As many parents, teachers, and children know, learning to write is hard work, work that’s easier said than done. But it can also be fun, liberating, and enormously satisfying. It can unlock potential. This past Monday, a motivating writing teacher, Jaclyn Pryzbylkowski (Voorhees NJ Middle School), discussed How Writing Instruction Can Help Children Achieve Their Potential.

Download from: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential

As one listener said, “I heard the show, that teacher should be teaching the special ed class for God’s sake; she was a joy to hear.”

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

(www.reading2008.com)

PsychologyToday.com wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.”

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words. And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Very often, writing is taught to struggling writers in very haphazard and unscientific ways. Such  instruction produces very little progress and often promotes student beliefs that for them writing is too difficult and will always be a struggle.

Fortunately, however, writing can be taught in systematic and scientifically-supported ways that promote progress and student beliefs that they can succeed. One such systematic and scientifically-supported method is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). SRSD removes the mystery of how to write. It shows students the steps they need to practice to succeed.

Conceptually, SRSD is easy to understand. The italicized steps below show how Karen Harris and Steve Graham conceptualized SRSD. As you read the sequence of steps, keep in mind that SRSD is a systematic, logical framework of instructional processes for teaching different writing strategies. Here’s the sequence:

Develop Background Knowledge: Teachers help struggling writers develop the background knowledge and skills they need to use the particular strategy SRSD will emphasize. For example, in her class, Mrs. Kierstin will emphasize the LIST strategy: List Ideas and Sequence Them. She’ll help her writers develop whatever knowledge they need to master LIST. In another class, Mrs. Alexis ignores LIST. Because her struggling writers differ from Mrs. Kierstin’s, she emphasizes the knowledge her struggling writers need to master POWERR: Pick my idea, Organize my notes, Write and say more, Edit my work, Read it aloud to myself, Revise it.

Discuss It: In discussions with her struggling writers, Mrs. Kierstin helps them understand the purposes and benefits of LIST. Mrs. Alexis does the same for POWERR.

Model It: Mrs. Kierstin shows her struggling writers how they should use LIST; similarly, Mrs. Alexis models POWERR. As the teachers model the different strategies, they speak aloud to all their struggling writers. Speaking aloud, Mrs. Alexis might say: “I need to pick an important idea. Perhaps, ‘The internet is dangerous for children.’ Or perhaps, ‘Children need to eat more whole grains.” Does one of these interest me? Which one would interest my audience? How can I get the information I need to support my belief?”

Memorize It: Mrs. Kierstin’s struggling writers need to memorize the steps in LIST. To help them, she gives them a pack of cards with the L-I-S-T steps written out and a cartoon illustrating each. Several times a day, for a week or so, she has them repeat and explain the steps and quiz one another on them; finally she asks them to repeat and explain the steps from memory. All this is done in ways her struggling writers enjoy. She does this until they repeat the steps perfectly and quickly. Every so often, she repeats the process. Mrs. Alexis does the same with POWERR.

Support It: Both teachers have their struggling writers practice the strategy: Mrs. Kierstin LIST; Mrs. Alexis POWERR. As they practice, their teachers give them feedback, such as “Meagan, I like the way you thought about your audience—what they’ve been worried about. That’s a good way to Pick an idea.” The teachers might also work with them, reinforce them for good effort and correctly using the strategy, and, if struggling writers are having difficulty with the strategy, model it again.

Let Them Work Independently: Mrs. Kierstin and Mrs. Alexis give their struggling writers lots of opportunities to use the strategies by themselves. The teachers create situations that the writers find motivating and which, with moderate effort on their part, will likely make them successful. Once in a while, if necessary, the teachers reintroduce and review the strategies.

SRSD is a framework of instructional processes for teachers to use. Of course, teachers should use it flexibly and adapt it to the situation, which includes the needs of the writers. So why should parents of struggling writers try to understand it?

Knowing about SRSD and similar methods can help you judge the appropriateness of your child’s current or proposed instruction. If his progress is poor, you should request an extensive writing evaluation that goes well beyond standardized testing, that examines personal, environmental, instructional, and methodological factors that may be blocking his progress. (See our post of April 12, 2010:  My Child Struggles With Writing. Can Typical Writing Evaluations Hurt Him?).

