national forum of applied educational research journal 27(1&2) 2014, laura baylot case4y, robert...

NATIONAL FORUM OF APPLIED EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNALVOLUME 27, NUMBERS 1 & 2, 2014

Teaching Written Expression in the Inclusive High School Classroom: Strategies to Assist Students with Disabilities

Laura Baylot Casey, Ph. D, BCBA-DAssociate Professor

University of Memphis

Robert L. Williamson, Ed. DAssistant Professor

University of Memphis

Thomas Black, Ph. DAssistant Professor

Middle Tennessee State University

Cort Casey, Ed. D Assistant Professor

Christian Brothers University

______________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

During this study, researchers developed and examined the results of an online survey to better understand teachers’ perceptions related to the teaching of written expression in an inclusive classroom environment. Participants included over five hundred secondary English teachers from across the United States. Findings revealed that the majority of the teachers surveyed indicated that they struggled with the teaching of written expression most when teaching students with autism, emotional/behavior disorders, and/or attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Discussion includes descriptions of general methodologies for teaching written expression that emphasize specific strategies for teaching this content to students with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders (including Asperger’s syndrome), and students with emotional/behavioral disorders.

Keywords: writing, disability, disability, autism, emotional, emotional/behavioral disorders, inclusion, special education

______________________________________________________________________________

Only within the past three decades has writing become a viable area of research with regard to teaching writing skills to students with and without disabilities (Hooper, et al., 2002). Despite twenty years of research, it was not until 2003 that the National Commission on Writing called for reform with regard to how writing was being taught in

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LAURA BAYLOT CASEY, ROBERT L. WILLIAMSON, THOMAS BLACK, and CORT CASEY

U.S. schools. The commission acknowledged that teachers typically received minimal instruction on teaching writing skills, and only a few states required specific courses to obtain certification in the teaching of writing. The limited number of course offerings led to many teachers not being adequately prepared to teach students appropriate skills and techniques related to becoming strong writers. Kiuhara, Graham, and Hawken (2009) conducted a national survey, which indicated that 71% of high school teachers reported receiving no preparation or minimal preparation to teach writing during their college teacher preparation program. Within the same study, almost half reported that their in-service trainings related to teaching writing were inadequate. Thus, there remains a need for increased attention on how to effectively teach writing skills during teacher preparation programs and/or at teacher in-service trainings.

At the secondary level, writing skills evolve from simply acquiring and displaying basic writing skills to creating original and expository essays. Further, at the secondary level, students are expected to be able to synthesize research in order to create meaningful connections from multiple sources of literature. This change in the nature of writing between primary and secondary educational settings often results in the adolescent struggling as they often experience more difficulties with regard to writing tasks as compared to those they experienced within their primary schools (Fitzgerald & Shanahan 2000; Graham & Perrin, 2007). Successful transition from the writing expectations of primary grades to that required within the secondary school environment may require direct instruction from the classroom teacher. Not only might this be a trying time for many adolescents as they progress to the next stage of writing, but it may also represent a trying time for teachers as they find themselves in a high school class of many students who are in need of personal writing instruction at varying levels. In other words, the heterogeneous classroom leaves the inadequately prepared secondary English teacher faced with the daunting task of teaching writing skills that he or she may not be adequately trained to teach. The implications of an underprepared teacher may become multiplied in an underperforming school, a school with limited resources, or a school rich with cultural, linguistic or ability diversity.

The goals of this manuscript were to analyze survey responses provided by current secondary English educators in an effort to target classroom strategies that best assist such teachers to teach writing to students within their secondary classrooms. Researchers targeted English teachers due to the emphasis placed on writing instruction within that content area.

MethodParticipants

Five hundred and eleven secondary English teachers from across the United States responded to a survey posted on the Internet. Participation in the survey was voluntary. The majority of the respondents were female (70%). Furthermore, the majority reported having a Bachelor’s degree (84%) with at least 6 years of teaching experience (89%). Table 1 outlines the participant information in more detail.

