Summary:
One of the most challenging aspects of my job as an English teacher is helping my students develop more sophisticated writing skills by teaching them how to compose a variety of formal texts; e.g., professional letters, descriptive narratives, research reports, etc. As this article points out, written expression is the fifth and final stage of the language system to develop; "it is highly complex and requires the integration of all previous stages", which are the development of 1) ideas through experiences and thought, 2) comprehension of the spoken language of others through listening, 3) oral expression of ideas to others by use of spoken language, and 4) reading of the written language. For students with specific learning disabilities related to reading, the mastery of stage 5--written expression of ideas--is often extremely difficult. In his article, Poteet examines the benefits of informal assessment on the development of a learning disabled student's writing. Because the writing process is highly complex, it is essential that language arts teachers view the spectrum of written expression "as being comprised of components, each with unique elements" in order to design instruction and assessments that more adequately address the specific needs of learning disabled students. Poteet's solution for providing comprehensive, holistic assessment of a student's writing is two-fold. First, he has developed a "scope and sequence" checklist which allows the teacher to categorically evaluate the writing and keep a record of the types and amount of errors in each major category (i.e., penmanship, punctuation, grammar, ideation, etc). Second, Poteet asserts that teachers must consider not only the specific learning disabilities of the student but also the type of writing being taught, as each of the major types of writing taught in school has its own requirements for effectiveness (in other words, writing a research report is very different from writing a business letter, therefore the two should not be assessed in the exact same manner). I found this article incredibly valuable, especially as I consider the best way(s) to provide constructive, effective feedback on the writing produced by several of my students with dyslexia and/or similar learning disabilties.
James A. Poteet
Learning Disability Quarterly
Vol. 3, No. 4, Language Arts (Autumn, 1980), pp. 88-98
Published by: Council for Learning Disabilities
Summary:
One of the most challenging aspects of my job as an English teacher is helping my students develop more sophisticated writing skills by teaching them how to compose a variety of formal texts; e.g., professional letters, descriptive narratives, research reports, etc. As this article points out, written expression is the fifth and final stage of the language system to develop; "it is highly complex and requires the integration of all previous stages", which are the development of 1) ideas through experiences and thought, 2) comprehension of the spoken language of others through listening, 3) oral expression of ideas to others by use of spoken language, and 4) reading of the written language. For students with specific learning disabilities related to reading, the mastery of stage 5--written expression of ideas--is often extremely difficult. In his article, Poteet examines the benefits of informal assessment on the development of a learning disabled student's writing. Because the writing process is highly complex, it is essential that language arts teachers view the spectrum of written expression "as being comprised of components, each with unique elements" in order to design instruction and assessments that more adequately address the specific needs of learning disabled students. Poteet's solution for providing comprehensive, holistic assessment of a student's writing is two-fold. First, he has developed a "scope and sequence" checklist which allows the teacher to categorically evaluate the writing and keep a record of the types and amount of errors in each major category (i.e., penmanship, punctuation, grammar, ideation, etc). Second, Poteet asserts that teachers must consider not only the specific learning disabilities of the student but also the type of writing being taught, as each of the major types of writing taught in school has its own requirements for effectiveness (in other words, writing a research report is very different from writing a business letter, therefore the two should not be assessed in the exact same manner). I found this article incredibly valuable, especially as I consider the best way(s) to provide constructive, effective feedback on the writing produced by several of my students with dyslexia and/or similar learning disabilties.