Methodological factors refer to the methods or strategies used to teach your child. To see if changing methods can boost his progress, you might ask, in your written referral, that the school’s evaluation use SRSD or a similar approach to teach him to write. By asking for this, you’re demonstrating knowledge, a source of influence, and you’re alerting the school to the fact that you want him taught by methods that research supports. You’re also alerting the school to the fact that for you, standardized tests alone will not suffice as a writing evaluation.

By asking that your child’s evaluation assess the effectiveness of SRSD or other well-researched approaches to writing instruction, you’re asking for trial or diagnostic teaching. As part of evaluations, diagnostic teaching is a well-respected strategy often used by university clinics. It will help you and the school assess the effectiveness of methods for your child. And to a large extent, that’s what a writing evaluation should do—identify what will work, what will solve your child’s problems.

The method used in diagnostic teaching need not be SRSD. We recommend, however, that it have several of SRSD’s characteristics: systematic, explicit, research-supported, and easy for teachers to implement. SRSD is systematic: the steps have a logical order. It’s explicit: strategies like LIST and POWERR can be illustrated and demonstrated. It’s supported by research: lots of studies in reputable academic journals have shown it’s effective. And finally, it’s teacher friendly: with training and support, many teachers have successfully used it and continue to enthusiastically and knowledgeably use it years after their training has ended.

If research and diagnostic teaching have shown that SRSD or a similar method will likely help your child, and he’s eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), we recommend that you, as a member of his Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team, propose that his IEP specify the research-based method. This aligns with IDEA, which states that each child’s program “must be based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable” (IDEA regulations, §300.320). Similarly, throughout the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), scientifically-based practices are stressed. Here’s one example: schools should use “effective methods and instructional strategies that are based on scientifically based research” (PL 107.110, Sec 1114).

But beware. No method is perfect. What works with one teacher may fail with another. What works in 2010 may fail in 2011. So be sure your child’s IEP states that the school will do three things—frequently: monitor progress, monitor progress, monitor progress. For much more information on monitoring your child’s IEP, you might read chapter 7 in Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com).

Resources

Santangelo, T., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2007). Self-Regulated Strategy Development: A validated model to support students who struggle with writing. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 5(1), 1-20. [Available from Learning Disabilities Worldwide, www.ldworldwide.org.]

Howard Margolis, Ed.D. © Reading2008 & Beyond www.reading2008.com

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan & Dr. Howard Margolis

Parents of struggling writers worry about their children’s struggle. They want to know, “How can I help my child?”

If your child struggles with writing, this post might help you and your child’s school identify the type of writing instruction your child needs. It will do this by first discussing critical but often ignored areas of diagnosis, then discussing a typical but inadequate diagnostic process that can do more harm than good, and finally suggesting actions you can take. A follow-up post will outline one effective, well-researched method for helping struggling writers improve their writing: Self-Regulated Strategy Development.

Important Areas of Diagnosis

Before designing a program to improve the writing of a struggling writer, parents, teachers, and, if the child is eligible for special education, his IEP or  Section 504 team, must know what the child won’t or can’t do that’s critical to becoming a successful writer. They need to ask and answer many questions, including these:

• Knowledge of Writing. Does the struggling writer understand what makes readers think one piece of writing is terrible and another excellent?  For example, does he understand why essay “A” is persuasive, essay “B” is not, why persuasive writing requires more than starting sentences with capitals, and what he must do to write a persuasive essay?
• Approach to Writing. Does the struggling writer just write down as much as he knows and then stop, or does he sculpt and continually refine and edit his writing so his audience finds it logical, coherent, relevant, interesting, informative, and easily understood?
• Advanced Planning. Does the struggling writer learn a great deal about his subject before writing about it, and does he then jot down and order the ideas he wants to discuss? Does he eliminate unnecessary ideas and provide support for the more important ones?
• Revision. Does the struggling writer do the three things that good writers do: revise, revise, and revise. As James Michener quipped, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” Good writers cut excess, pick stronger verbs and nouns, provide more specific information. At best, without lots of revising, students can produce a draft that demands revision.
• Transcription. Can the struggling writer easily put his thoughts on paper or on a computer screen? If not, what’s blocking him? Is it difficulty with handwriting, word processing, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, sentence structure, memory, attention, organization, monitoring of  progress? Do psychological factors, such as fear of errors and memories of failure and ridicule, block efforts at transcription?
• Self-efficacy and Persistence. Does the struggling writer have enough confidence or self-efficacy in his ability to write? Self-efficacy is related to confidence. It refers to the struggling writer’s belief that he can succeed on a specific task, like writing a letter to President Obama. To this, I typically add the phrase, with moderate effort. If a struggling writer believes he can’t succeed, or that success will require him to continually make extraordinary, herculean efforts, he’s likely to resist writing or quit at the first sign of difficulty. Writing often requires persistence, and he may not have the self-efficacy to persist.
• Motivation. Does the struggling writer have enough motivation to stick with writing, a task that is often hard, complex, and lonely? Does he have the motivation to stick with  a writing task that can take lots of time, focus, preparation, juggling, and a willingness to continually criticize his work and try to improve it.  Unless the outcome is important, unless the struggling writer expects writing to get him what he wants—praise from his teacher, smiles from  his parents, admiration from classmates and other readers, an opportunity to paint with words, the satisfaction of creativity, a sense of mastery, an opportunity to share his thoughts—he may put little, if any effort into it. After all, if something is difficult for us and the reward unlikely or worthless to us, how many of us would work hard at it?
• Interest. Topics that interest children hold their attention and engage them far more than topics in which they’re uninterested. Although this stands to reason, it’s often ignored. So, part of diagnosis must reasonably ask, What interests this child? What does he want to write about? To whom does he want to write? When writing about a topic of personal interest, does his writing improve? When writing about a topic of personal interest, do his writing problems evaporate or lessen?

A Typical But Inadequate Diagnostic Process

To diagnose writing difficulties, many schools limit diagnosis to the administration of one or two standardized tests and report their test scores in long, impressive-looking columns of statistics. Typically, this tells us that the struggling writer has a writing problem, and not much else. But we knew this before testing. And often, the statistics must be viewed with skepticism as the tests themselves are often very limited, and thus their statistics can easily mislead. They can lead to programs that ignore his major problems.

Diagnosis of writing problems by the quick administration of limited tests also ignores the need for a writing expert to observe the struggling writer in a variety of writing situations. Otherwise, neither the school nor you will know what your child did, did not do, or struggled with to produce his writing samples. Alone, the samples will not tell anyone if your child rushed carelessly through the tasks or struggled mightily to succeed until his eyes filled with tears. As Marjorie Lipson and Karen Wixson assert:

It is extremely difficult (perhaps impossible) to evaluate students’ control of the writing process by considering only final products. Evaluation of student control … requires that students be observed, over time, in a classroom that values process writing and encourages author development. (p. 358)

Actions

If your child struggles with writing, meet with school personnel to discuss his writing problems. Ask for specifics, including samples of his writing, with written explanations detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the samples. Then, ask for a comprehensive evaluation that addresses each area we  listed as an “important area of diagnosis” and that observes your child writing in a variety of situations, for a variety of purposes, such as writing to a friend or requesting information from his Congressional Representative. (Follow your oral requests with written ones.)

Once the evaluations have been completed and you’ve met with your child’s teachers and other school personnel to discuss the results and to design a program of interventions—in all areas of need—request a written plan for monitoring his progress. As part of the plan, ask for weekly samples of his work. Ask school personnel to annotate the samples so you can understand the degree to which they show progress or difficulty. Rubrics, which are lists of standards that teachers use to evaluate writing, can make this more precise and easier for your child’s teachers and you. Typically, they identify what the teacher and school consider the characteristics of quality writing. You can find sample rubrics on our website, under resources (www.reading2008.com).