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Table 1

Mean Years of Teaching Experience, Degree, and Gender of Teacher Participants

Degree (n) Gender (n) Years of Teaching Experience N BS MS MS +hours M F*

1-5 178 153 23 2 12 66

6-10 212 189 17 6 31 181

11-15 109 82 19 8 58 101

16 or more 12 6 5 1 52 10

Total 511 430 64 17 153 474

*2008 UNICEF Education Statistics for the United States reports in 2005, 88.6 % of teachers in primary schools and 62.5% of teachers in secondary schools nationwide were female

Instrument

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (Sec. 602 (3) (A) (i), which is public law signed in under President Bush (Pub. L. 108-446), outlines the range of exceptionalities eligible for special education services. Categories of exceptionality include students with learning disabilities (LD); emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD); autism spectrum disorders (ASD); mental retardation (MR); speech or language impairments (SL); hearing impairments (HI); visual impairments (VI); orthopedic impairments (OI); other health impairments (OHI) which generally includes students with attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and traumatic brain injury (TBI; U.S. Department of Education, 2005).) (IDEA 2004, Sec. 602 (3) (A) (i)).

Research Questions

Survey questions posed for this study were based on these IDEA 2004 disability categories. Survey items allowed respondents to indicate agreement or disagreement with posed statements and the survey was available through an online survey provider over a six-month period. The survey included items relevant to answering the primary research

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question: “Which disability category, according to IDEA, did respondents perceive that they struggled with the most in terms of teaching writing?” In an effort to answer this research question, the survey utilized the IDEA categories and paired each category with the introductory phrase, “ I struggle teaching children diagnosed with..…””. (See Table 2)

Table 2

Teachers’ Current Needs Based on IDEA’s Disability Categories

Item Agree Disagreen % n %

___ I struggle teaching children diagnosed with autism to write 435 85.2 76 14.8effectively in my inclusiveclassroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with deafness-blindness to write 14 2.8 497 97.2effectively in my inclusive classroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed as deaf to write 25 4.9 486 95.1effectively in myinclusive classroom.

I struggle teaching childrendiagnosed with emotional disturbance 368 72.1 143 27.9to write effectively in my inclusiveclassroom

I struggle teaching childrendiagnosed with hearing impairment 51 10.0 460 90.0to write effectively in my inclusiveclassroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with mental retardation 37 7.2 474 92.8 to write effectively in my inclusive classroom.

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I struggle teaching children diagnosed with multiple disabilities to write effectively in my inclusive 43 8.5 468 91.5classroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with orthopedic impairment 53 10.3 458 89.7to write effectively in my inclusive classroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with other health impairment including ADHD to write 352 68.9 159 31.1effectively in my inclusiveclassroom

I struggle teaching children diagnosed 246 48 265 52with specific learning disabilities to write effectively in my inclusive classroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with speech and language 230 45 281 55impairments to write effectively in my inclusive classroom

I struggle teaching childrendiagnosed with traumatic brain injury to write effectively in my inclusive 27 5.2 484 94.8 classroom.

I struggle teaching children diagnosed with visual impairment 63 12.4 448 87.6to write effectively in my inclusive classroom.__________________________________________________________________________

Results

Based on the survey, the majority of respondents reported struggling with students with autism (85.2%); emotional / behavioral disorders (72.1%); and other health

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impairments (e.g., ADHD) (68.9%). Results were mixed with regard to teaching students with learning disabilities as well as speech and language impairments with 48% and 45% reporting struggling with these learners respectively. The majority of teachers reported that they did not struggle with teaching writing skills to students who were deaf (95.1%); deaf-blind (97.2%); with hearing impairments (90%); visual impairments (87.6%); orthopedic impairments (89.7%); mental retardation (92.8%); multiple disabilities (91.5%); or traumatic brain injury (94.8%, refer to table 2).

Discussion

The majority of the teachers surveyed indicated that they struggled to teach writing to students with three particular disabilities: autism; emotional / behavioral disorders; and ADHD. Therefore, in an effort to answer the needs expressed by the English teachers who responded to the survey, the remainder of this article provides general strategies for teaching writing within the secondary English classroom, as well as providing specific suggestions for written expression for students with disabilities, specifically the three categories cited as areas of need by the majority of respondents: other health impairments (primarily ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (including Asperger’s syndrome), and emotional / behavioral disorders.

General Strategies for Written Expression in the Inclusive Classroom

Graham, Harris, and Larsen (2001) list six principles for teachers to implement that can assist students within an inclusive classroom setting. They are as follows:

