9781557666734: The Writing Lab Approach to Language Instruction and Intervention
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1557666733 ISBN 13: 9781557666734
Publisher: Brookes Publishing, 2003

Synopsis

This guidebook gives educators an exciting new approach to improving language and writing skills for all students. Developed through a decade of work with elementary and middle school children, the Writing Lab Approach uses computer-supported activities to encourage student progress in each stage of the writing process, from organizing to editing. The book focuses on three key components — writing process instruction, computer supports, and inclusive practices — and gives readers a primer on how children develop proficiency with language, a complete guide to setting up a writing lab, a discussion of software features and programs, instructions on using scaffolding to respond to individual needs, and an assessment tool the authors developed to analyze student writing samples. This book is an essential tool for helping all children, including English language learners and students with learning disabilities, become skillful writers and communicators.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author


Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and former Director of the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at Western Michigan University. She is author of the book Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence, and first author of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS), as well as editor-in-chief of the journal, Topics in Language Disorders. Dr. Nelson's research and publications focus on curriculum-based language and literacy assessment and intervention.



Christine M. Bahr, Ph.D., ATP, received her bachelor's degree in special education from Fontbonne College in St. Louis, Missouri. Her master of science degree in educational administration and supervision is from Southern Illinois University, and her doctorate in special education and instructional systems technology is from Indiana University. Dr. Bahr began her professional career as a teacher of students with severe disabilities in St. Louis County Special School District. She was on the faculty of Western Michigan University from 1988 to 1998. Her presentations and publications address uses of assistive technology as a means of promoting participation of students with special needs in the general education curriculum. She and her husband live in Terre Haute, Indiana. They enjoy attending their four children's sporting events and musical activities, camping, and visiting relatives from coast to coast.

Ms. Van Meter is Clinic Coordinator at the Charles Van Riper Language, Speech, and Hearing Clinic. Her bachelor's and master's degrees are from the University of Michigan. Ms. Van Meter has presented widely and is co-author of a number of articles on language assessment and intervention in curriculum-based contexts. She began her professional career in the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. She has been affiliated with Western Michigan University since 1992. Ms. Van Meter, her husband, and their two daughters live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They enjoy swimming, traveling, hiking, and entertaining each other with stories.

Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch, Ed.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Her bachelor of arts degree is from the University of Illinois, and her master of arts degree and doctorate in education degrees are from Western Michigan University. Dr. Kinnucan-Welsch has published and presented extensively on professional development of practicing teachers, particularly in the area of early literacy instruction. She began her career as a Title I Reading Specialist and is currently working with Literacy Specialists in a statewide literacy professional development initiative in Ohio. She has been at the University of Dayton since 1997. Dr. Kinnucan-Welsch lives in Springboro, Ohio, and enjoys spending time in Michigan and Ohio with her four grown children, gardening, and traveling.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from chapter 1 The Writing Lab Approach to Language Instruction and Intervention, by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Christine Bahr, Ph.D., & Adelia Van Meter, M.S., CCC-SLP, with contributions by Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch, Ed.D.

Copyright © 2004 Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Overview of the Writing Lab Approach

Some children breeze through school, communicating effectively and learning to read and write on schedule. Others struggle. Many students who struggle with school do so because of inadequate language abilities or abilities that are mismatched to the language demands of schooling. In this chapter, we introduce the writing lab approach as a method for helping all students develop their language and communication abilities to become more successful at school. Readers should note that writing lab approach is not capitalized. This is not an approach that requires abandoning all else, carving out a part of preexisting curriculum to make room for the writing lab, and following a set of procedures step by step. Rather, it is a way for general educators and special service providers to work together within the existing curriculum to address their mutual goals and help all of their students become literate and acquire communicative competence.

This chapter provides an overview of the writing lab approach and describes the BACKDROP principles on which collaborative teams base their plans and daily decisions as they implement the approach. These values and principles form the essence of the approach and make it flexible and adaptable to a variety of instructional contexts.

COMMUNICATION ABILITY AND CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION

Education both depends on and teaches communication. Students whose language skills support their learning come to the classroom with major advantages. Written language proficiency is a direct goal of schooling, particularly of the language arts areas of reading and writing. Spoken language also is a powerful force in determining a student's school and social success. Most of the activities of schooling are based on an implicit assumption that children come to school knowing spoken language and that they will be able to use that language to learn other things. Students with inadequate spoken language abilities are at risk for educational underachievement and academic failure.