If you find yourself disagreeing with school personnel, read chapters 8 and 9 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. Chapter 8 gives you strategies for Solving Conflicts; chapter 9 takes the mystery out of Special Education Evaluations and offers ideas for using them to help your child.

Resources

Santangelo, T., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2007). Self-Regulated Strategy Development: A validated model to support students who struggle with writing. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 5(1), 1-20. [Available from Learning Disabilities Worldwide, www.ldworldwide.org; the Important Areas of Diagnosis section is based on this article.]

Lipson, M. Y., & Wixson, K. K. (2009). Assessment and Instruction of Reading and Writing Difficulties: An Interactive Approach (4^th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Howard Margolis, Ed.D. © Reading2008 & Beyond   www.reading2008.com

How to Write a College/University Essay

Dr. Sandy Crux

Originally published on December 9th, 2009 and republished on February 6th, 2010, this article is directed to college and university students about how to write an essay. For research validation and all background information, refer to this permanent page. It is based on Chapter six of a book I wrote and is, therefore, copyright material, requiring a citation if used in a paper, book or presentation. What follows is the ten-step continuous feedback multi-sensory writing process.

(1) Preliminary Research: Be Prepared

• Collect sources.
• Write notes.
• Keep track of ideas and quotes.
• Keep source information, like book or journal titles, authors, publisher, location, page numbers.

This is the time you take down preliminary notes and quotes. You are at the university library or your computer and are ready to get down to business. Just relax and don’t make the mistake of writing too much. Just keep short notes on some key phrases and main points. When recording quotes or someone else’s ideas, make sure to record all the source information – such as the title of the book or journal article, author, publisher and date and page numbers. Otherwise, it takes much more time later trying to re-locate the same sources. Moreover, you must have those recorded to avoid any accusations of plagiarism.

The issue of references and bibliography will come up again, in components #5 & 9 but at this point, just make sure all the research sources are listed on a steno pad or post-it notes for inclusion as you write, as well as at the end of the writing process when you are editing the reference and/or bibliography pages.

Do not feel guilty if you cannot read everything. In fact, it is next to impossible to do so. So, read the table of contents and the index for key words and phrases. If a journal article, read the abstract and first paragraph and concluding statements — and recommendations if there are any.

(2) Get organized — Develop System to Compile

• Use post-it notes on blank paper, possibly colour coding key points.
• Use a point-form list or index cards.
• Use the Inspiration or similar software.
• Prioritize and sequence your main ideas.

Now that the preliminary research is done and you have your sources, you will need a format or strategy for keeping track of what you will need in order to write your essay. Put everything out in front of you on your desk or study carrel and then start a flowchart, a simple point-form list, or simply use a blank sheet of paper and a package of the small post-it notes.

Or, use software. As mentioned under “Background” above, there is an excellent program called “Inspiration” that will allow you to make lists, mind maps or flowcharts — and then automatically sequences your ideas for you. As well, here is an Internet site with every imaginable type of organizer.

Once the organizer is finished, to this point at least, sequence your ideas or points of argument. In other words, what point do you want to make first, second, third and so on.

(3) Determine the “So What” of Your Research

• Use the W5/H strategy to define the issue or problem.
• Why is the theory, issue, theme important or relevant?
• Where can the information be used or useful?
• What is the data suggesting?
• When is it important?
• Who will it affect?
• How can we gain in knowledge?

You have organized your data, but you have not yet figured out your focus or slant. This is the time many university students get off the track and this is what is different from a high school level essay. Specifically, the point of any academic paper is to analyze something or come to some kind of conclusion — not simply to parrot what others have written or what the professor has said in class. It’s the process where you define the problem, the point of the essay.

For example, lets say it’s a psychology course and the topic chosen is Piaget’s theory of child development.” You can do all your preliminary research on the features of that theory, such as adaptation, assimilation and accommodation, as well as the stages/transitions of cognitive development. But, none of that data is about the problem or the so-what.

The “so-what” is why you are writing about Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory – such as saying that without a firm understanding, an ECE or primary teacher would not be able to develop his or her curriculum effectively. In other words, their understanding of  Piagetian theory would guide their practice. And, therein lies the key focus.