“…(… (a) provide effective writing instruction; (b) tailor writing instruction to meet the individual needs of children with LD; (c) intervene early, providing a coherent and sustained effort to improve the writing skills of children with LD; (d) expect that each child will learn to write; (e) identify and address academic and nonacademic roadblocks to writing and school success; and (f) employ technological tools that improve writing performance.” (p. 75). These authors stress the need to find balance between teaching methods, direct and

indirect learning opportunities, and differentiation of instruction. According to Graham et al. (2001), the teacher should vary his or her approach to teaching as it applies to content, process, and product. Some basic suggestions for writing include individualized instruction, such as knowing which children need more time, shortening tasks, and providing instructions using multiple modalities (verbal, visual, etc.). In addition to the above the general guidelines for supporting writing, there is a multi-stage strategy that has been well supported in the field of learning disabilities and backed by the Council for Exceptional Children, CEC, as being an empirically validated strategy for struggling writers. The strategy is known as the Self Regulated Strategy Development or SRSD (Harris, & Graham, 1992). This intervention focuses on three basic areas: writing instruction, self-monitoring, and self-efficacy and consists of six stages that assist from the beginning phase of planning to the final phase of revising. SRSD utilizes multiple mnemonic devices to assist the writer with the entire writing

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process, self-management, and self-confidence. In the text below, specific components of the SRSD are discussed within the context of studies that utilized SRSD to assist with written expression across a variety of populations.

Other Health Impaired: ADHD

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fourth edition text-revised (DSM-IV TR; APA, 2000), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is broken down into three subtypesthree subtypes: (a) ADHD, Combined Type: Hyperactive and Inattentive; (b) ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type; and (c) ADHD, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type. Children with ADHD often emit chronic, high-intensity behaviors (i.e., inattention and/or hyperactivity) that interfere with their academic progress. Also according to the DSM-IV TR, approximately 3-7% of school age children are diagnosed with ADHD. According to the National Institute on Mental Health, approximately one-third of all children with ADHD also have learning disabilities (NIMH, 1999). Most students with ADHD are educated in a general education classroom. Children with ADHD typically find themselves in less restrictive settings than other special education categories, except speech and language impairments. Most general education classes contain one to three students diagnosed with ADHD, with some others exhibiting similar behavioral characteristics at the sub-clinical level (McLeskey, Rosenberg, & Westling, 2010). Thus, equipping the general education teacher with strategies to support the student with ADHD is critical to the success of all students rather than just those categorized under the IDEA defined other health impaired (OHI) label. When working with students diagnosed with ADHD in the classroom, some environmental manipulations may be necessary. For example, it is not recommended to seat a child who is easily distracted by a window, door, or high traffic area. Conversely, a study carrel may need to be created for the individual’s desk to assist that the student to focus.

There are several specific behavioral strategies that should be directly applied to the writing process. Behavioral strategies are an excellent choice for students exhibiting ADHD, since the hallmark characteristics are behavioral in nature. One strategy, known as task analysis, is helpful when directly applied to writing. Task analysis is the process of breaking down a complex behavior (a chain of simple behaviors that follow one another) into its component parts to make the task less cumbersome and more manageable. This allows small gains to be made and rewards to be given along the way (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). An example of a task analysis for writing would involve breaking down a paper into paragraphs, then into sentences, then into words.

Another behavioral technique, called chaining, has potential to also be successful with this population. Chaining is a technique used for children who have difficulty organizing things in an orderly sequence. There are two types of chaining: forward and backward. Forward chaining involves teaching the skill from the beginning or initial step in the sequence whereas backward chaining involves completing all but the last step and having the student complete the last step on their own (Cooper et al., Heron, & Heward, 2007). For example, forward chaining would be most appropriate in the acquisition phase of writing. For example, Tthe steps involved might include: (a) identify the target behavior (e.g., write a sentence); (b) task analyze the behavior to determine each individual step – identify nouns, verbs, adjectives; (c) teach and reinforce the initial step in the skill; (d)

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collect data on the acquisition of the skill and analyze it for mastery; (e) when the first step is mastered, teach and reinforce the second step in conjunction with the first step; and (f) as each successive step is mastered, add the next step in the skill series until the student is able to demonstrate the entire skill without adult support..

Backward chaining would also be appropriate to assist with the writing process. Backward chaining begins by identifying the pieces needed to complete the story. These include the main characters, the plot, the challenge, the resolution of the challenge, and the end of the story. To begin, the teacher performs all of the steps, except the last. Thus, the teacher writes the story, leaving off the end, and the student reads the story and completes the last step. Once the student is successful with this part, the teacher then completes all steps except the last two. This process continues until the student successfully works his or her way back to the beginning and is able to create a story from the beginning to the end.

