Essay Development for Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities: Graphic Organizers for Visualizing Organizational Patterns

Abstract

Students with disabilities often find expressive writing frustrating and difficult. The prospect of writing a well-developed five-paragraph essay can be especially daunting. One reason is that struggling writers may have difficulty conceptualizing how the elements of an effective essay are developed. This article describes an instructional strategy that has been used to help struggling writers visualize the elements of a five-paragraph essay. The Big Ideas writing strategy helps reduce the load on working memory during the writing process with a combination of two graphic organizers to guide students as they learn the steps for writing an effective essay. The described strategy provides explicit strategy instruction opportunities for rural educators who are working to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Since many rural districts have a higher proportion of special education students, it follows that a substantial number of students may struggle with their composition skills. Students in rural settings may especially benefit from this strategy due to its opportunities for specialized instructional delivery. The article also provides recommendations for fading support and generalizing the strategy.