The article describes an approach by which word processing helps to solve some of the writing problems of learning disabled students. Aspects considered include prewriting, drafting, revising, and completing the story. (CL)

Discusses four stages through which writers pass during prewriting. Offers ways of helping students pass through these stages so that they can begin to organize their writing more effectively. (RL)

This study explored the influences of prewriting activities on the writing quality of male and female students with varying academic achievement across four grade levels. Participants were public school students in grades 4, 6, 9, and 11. At each grade level, students were assigned to one of two groups: writing with prewriting activities or…

The teaching of writing as a process can be accomplished through an eight-step "prewriting process" approach. The eight steps include planning, organizing, establishing assumptions and premises, obtaining data, evaluating data, electing a course of action, control, and implementation. In the planning stage, students are asked to complete an…

In addition to enabling students to discover ideas and providing them with raw materials that they can shape into polished drafts, free writing can give students experience, thus making them more comfortable with writing. Beginning each class with free writing activities on topics of enough interest that they distract reluctant writers from…

The word processor helps teachers to use the process approach to writing. In using the word processor, the teacher can create tasks on the computer to assist students during each step of the writing process, i.e., prewriting or idea processing, drafting or writing, revising/rewriting or editing, and the publishing process or communicating. Ideas…

Written language skills are an important goal within programs of language development for students with mental disabilities. Specific facets should be considered in the teaching of writing, such as drawing on previous linguistic experiences, viewing writing as both process and product, emphasizing writing as a form of communication, tying writing…

The Thinking/Writing model integrates principles of learning theory, composing process research, and practical writing strategies. It is developed to motivate teachers to use writing as a tool for promoting cognitive growth. (MD)

Describes how students who are learning disabled can improve their writing skills through physical movement and manipulating visuals. Describes how movement draws on kinesthetic intelligence and manipulatives draw on spatial intelligence to help students understand language structures in nonverbal ways that may be more intuitive than verbal…

One of nine brief guides for special educators on using computer technology, this guide focuses on the use of computers to improve skills and attitudes in writing instruction. Pre-writing tools such as group brainstorming, story webs, free-writing, journal entries, and prewriting guides help generate ideas and can be carried out either on or off…

Intended to show teachers how their approaches to the teaching of writing reflect a particular area of research and to show researchers how the intuitions of teachers reflect research findings, the articles in this book are classified according to three approaches to writing: processing, distancing, and modeling. After an introductory essay that…

This article reviews recent projects using text structures and the writing process as frameworks to guide the composition dialogue. Learning-disabled students' attitudes toward writing as a required skill rather than a means of expression are confronted in the emphasis on dialogue. Several blank forms for organizing prewriting thoughts are…

For use by teachers in helping students become better writers, this booklet describes and illustrates cognitive mapping, a prewriting technique that helps students combine their verbal and visual skills in order to produce ideas and to plan stories, plays, reports, or essays. The first section of the booklet discusses the interrelations between…

Because graduating high school seniors and college freshmen have difficulty writing persuasive arguments, elementary and secondary school writing curricula must teach students how to create a persuasive argument by producing evidence or support for their claims. One strategy for teaching persuasive writing that has proven to be successful is a…

Drawing on the experiences of teachers of writing in elementary through junior high schools, the teaching strategies presented in this collection are grouped into four sections: prewriting, drafting, editing and publishing, and systems. Topics covered in the prewriting section include listening skills; thinking, speaking, and writing;…