A newrecent study found success, using self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), described described above, to improve the essay-writing abilities of students with ADHD (De La Paz, 2001). The strategy utilized two acronyms, PLAN and WRITE, to help students keep in mind their goals while writing. The steps are:

“(a) Pay attention to the prompt; (b) List main ideas; (c) Add supporting ideas; (d) Number your ideas; (e) Work from your plan to develop your thesis statement; (f) Remember your goals; (g) Include transition words; (h) Try to use different kinds of sentences, and (i) Exciting, interesting, $100,000 words.” (De La Paz, 2001, p.40)

. Students were taught these steps during classroom instruction, then wrote these acronyms, PLAN and WRITE, on their scratch paper while planning an essay. The length and complexity of their essays were found to improve significantly against the baseline data, and the improvement remained when tested four months after instruction had ceased.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of behavioral characteristics often involving impaired social interactions, impaired communication, and repetitive and stereotypical patterns of behavior that manifest before the age of three (APA, 2000). According to the Centerss for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), different in reference,, ASD has risen to 1 in every 88 American children. Also, according to McLeskey et al., Rosenberg, and Westling (2010), 27% percent of students with ASD spend 79% of the day in the general education classroom. McLeskey et al. also indicate that 44% of students with ASD spend 40% of the day in the general education classroom. These statistics reveal that ASD is prevalent in the inclusive classroom, with almost 50% of the students diagnosed with ASD spending close to half of their day in an inclusive setting.

With ASD being considered a spectrum disorder with varying degrees of symptoms, writing may come easily for some children diagnosed with ASD, while others may struggle. The primary concern here is with the inability to read social cues. Students with ASD, being very literal in interpretation, generally have a concrete outlook on the world and tend to exhibit undue attention to details. For example, the inability to read social cues

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Laura Casey, 10/23/13,

Fixed in references


plays a role in a child’s ability to write creatively, with a sense of humor, or in an abstract manner, which may stifle that type of writing process.

Being overly attentive to detail also contributes to the child with ASD being overly concerned with mechanics and unable to focus on the story line. Devoting time to the mechanics of writing halts the developmental progression required for fluent writing because the individual student has expended all of his mental effort focusing on the mechanics, while leaving very little cognitive energy for generating unique thoughts and prose. Graham (1982) lists several reasons why attending to the mechanics of writing may hinder the overall writing process and create a disruption in the planning process. cess. These include: These reasons include: (a) forgetting one's thoughts, (b) limited complexity, and (c) a decrease in motivation and self- confidence. (a) forgetting previously conceptualized intention and meaning; (b) developing a less coherent and complex written product, and (c) diminishing the student’s persistence, motivation, and sense of confidence related to writing (p. #.). Quote ?

The self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach described above has also been found in a recent study to be extremely effective for students with ASD (Asaro-Saddler & Saddler, 2010). The self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach described above has also been found in a recent study to be extremely effective for students with ASD (Asaro-Saddler & Saddler, 2010). In this study, the students’ writing improved in length, clarity, and complexity after being taught to plan and write stories using two mnemonic devices: “POW” and “WWW, What = 2; H = 2.” The acronym POW stands for “… (1) Pick my ideas; (2) Organize my notes and (3) Write and say more.” The acronym, WWW, What =2 and H=2, reminds the students to make notes addressing seven key questions: “…(1) Who are the main characters? (2) When does the story take place? (3) Where does the story take place? (4) What do the main characters want to do? (5) What happens when the main characters try to do it? (6) How does the story end? (7) How do the main characters feel? (Asaro-Saddler & Saddler, 2010, p.114). This approach ,to teaching writing has been used and shown to be successful with students with ASD, as demonstrated in the 2010 study, as well as other groups of students.

Student writing improved in length, clarity, and complexity after being taught to plan and write stories using two mnemonic devices: “POW” and “WWW; What = 2; How = 2.” Don’t understand this part. The first stands for “…(1) Pick my ideas; (2) Organize my notes; (3) Write and say more” (Asaro-Saddler & Saddler, 2010, ;p.114). The second reminds the students to make notes addressing seven key questions:

“…(1) Who are the main characters? (2) When does the story take place? (3) Where does the story take place? (4) What do the main characters want to do? (5) What happens when the main characters try to do it? (6) How does the story end? (7) How do the main characters feel? (Asaro-Saddler & Saddler, 2010, p.114)

. This approach, to teaching writing, has been used and shown to be successful with students with ASD as well as other groups of students.

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

IDEA 2004, Pub. L. 108-446, defines emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) as

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a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics that adversely affect a student’s educational performance over a long period of time and to a marked degree; (a) an inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; (b) an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; (c) inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; (d) a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; (e) a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. (U.S. Department of Education, 2005, section 300.8 of Pub. L. 108-446).