Students with inadequate communication abilities and special education needs also are at risk for lower acceptance by their peers. It is ironic that students who have difficulty fitting in with their classmates are the ones who are often pulled out to work on the skills that are problematic for them. Pulling students with disabilities out of the classroom for decontextualized "fixing" exercises does little to address their isolation from the core learning enterprise. They miss opportunities to learn from and to interact with their fellow students. Equally important, their fellow students miss opportunities to learn from them. It also is not acceptable to keep students with disabilities included full time in general education experiences without special supports. Students who are present but not intellectually engaged reap few advantages from being in the classroom. The wide variety of students who can benefit from a writing lab approach is described in Chapter 3.

WHY USE THE WRITING LAB APPROACH?

Many researchers have noticed that sustained writing rarely occurs in general education classrooms; they have lamented its absence and have recommended that student authors emulate real authors (Cooper & Odell, 1977; Emig, 1971, 1977). That is, students who are learning to write should be real authors writing about their own ideas for an authentic audience (Hayes & Flower, 1980). A number of educators have subsequently interpreted the writing process for students in general education (Atwell, 1987; Calkins, 1983, 1990, 1994; Graves, 1983, 1994; Muschla, 1993) and special education (Bos, 1988; Erickson & Koppenhaver, 1995; Harris & Graham, 1996; Isaacson, 1989; MacArthur, Schwartz, & Graham, 1991a, 1991b; Mather & Roberts, 1995).

Writing process instruction now is a frequent feature of general education classrooms. The concept of a writers& workshop evokes for many educators a picture of students busy at their desks and/or computer stations, periodically communicating with peers and teachers about how well they are meeting their personal authorship goals. Teachers move about the room to help students by scaffolding their written and spoken language production. Students have a sense of ownership and goal direction as they work on individual projects within activities that are structured to a greater or lesser extent by their teachers. This picture, however, does not always include students with language-learning disabilities and other special education needs. Traditionally, such students have been pulled out of their classrooms, especially during language arts instruction, to receive language intervention services in separate speech-language therapy rooms and special education classrooms.

The frequent use of writing process instruction by general education teachers coincides with the widespread implementation of national- and state-level high-stakes testing. Many statewide tests, in fact, use a focus on writing processes and written language products to measure student progress and evaluate schools and school systems. Testing practices, although sometimes controversial, contribute to teachers' motivations to modify their classroom practices and to devote more planning and instructional time to helping all students acquire higher-level written language and critical thinking skills.

Along with forces influencing general education teachers toward more frequent use of writing process instruction, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17) indicated for the first time that special education instruction must be designed to keep students with disabilities active in the general education curriculum. That is, a student's IEP must include "a statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term objectives, related to meeting the child's needs that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and progress in the general curriculum" (Sec. 614[a][1][A]; italics added).

Even prior to the implementation of IDEA 1997, special educators and SLPs had been urged to get "out of the broom closet and into the classroom" (Simon, 1987) and to be more relevant to their students' classroom- and curriculum-based needs (e.g., Deno, 1989; Merritt & Culatta, 1998; Nelson, 1989, 1990). Although special service providers share with parents the goal of making a difference in students' lives and helping students achieve meaningful outcomes that lead to school success, many remain uncertain about how to accomplish these goals.

The writing lab approach is designed to take advantage of the existing climate that values high levels of written language use and devotes classroom time to writing and small group interactions. It makes no sense to provide classroom-based service delivery if it means that special service providers serve primarily as classroom aides standing at the back of the classroom, participating with students only intermittently, while teachers lecture at the front. In contrast, the writing lab approach offers many opportunities for individualized work and small group activities, both in the classroom and in the computer lab, so that special educators and SLPs can work with students with disabilities in ways that help them become full members of their general education classes, learn better ways of interacting with their fellow students, and learn what their fellow students are learning.

The time is right for such an approach. Teachers are more welcoming than ever of classroom-based assistance if it can address existing goals and improve the written language abilities of all students. The writing lab approach is not an add-on or another curriculum for already stressed educators to implement. Rather, it provides opportunities for a team of educators, with parental support, to come together in a collaborative enterprise to address mutual goals.

