The ability to write is fundamental for learning and achievement across Grades K-12, performance in the workplace, continuing education, college, personal development, and addressing social justice. The majority of our students, however, are not capable writers. We have a body of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and best practices that can make a…

Just as composing a story, a report, or an argumentative essay is challenging for most students with LD, so it is challenging for teachers in inclusive settings to instruct them (Gillespie & Kiuhara, 2017; Grünke & Leonard Zabel, 2015). The articles in this issue of "Insights into Learning Disabilities" are geared towards special…

Writing is a necessary skill in our technological world. Many people have a mobile device that they use for e-mailing, social media, as an alarm clock to start the day, reading the news, searching for information, ordering food, managing transportation (e.g., monitoring traffic, accessing public transit), or for relaxing pursuits, such as watching…

Many students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle with the writing process. Technology has shown to be effective in supporting prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing of written products. This article explains the use of one technology-based graphic organizer with embedded…

Although it's been almost seven years since many states took the important step of elevating their academic standards by adopting the Common Core, teachers and administrators across the country still bemoan the lack of reliable information about which instructional materials are high-quality and best aligned to the new standards. One recent survey…

The Young Writers Program (YWP) is the latest writing workshop to be developed for the classroom. It challenges students to choose a topic and write a novel-length piece based on that topic, without worrying about spelling or grammar. While the foundation of this philosophy is solid, the support and structure of the Young Writers Program website…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) incorporates challenging literacy standards into middle grades and high school content areas within a variety of academic disciplines, not just English/language arts courses. The Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) provides schools with instructional tools needed to help teachers understand and implement…

This study examined the effects of an intervention in writing with digital interactive books. To improve the writing skills of seventh- and eighth-grade students with a learning disability in reading, we conducted a quasi-experimental study in which the students read interactive digital books (i-books), took notes, wrote summaries, and acted as…

Presented are generic structures, called goal and problem/solution frames, for psychologically-based historical explanations. Although intended primarily to help authors write a history that can be easily understood and remembered, the frames can also be used by teachers to organize classroom presentations and by students for textbook study. (RM)

Suggests that through commenting on their own papers, students gradually develop a sense of an imagined external audience and of themselves as writer and audience. (MM)

Presents 11 strategies writing teachers can use to alleviate writing apprehension and to encourage student writers to feel confident about revealing their thoughts in writing. (SR)

A carefully coordinated literacy assessment and instruction framework implemented school-wide can support school teams in making sense of various types of data for instructional planning. Instruction that is data based and goal driven sets the stage for continuous reading and writing improvement. (Contains 2 figures.)

Based on recent findings in writing research, this document offers the following recommendations on how teachers can improve the writing skills of their students: (1) spend time on activities that require real writing rather than short answers and fill-in-the-blank exercises; (2) have students spend more time putting their thoughts on paper in a…

In developing teaching strategies for students who are poor writers but good readers, it is useful to explore the characteristics of good readers and of poor writers, and to consider implications for improving classroom practices. Good readers tend to put into practice four major cognitive strategies when they read: they plan, translate or…

Suggestions are offered of ways to encourage the development of writing skills through the supportive sharing and provision of feedback. Suggestions are included for classroom writers' circles, writers' conferences, and editing/revising strategies. (DB)