It is noted by McLeskey et al., Rosenberg, and Westling (2010) that only 0.69% of school-age children and 7.6% of students with a disability are identified with EBD, and 80% of students with EBD are educated in inclusive general education classes 40% of the day. While, statistically speaking, the prevalence of EBD is not alarmingly high, the associated features of the disability make this disorder a high priority to treat when it does occur.

Several research studies have been conducted in past years related to written expression and children with EBD. One reason for the increased attention to this category of individuals and writing is the connection between the therapeutic aspects of expressing oneself through prose. The use of dialogue journals has been found to improve writing and enhance positive social skills among students with EBD (Regan, Mastropieri, & Scruggs, 2005). In these journals, students respond to a prompt that has been written in their journal by the teacher. After school, the teacher responds to the student’s journal entry, asking for clarification and answering questions where necessary. The same topic can be explored for several days, and the ongoing dialogue between teacher and student can also touch on personal issues that the student may feel more comfortable writing about, rather than verbalizing. In addition to the emotional outlet this provides, the dialogue journal format has been found to improve attention to task, clarity, and length of writing samples.

Progress in assistive technology may also offer help for students with EBD (Parette, Crowley, & Wojcik, 2007). Many of these students can become overwhelmed and frustrated with the physical tasks necessary for writing. Assistive technology, such as talking word processors, graphic organizers, and speech recognition software, can help clear physical hurdles so that students can more easily focus on the flow of their ideas (Parette et al., 2007). Talking word processors allow the student to hear what is being typed as he progresses, which can help increase word count. Computer-based graphic organizers can be a great drafting tool for helping students organize their ideas and clarify the relationships between their points. The frustrations of typing or writing can be greatly minimized by using speech recognition software in combination with a word processor. Finally, self-regulated strategy development, SRSD, as described above in the section on ADHD and referenced in the ASD section, has also been found very effective for students with EBD (Mastropieri et al., 2009).

Additional Assistance

Even with all of the above strategies in place, some students may still struggle with a markedly limited vocabulary, errors in tense, difficulty recalling words or producing sentences with developmentally appropriate length or complexity, general difficulty

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expressing ideas, and difficulty understanding words, sentences, or specific types of words. When this occurs, there are more strategies to help, such as focusing on vocabulary enhancement, syntax, word maps, self-monitoring, and goal setting. Suggestions for increasing vocabulary can be as simple as having the student find new words in the newspaper, using flash cards, making semantic webs, or using a word wall (Reutzel & Cooter, 2007). Some additional online references on written expression and/or teaching written expression to individuals with exceptionalities include the following: (a) http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu, (b)http://interventioncentral.org, (c)www.ldonline.org, and (d) http://www.creative-writingsolutions.com.

Future Research/Limitations

One primary limitation is that the participants provided limited demographic information. Therefore, a breakdown based on region or school setting (urban/rural, size of school/district) could not be analyzed. This information could have provided insight into regional or district- related concerns unique to any specific location. Future research may investigate region as an independent variable. A second limitation was that the survey consisted entirely of agree/disagree questions and did not utilize a Likert scale or any open-ended questions for qualitative analyses. The agree/disagree nature of the survey provided great results, but a Likert scale would have enabled a better breakdown of the responses.

Another limitation exists in the survey’s lack of an ability to understand the nature of the students each respondent had taught. For example, a respondent may have indicated that he or she did not struggle with teaching students with deaf-blindness perhaps because they never experienced a student with that particular disability. Future research should make available, a way for respondents to indicate the level of experience they had regarding each IDEA 2004 defined category of student disability and link this information to their answers as posed within the survey instrument used within this study.

Summary

Understanding the most effective way to impart writing instruction to a diverse classroom has proven to be a challenge for most teachers in the inclusive classroom. Understanding the individual needs of the children that make up each classroom and being able to diversify the instructional strategies for teaching written expression are pedagogical skills that need to become part of each secondary English teacher’s repertoire. As teachers embrace various strategies, from behavioral techniques like chaining and shaping to self-regulated strategy development and assistive technology, the instruction portion of writing will prove to be advantageous for both teachers and students as performance outcomes improve in class assignments, as well as on high stakes tests.

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Authors

Laura Baylot Casey, Ph.D, BCBA-D is Associate Professor of Special Education, College of Education, Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, University of Memphis.

Robert L. Williamson, Ed.D is Assistant Professor of Special Education, College of Education, Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, University of Memphis.

Thomas Black, Ph.D is Assistant Professor of Elementary and Special Education, Middle Tennessee State University.

Cort Casey, Ed.D is Assistant Professor of Education, Christian Brothers University.

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