentences onto paper, revising and editing text, creating fully developed papers, and sustaining the writing process (Graham & Harris, 2003, 2005; Troia, 2006)