(4) Translate/Rehearse What You Want To Write

• Explain your ideas to a study partner.
• Tape-record what you want to say.
• Listen to the tape. Re-record if necessary.
• If no tape-recorder, somehow translate your notes into spoken sentences.
• This is about rehearsing what it is you want to write about.

This is what is different about my model for writing an essay. Before you ever start to write, you need to somehow verbally rehearse and repeat out loud what it is you want to write about and why.

Now, the reason for this step is to get your own voice — literally and figuratively — into your material. There are a couple of ways you can do this. Work with a study partner somewhere private. Talk  into a tape-recorder so you can listen back to what you wrote and then be able to record again and again, as needed. Or call someone you know on the telephone or via the Internet and run your ideas by them. Ask them to remain silent until you are finished and then ask them if they have any questions. If they do, you will know you need to rethink your focus.

(5) Review Material Following Rehearsal

• Review your notes and sequence.
• Make any changes that are necessary.

Once this rehearsal is done, go back to your organizer and notes and revise what needs to be changed or updated. Then, put your organizer, list or sequence of post-it notes in front of you, even all across the top of the computer monitor if that works.

(6) Start Writing: The Introduction

• Simply start writing.
• Just get words down on the page.
• Explain what you are going to do in the paper.
• Review that you have covered all your points.

Using your sequence of ideas or points, write a complete and thorough introduction. Remember to include what the purpose of the paper is — again based on the format of your academic discipline (e.g., the social sciences have a different focus than the humanities or engineering).

Then, just start writing. Don’t try to make it perfect. Just get ideas down. You can always go back later and rewrite and revise. In fact, that is how writing works. Writing is a draft, editing and then more writing. In other words, writing is a process.

(7) Write the Body of the Essay

• Use the points in the introduction and start writing.
• Remember to use quotes just as defence, not as the main voice in the paper.
• Use examples to prove your points.
• Write freely, not worrying about number of paragraphs.
• Depending on the length expected, expand or reduce information as necessary.
• Do not simply pad. Make the information count.
• Remember to keep track of references and bibliography as you go.

Now, ignore formulas here. I am not going to tell you to write one or two paragraphs about each point. Professors will find that sort of technique disjointed. Moreover, don’t simply put in unrelated information simply to pad the word count.

Remember too that an essay is not a series of quotes put together with a few words. An essay is about your ideas and your interpretation of what other people have quoted. The quotes are simply to back up and defend what you have already said in your own words. Give examples of your ideas if that is appropriate. Do that for all your points.

How much you write and how many examples you provide will depend on the length of the essay expected. If the essay is 1000 words, two points will likely be enough. Whereas, 2500 words would require five or six points in depth.

Also remember, as listed in the bulleted points, make sure to add references and foot notes as you write (which, depending on the software you use, will then get added to your bibliography).

(8) Write the Summary & Conclusion

• Restate the introduction, but not word for word.
• Make sure you actually did what you said you were going to do.
• Finish with a concluding statement.

A summary is not a conclusion. A summary is a restatement of your introduction said in such a way that is confirms you have done what you said you would do. For example, “as stated at the start of this paper….”

The conclusion is a statement or two that says what you learned from this analysis or presentation. And, usually begins with: “Therefore…..” Which brings us back to the “so-what” question again. Every aspect of scholarship, no matter what the discipline, is done for a reason. Just remember, you are writing about some small part of some topic within that bank of knowledge.

(9) Verify References & Prepare Bibliography

• Have the format for your academic discipline handy.
• Make sure you know what to include.
• Edit for everything from capitals to correct punctuation.

It is assumed that you have been keeping track of your reference materials all along per point # 1 (Preliminary Research — Be Prepared), as well as when you were writing the body of the essay.  Because if you haven’t, the entire writing project will come to an abrupt halt.

Rather, at this stage, it should just be a question of you making sure all the references are in the essay in their proper place and/or footnotes appropriately listed, otherwise the software you are using won’t get the bibliography right.

