Memo #4 addendum

I am posting this as another post to add to my Memo #4. It is a follow up email I received as the teacher was out and I could not interview directly. I am posting the whole response to my questions as there are some things I found so interesting that I did not want to even paraphrase, particularly how students are so over praised that they have a false sense of how wonderful a student they are. Yes, Gwen - I can help you and you can come into our class anytime. Sorry it took so long for me to respond. First block is a good time usually. Monday, Tues. Thur. and Fri. are best for first block but you can come in 3rd or 4th as well - we just have less students here....but that might actually be better.... 1. Yes, Writing is a serious challenge to my students. There are many reasons why - disability being number one reason, (memory, processing, dyslexia, low IQ) but I also believe the nature of special education (k-12) mostly self contained and pull out situations does expose the students to less high quality writing instruction and less practice writing. They are pulled out too much? The pace at which our student’s work is a hinderence - I have students that may take an hour to write a simple paragraph. 2 - 3 weeks to write a short story (1 page). Many of our students are not good readers - they do not read for pleasure, they do not develop good vocabulary. Many receive speech and language therapy - they are not active readers and active communicators...they are not exposed to sophisticated vocabulary. Many adults tend to "expect less" in the area of communication and may simplify their own language and word choices when speaking with disabled youth. Some students, especially those with autism, have very limited experiences in the world. Many students (especially autism) do not participate in the community in sports, movie theaters, vacations, malls, beaches, hikes, parties, sports, boy scouts, etc., in the same way as other neuro-typical kids. Many kids with autism and intellectual disability have narrow limited interests. They may have very limited choices in foods they eat, television shows they watch, etc...Furthermore, I believe that our students have a difficult time recognizing quality work not only the work they produce but the work others produce. They tend to be naive - they like what they like and don't tend to judge and compare works of art. Art just "is". People tend to be very careful when they criticize disabled students work. We usually emphasize the good and try to bump up their self esteem which is very important, but they often develop a false sense of how wonderful of a student they are. They often think their writing work is perfecly fine, because they have gotten so much encouragement and they do not have work from adults and typical peers to compare it to. They have been isolated in a "sheltered classroom" where it is all positive reinforcement from "nice and understanding special ed teachers" saying nice job Johnny. 2. Anything black and white and purely factual is easier to write - a weekend report or a story of an event in their lives perhaps. Writing their opinion on something is good for a few sentences. Creative writing is a major challenge because many students want to plagiarize from pop culture rather than truly create an original story. But, really all writing is challenging. 3. I was taught how to teach writing in college courses and in 6 traits writing, little workshops here and there, Learning A-Z.com, but really nothing has been provided to me....I find prompts on internet and create my own assignments and ideas. Several students need complete scribing of all work. 4. I don't use any particular curriculum. I fly by the seat of my pants and create my own assignments. The district provided nothing to me - they told me to be creative. I try to make the writing meaningful for students and related to functional and adult life and employment. We do not do a lot of creative writing - we focus on applications, resumes, steps in a process, reporting, emailing, writing about careers, addressing envelopes, and writing connected to other subjects - science lab reports, history, etc. Writing on the computer is best! They enjoy technology. 5. They do not understand traditional rubrics - it would need to be very simple. We typically revise once, more than this and the students are totally frustrated - they don't see the need to continue editing - more than one revision and the writing quality tends to get worse rather than better. We move onto the next assignment - quantity over quality. I can't expect perfection after one revision - just looking to change attitudes about writing and make them understand the importance of doing your best. Just looking for slow and steady improvements. 6. handwriting quality is often an issue, cursive writing and signatures are very difficult, I hope all this can help you in your research. Come on into the class and you could even provide a writing prompt or ask the students to take a survey, answer an email - anything you want - if you want to take a look at the student work samples. Of course - you can't use their names - must black the name out. Keith Cronin