WRITING PROCESS INSTRUCTION

Writing process instruction includes recursive writing processes, authentic writing projects, language targets, and learning components.

Recursive Writing Processes

In the context of writing process instruction, students are guided to reflect on where they are in the writing process and how well they are communicating to their audiences in writing. They learn to move deliberately through the recursive stages of the writing process, including planning, organizing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and presenting.

By focusing on writing processes and not just products, the writing lab approach encourages students to think of writing as a communicative event with a real audience of peers, parents, and others, not just an exercise that will be graded by teachers. Teachers also assume a nontraditional role. Rather than serving primarily to evaluate, correct, and grade, teachers facilitate, mentor, and collaborate with students. Teachers focus on helping students acquire new processes that will yield better products over time. The focus for students shifts from producing a transitory product for a grade to producing a published product that will be understood and appreciated by multiple readers. These characteristics are desirable features of a writing process approach whether it occurs within general or special education contexts — or both.

In this view, writing process instruction can vary along a continuum from mostly child centered to mostly teacher directed. We use the term writing lab to include both ends and many variations along the continuum. Essential features of writing process instruction in the writing lab approach include

  • Focus on writing processes at least as much as written products


  • Recursive movement among the processes of planning, organizing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and presenting


  • Degree of student choice — if not full choice of topic and genre, at least choice as to how ideas are expressed within a particular project framework


  • Clear sense of audience and of authorship as authentic communication


  • Scaffolding tailored for achieving individualized objectives with measurable outcomes within the general education curriculum

Others may prefer such terms as writers' workshop to convey a similarly constructed set of learning experiences. Writers' workshops, however, often carry connotations of students beginning with free writing and having full control over topic, genre, and when and how they publish (Atwell, 1987; Calkins, 1986, 1994; Graves, 1983, 1994). In other words, they are completely student centered. Although the writing lab concept is compatible with writers' workshops and thrives in classrooms of teachers who have been trained to use a writers' workshop approach, it also can be introduced in classrooms in which teachers are worried about losing time for addressing the teacher-directed aspects of the curriculum.

In any case, the environment associated with writers' workshops should be encouraged. It involves establishing a classroom culture in which authors

  • Choose their own topics


  • Write for extended periods of time on the same piece


  • Focus first on expressing their ideas and later on correctness — all for the sake of communicative effectiveness


  • Engage in peer editing within a community of authors


  • Reflect on uses of language to convey literal meanings but also to express ideas, communicate feelings, and trigger responses in readers


  • Write for real audiences, including teachers, peers, and others


  • Reflect on whether their language accomplishes its intended purposes


  • Gain increasing control over how to allocate their time and other author choices


  • Decide how long to work on a piece and when it is done


  • Anticipate publication and participate in deciding how to format their documents

All of these elements, including those of choice and ownership, are valued and encompassed within our broader definition of writing lab. Although writing lab projects may have fewer degrees of choice in order to be consistent with a school's general education curriculum specifications, they still involve choice. For example, when a school's curriculum dictates completion dates for the production of a portfolio of poetry or a science fair project, students still can select their own topics and make choices about how to proceed.

Authentic Writing Projects

The two major factors that make writing projects authentic are purpose and audience. It is important for teams to build a sense among students that they are working on their own projects for real communicative purposes rather than completing assignments for a grade.

Encouraging student choice and ownership does not necessarily mean that students should exercise complete free choice in deciding what kind of projects they will work on. The writing lab approach is designed to be compatible with general education in the broad sense. All aspects of the curriculum present opportunities to work on authentic writing projects, and a degree of student choice can be built into any of them. Activities can be planned to further the objectives of the language arts curriculum but also those of science and social studies. Stories, reports, essays, letters, poems, and other discourse genre all present language-learning and communication opportunities.

Section I touches on the language demands and opportunities associated with varied genres (Chapter 2), strengths and difficulties experienced by students with disabilities in working with varied discourse genres (Chapter 3), suggestions for deciding on genres and planning projects (Chapter 4), scaffolding techniques for developing self-regulation and independence as authors (Chapter 5), and scaffolding techniques for encouraging development within varied genres (Chapter 6). In Section III, Chapter 13 addresses the relationship-building aspects of helping students discover the joys of authentic communication for an appreciative audience of their instructors, parents, and peers.