To do this, you would have had to know at the start of this process how your academic discipline presents/structures references and/or a bibliograhy. For the social sciences, it is APA, for the humanities, it is the MLA Style Sheet or Turabian. (See this source for most styles).

My point here is that too often marks can be lost in this final area of a paper. So, just remember that it is as important as the rest of the paper.

(10) Revise & Edit

• Re-read the entire paper.
• Revise where necessary.
• Do a final spell & grammar check.

Now, it is time to go back and reread and rewrite. By the time you finish, you will know what you have forgotten. Add that information by all means, but make sure you also modify the introduction, body and summary, and, possibly, the conclusion. Don’t forget to do a final spell and grammar check, as well as re-check references and bibliography details.

In fact, if there is time, leave the paper for 24 hours and then go back and reread it. Chances are you’ll make further changes even at that point.

http://crux-of-the-matter.com/2010/01/14/how-to-write-an-essay/#more-14773

www.reading2008.com

Teachers. Teachers can save time, effort, and keystrokes by creating a master list of comments about student papers. To avoid typing a frequently used comment like this—“I sense that your ideas have considerable merit, but I’m not sure. The reason for my uncertainty is that your paragraphs are loaded with long abstract words rather than simple concrete ones.  Please rewrite your introduction, using short concrete words. You can find good examples of how to do this on pages 132-137 of your text. Let me know if you want to discuss this or need any help.”—teachers need to type it only once and connect it to a unique keyword that they create, such as xshortconcrete. Once they type the keyword, teachers can quickly personalize the comment.

Parents. Parents who need to frequently write their child’s school can also develop a master list of comments. To request a meeting with John’s teacher, a parent might e-mail his teacher this message: “Dear Mrs. McCormick, I’d like to meet with you to discuss John’s progress and his homework assignments. Can we meet next week, after school? If not, let me know when. Because I work at a physical therapy center in the morning, a late afternoon meeting is best. You can e-mail me at info@reading2008.com or call me at 111-000-5000. As always, thank you. Sincerely, Mrs. Piccolo.” A parent can frequently e-mail this entire message by typing the message once and connecting it to a unique keyword, such as xteachermeeting.

Students. Students must often retype headings and the like. By creating one unique keyword, they can save dozens, maybe hundreds of keystrokes. Here’s what the unique keyword xheading—a keyword of 8 strokes—produced for Emma: Emma Bronchick, P.S. 202, Grade 4, Mrs. Gordon, Room 2004, English Assignment.

Eight strokes produced 72 characters.

One Caution for Teachers and Parents. If you want children to use Breevy, first learn how to use it yourself. Become adept and comfortable with it. This should take only a few minutes. It will probably take longer for children with learning disabilities.

One Trick for Teachers and Parents. Identify the common spelling errors that a student inevitably makes. Make these errors into unique keywords in Breevy. If, for example, Ryan typically types wretin for written, make wretin a unique keyword. Then, when he types wretin in whatever software program he’s using, the screen will show written. You can teach him the correct spelling at a different time, when it doesn’t interfere with his flow of writing.

Two Additional Benefits. Breevy comes with a helpful spelling dictionary that automatically corrects common mistakes. It also allows you to create a unique word that starts a new program from within a currently running one. When I’m in Word and I want to add or subtract some numbers, I type xcalc and a calculator appears on the screen. This saves an amazing amount of time.

A Request. If you tried Breevy, please tell our readers if  you liked it, how you used it, and how it might help children, teachers, and parents. By sharing your thoughts, you might help lots of children.

You can get more information about Breevy at http://www.16software.com/breevy/

HM©Reading2008 & Beyond

Even if the members of your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team are extraordinarily kind, caring, and courteous, you might find them intimidating. After all, they know the rules, the language, and the system far better than you. This is their umpteenth IEP meeting, only your second. And even if they simplify their language, you may still find it mysterious, complex, and fast-paced. What’s a WISC-IV and a Woodcock-Johnson? What do they look like? How does memory for digits relate to word identification? What’s the difference between a norm-referenced test and an informal reading inventory? Why is this even important?

