Memo #3

Memo #3 I am eager to see what direction my primary sources will take me. I have four teachers in the Chariho Public Schools I will begin with. First, I will speak to the Special Education teachers at the high school. They work in very different classrooms as one primarily deals with severe disabilities. However, their educational background will be similar. I also plan to meet with a Teacher Assistant who works one on one in the class. It will be interesting to see her role in supporting the teachers during instruction. In addition, I plan to meet with the middle school Special Education teacher. Although my research focuses on secondary education, I think it will be interesting to see the instruction that leads up to the secondary level. With that in mind I would also like to meet with an elementary education teacher in Westerly. Education does not happen in a vacuum. I am curious to see if there is continuity in the instruction of writing. I first would like to get an overall idea of how they determine what level or standards the students are at entering high school and what their anticipated goal is upon graduating. I would imagine it is VERY different depending on the student. Next, I am curious to know in their education what or how does writing instruction look in theory and do they actually implement this in the class. Or, I am curious, have they adapted their own strategies they have learned through experience over the years. Or perhaps it is a combination of techniques. I would like them to see the articles that I have found as well to see if they have even heard of theses strategies. If so have they used any of them. If so, do they work? If not, why? According to secondary research it is identified that writing for learning disabled students is a major challenge for several reasons. According to Marshall Welch in “The PLEASE Strategy: A Metacognitive Learning Strategy for Improving Paragraph Writing of Students with Mild Learning Disabilities” he states students with special needs demonstrate poor planning and organizational skills associated with writing. They also have difficulty with idea generation as well as word and sentence production. Many are unaware of the purpose of writing which leads to irrelevant details and poor conclusions.We also know that because of the communication component writing is a challenge for learning disabled students as well. In addition, students struggle with handwriting and spelling. After all, even if a person is a phenomenal writer, it means nothing if its not understandable due to ineligible writing or misspelling. In the article by Steve Graham, “Handwriting and Spelling Instruction For Students With Learning Disabilities A Review” he lays out a comprehensive approach to teaching spelling and handwriting to learning disabled students. In conclusion, I have learned through secondary sources that there are comprehensive approaches and strategies for teaching learning disabled students. In general these include understanding the child’s knowledge about the writing assignment, pre-planning, use of graphic organizers, modeling, revision, handwriting spelling, and multiple opportunities. So now it is time to ask others, is this what is happening in the classroom? If so, does it work? If not, why not. Or is this all good in theory but there is a whole different reality that exists in the world of special education.