Writer’s Workshop can be very challenging for students with special needs. When faced with language deficits, these students often struggle to express their thoughts both orally and in writing. By providing them with lots of visual guidance in the form of anchor charts, writing organizers, and writing frames teachers can facilitate learning for all students and provide them with fun writing opportunities.
NARRATIVE WRITING
Writing about personal experiences should be a fun process, and yet students with learning disabilities (and many in regular education classes too!) struggle to come up with topics or get stuck somewhere along the first few lines.
OPINION WRITING
Although some students are provided consistent instruction on writing opinion pieces, they never seem to remember all the steps and write independently. Teachers have to model and heavily guide their writing. However, with simple visuals and sentence frames, these students can master this type of writing.
PERSUASIVE WRITING
Persuasive writing is a form of nonfiction writing that requires specific word choice, the development of logical arguments, and a cohesive summary. Students with learning disabilities can be guided through a series of simple steps in an effort to develop their persuasive writing skills.
INFORMATIONAL WRITING
One would think that informational writing is one of the hardest types of writing for students with special needs, and yet, if we think of Autistic students for examples, and their obsessions with anything from trains to Google Maps, these students are little experts in so many domains, an informational writing is more appealing to them.
PROCEDURAL WRITING
Procedural writing is a favorite among students because it offers them a way to connect to the real world and show their expertise in various domains.