To minimize intimidation, we recommend that you take all or some of these steps well before the IEP meeting:

• Study the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA-2004), especially the sections that explain the requirements for IEPs and IEP meetings.
• Send the IEP Team any new information you have that identifies your child’s needs.
• Examine your child’s school records.
• Meet with a private expert to review all reports about your child and a copy of his school records.
• Develop a list of questions to ask the IEP Team.
• Develop a list of your child’s weaknesses and strengths.
• Request sufficient meeting time to fully discuss everything you want to discuss.
• Have a knowledgeable person accompany you to the meeting.
• Arrange to record the meeting on a digital audio recorder or arrange to have someone take notes.
• Prepare a list of statements that can reduce your anxiety and enhance the discussion.
• Plan to send the Team a summary of what it agreed to at the meeting as well as a list of unresolved issues and concerns.

This post will discuss the first five suggestions.The next post will discuss the rest.

Study the sections of IDEA-2004 that directly relate to IEPs and IEP meetings. Study the sections that tell you what the IEP should address; this tells you what to expect. For example, all IEPs must have a section that IDEA calls the child’s Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance. Thus, you should expect the Team to discuss your child’s current academic achievement: What is his instructional level for reading? What is his frustration level? Which phonic elements can he apply effortlessly? Which give him trouble. This section includes much more than academics. As Charles Fox, a special education attorney in Illinois, notes, “the IEP is about academics AND social, emotional, and functional outcomes.” What’s one quick way of convincing some Teams that Fox is right? Look at the title IDEA-2004 gives this part of the IEP: Academic Achievement and Functional Performance. By separating the two, IDEA-2004 makes clear that for students with disabilities, education is more than academics.

To quickly find these sections of IDEA-2004, go to our website (www.reading2008.com); under Resources, download Law-IDEA2004-FedRegister-Regs-2006-Aug14. Study sections §300.320 to §300.328, pages 46787 to 46791.

Send the IEP Team new information about your child’s needs. If you recently had your child evaluated by a private reading specialist, discuss the report with the specialist. Once you accurately and fully understand it, send a copy to the IEP Team. By sharing reports and understanding them, you’re likely to feel more confident and speak with greater authority. If possible, have your specialist attend the meeting in person, or at the very least, by phone. This too should boost your confidence and add importance to your report.

In writing, request that at the IEP meeting the Team discuss whatever you send them. Keep in mind that the Team must consider your private evaluations: “The IEP Team must consider … the results of the … most recent evaluation of the child …. If the parent … shares with the [school] an evaluation obtained at private expense, the results of the evaluation … must be considered by the [school]…” (34 CFR §300.324, §300.502).

Examine your child’s school records. If parents give the school adequate notice, they’re entitled to examine their child’s school records. Examine the records well before the meeting so you’re not surprised by anything in them and so you have time to discuss a copy with your expert.

Meet with a private expert to review all relevant information. This can dramatically increase your understanding and confidence. If your child has a reading problem, meet with a reading specialist; if his problems are emotional, a school psychologist; if they’re language based, a speech and language specialist. One expert can often cover several areas.

Develop a list of questions to ask the IEP Team. After studying IDEA-2004, examining your child’s records, and meeting with your expert, write down whatever questions you need to ask the Team. Make the questions relevant; stress questions likely to affect your child’s program and progress. Before the meeting, send your questions to the Team’s case manager with a note requesting that the Team discuss the questions at the meeting.

Together, these five steps should minimize the mystery and fear surrounding IEPs and IEP meetings. By helping you to better understand the IEP process, your child’s needs, and the law, they should increase your confidence. Much of this is discussed in greater detail in our book, Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. Our next post will discuss six more ways to minimize intimidation and increase your confidence and effectivness.

References for Parts 1 and 2

34 CFR, Parts 300 and 301 (Rules and Regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004).

Fox, C. P., Esq., (http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home).