Language Targets

Chapter 2 introduces language targets at the levels of discourse, sentences, words, writing conventions, and spoken communication. Chapter 2 also relates language targets to language systems that children generally learn naturally, but which may require specialized instruction for students with disabilities. It provides a primer for the five systems generally used by language specialists to characterize language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. It also shows how to capitalize on the reciprocal relationships between spoken and written language to help students improve their skills across modalities and contexts. Chapter 6 describes scaffolding techniques for all levels of language targets.

In Section III, Chapter 15 describes individualized assessment techniques for analyzing probe samples and establishing individualized language targets. Chapter 16 elaborates on goal setting and shows how the writing lab approach can produce change among the language targets for individual students. Chapter 17 provides evidence from stories of change and group outcome data that the approach is effective.

Learning Components

The learning activities of the writing lab approach are conducted with students in general and special education classrooms working side by side at their desks or computer stations, with adults stopping by and helping them to reflect on their written language in order to improve it. Students with special education needs are included in all writing lab activities (a topic covered more fully in Chapter 13). Although these students may receive relatively more attention from their special service providers, students should not have adult instructors or assistants constantly hovering over them or they will not develop independent skills to carry over to other times and places.

Author chair, peer conferencing, computers, and joint reflection on drafted language can enhance language learning in the school-age years for learners with diverse abilities. Author chair is an activity where one student sits in front of the class to share his or her work, and peers have an opportunity to provide feedback on the work. Peer conferencing involves students exchanging their work and asking one another questions about areas that can be clarified. Students use computers to help them choose topics and organize their ideas, type in their work, add graphics or sounds, and print out their finished products. Joint reflection involves the teacher helping the student to evaluate the work, but the student decides what changes to make.

Although individualized needs may vary, all students share the need for approval of their ideas and guidance for growth. The computer-supported writing process fosters change for all students because it provides much-needed approval while challenging students in an individualized and strategic way. The outcome of the writing lab approach is that a child has a set of integrated cognitive, linguistic, and social skills that transfer readily to other academic and communicative contexts. Writing lab activities foster growth in spoken language for social interaction purposes, contribute to written language acquisition, and emphasize reciprocal spoken—written language relationships.

Group minilessons, for example, develop specific aspects of written and spoken language use. Author groups and peer conferencing work on spoken and written language communication skills. Author chair and other presentation experiences develop reading skills and self-esteem for student authors and listening, commenting, and questioning skills for student audience members.

Author notebooks are an important activity in the writing lab approach. Students create notebooks that include lab schedules and other organizational supports, as well as group minilesson handouts and individualized minilesson pages. The group minilesson handouts serve as print-based guides for building independent strategy use, and the individualized minilesson pages support personalized practice and review of targeted written and spoken language patterns. Students also store their drafts of works in progress in their author notebooks. These drafts are dated to show change and used in author groups for making handwritten edits. Conferencing records, completed with students to help them internalize stages of the writing process and to develop their skills for planning and evaluating their work, also are stored in the author notebook.

Early in the writing lab process, teachers negotiate with students to write classroom and individualized goals and objectives using "kid language" to assist students in developing personal ownership for instructional targets. A copy of these goals and objectives is included in the author notebook.

The writing lab approach has many classroom organizational supports, including

  • Predictable routines, with alternatives for students at varying stages of the process, aimed at increasing independence and time on task


  • Extended time to write, with at least 2–3 full hours per week devoted to the process


  • Tools for writing and illustrating one's work, both computer supported and otherwise


  • Posted references and other resources, including word walls and other environmental supports for student authors

Other features of the writing lab approach include computer software supports for all stages of the writing process, along with instructional strategies for helping students learn how to use them and design modifications for making less than optimal computer availability conditions work (topics covered in Section II). In addition, general and special education teachers, SLPs, paraprofessionals, and volunteers (e.g., parents, higher grade-level schoolmates, university students, community members) work as an interdisciplinary team on collaborative goals.

Excerpted from chapter 1 The Writing Lab Approach to Language Instruction and Intervention, by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Christine Bahr, Ph.D., & Adelia Van Meter, M.S., CCC-SLP, with contributions by Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch, Ed.D.

Copyright © 2004 Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Brookes Publishing
Publication date
2003
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1557666733
ISBN 13 
9781557666734
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
528