- What were the successes?
- It was so rewarding to watch special education students who were not able to put their ideas onto paper really be able to organize their thoughts in a way that was clear and easy for them to understand
- What were the challenges?
- Some of the challenges in the beginning were getting students motivated to write, especially since so many had experienced failure with writing in the past. We came up with some fun games to play to motivate them as well as some topics to write about that interested them. Additionally, another challenge was getting students to generate ideas for their details on the detail sentences worksheets. Lastly, students had difficulty putting everything together (topic sentences, details and clinchers) to write a paragraph independently.
- How did the two of you problem solve issues?
- We talked in person and through email as needed to modify and make adjustments for students with IEPs and writing difficulties.
- What Adjustments did you make?
- Dotti Turner gave me some ideas for games to play with the students and strategies to use at different points in the paragraph writing strategy unit. We gave students the option of writing three details instead of four on some of the worksheets that needed to be completed independently. We also gave students a checklist to make sure they included everything required in their paragraphs at the end. This visual helped them to remember what they needed to have in order to write a complete paragraph.