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Many teachers and psychologists have complained that students who do not complete their written assignments are not motivated. However, teaching, clinical, and research experiences suggest otherwise—many of these students are highly motivated to write but emotionally traumatized that others cannot read their writing or they cannot write adequately to succeed in school…. Many of these children also suffer from emotional problems (e.g., impaired self-esteem, self-efficacy, or heightened anxiety) due to undiagnosed and untreated dysgraphia, rather than emotional or motivational problems causing incomplete work. After continually failing to keep up with the written assignments or written tests at school, some children with dysgraphia will begin to avoid written work and are described as writing avoidant…. The important point is that emotional problems are often the consequence, not the cause, of writing disabilities. Gifted children with intellectual talent often have significant handwriting and/ or spelling disabilities that compromise their ability to express their ideas in writing and complete written assignments even though they excel at learning with oral language. (Teaching Students with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: Lessons from Teaching and Science, Paul H. Brookes Publishing, p. 131, references omitted; italics added)

Much of what Berninger and Wolf say about writing applies to reading and other subjects. For more information about motivation, a topic that many schools ignore, see our posts of June 4^th and June 7^th. For information on diagnosing composition problems (not handwriting), see  our posts of June 2^nd and June 19^th.

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A common reason for their continued difficulty is the failure of their schools to adequately diagnose their writing problems. Instead, their schools limit diagnosis to grade equivalents from standardized tests — “Sawyer’s grade equivalent for writing was 2.9; he’s three years behind.” This statement fails to identify the current causes of Sawyer’s problems. It fails to tell his teachers and parents what he isn’t doing or can’t do that’s causing his writing problems. In all likelihood, instruction that’s built on an inadequate understanding of Sawyer’s problems will be inadequate. It will likely ignore or give short shrift to those parts of the writing process that should be stressed for Sawyer.

If your child struggles with writing, it’s essential to examine how he meets the demands of writing. In an excellent summary of how to teach writing to struggling writers, Tanya Santangelo, Karen R. Harris, and Steve Graham describe the demands. They assert that for a struggling writer to become a skilled writer, he must:

• Develop extensive knowledge of writing. Skilled writers know that good writing requires far more than good penmanship and knowledge of grammar and spelling. It must logically communicate important content in ways that interest its audience.
• Plan, compose, evaluate, and revise what he writes. Skilled writing is involved and systematic. It takes planning, writing, and evaluating and revising drafts — in other words, commitment — to write something that’s clear, focused, relevant, engaging, and concise. As Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician and physicist, quipped, “This letter [is] longer than usual because I had not the time to make it shorter.”
• Plan carefully what he will write — before writing. “Prior to creating a draft, skilled writers devote significant … time to planning and developing goals [to] … guide what they say and do” (p. 4).
• Generate substantial content about his topic. “During the initial phases of writing, skilled writers frequently generate more content than they need and then eliminate superfluous ideas or information through the revision process” (p. 4). Without substantial content, readers will complain, “What a waste of time. I didn’t learn anything.”
• Revise his drafts. Revising requires writers to critically analyze what they’ve written, with an eye to cutting unneeded words, adding information, and rewriting and reorganizing sentences and paragraphs. This takes considerable thought and time. Writers who don’t revise their work or do so superficially produce poor work.
• Have good transcription skills. These include spelling, capitalization, punctuation, handwriting, and, in some cases, word processing skills.
• Persist, persist, and persist. Good writing is difficult, systematic, and time consuming. It requires students to think about what they want to write, gather and organize information, compose drafts, revise them, and solve problems of organization and phrasing that can seem insurmountable. This requires persistence — a quality of skilled writers.

If your child struggles with writing, ask the school personnel responsible for his program to assess his needs in all the facets of writing listed above. This is needed to determine the kind of writing instruction he needs.

If you would like a good understanding of how to teach writing to struggling writers, I encourage you to study Santangelo, Harris, and Graham’s article. If you think your child’s teachers would like to read it, give them a copy. But be careful not to insist that they follow its advice. Insisting is likely to backfire.

Reference. Santangelo, T., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2007). Self-Regulated Strategy Development: A validated model to support students who struggle with writing. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 5(1), 1-20. [Available from Learning Disabilities Worldwide, www.ldworldwide.org.]

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