A small but growing body of research on word processing for children suggests that computers are promising writing tools, particularly for learning disabled children, who struggle daily with the process of writing (Deloach et al., 1981; Deno, Marston, & Mirkin, 1982; Poteet, 1979). Word processors enable the children to manage mechanics erasing and replacing words easily (Daiute, 1985) and can stimulate collaborative activities among children (Levin et al, in press). They can give children with impaired social communication a channel for expressing ideas and strengthening their selfimage (Weir, in press). Education Development Center, Inc., is currently conducting research on the ways word processors can assist in improving writing skills of learning disabled fourth graders. During the first year of the two-year study the work was carried out in resource rooms, substantially separate classrooms and tutorial settings, with five remedial teachers and 14 students with moderate writing problems. Intensive observations were carried out over an eight month period. The resulting raw data consisted of 85 observations, including verbatim transcripts of teacher-child conversations and students' vocalizations as they worked at the keyboard. The writing activities observed ranged from 15 to 45 minutes. Writing samples were gathered from students for baseline assessment purposes, using procedures and stimuli provided the National Assessment of Education Progress. Over the eight months, students were observed writing with paper and pencil and at the computer, making possible some comparison of writing with the different tools. The objective of the first year of research was to document the varied approaches teachers naturally bring to integrating word processors into their teaching of writing. The first year of exploratory, hypothesis-generating research was grounded in the assumption that to understand both the power and the drawbacks of word processing for children with substantial writing needs, we need to focus on the character of the instructional environment in which the computer is used. Consistent with that assumption, we found out in our first year that word processors are not necessarily engaging tools. When teachers have their students use word processors for composing, children stay highly involved in writing and produce rich first drafts. When students use them to practice isolated skills or focus on editing during the composing of early drafts, they tend to become disengaged from the content of their writing (Morocco & Neuman, 1985; Neuman & Morocco, 1985). In analyzing interactions between the three actors in the word processor writing process, the student, the computer, and the teacher, we find that the impact of the word processor occurs at two levels. Certain features of the tool, the ease of entering and erasing text, facilitate the actual motoric writing process of the child. Other features, particularly the character of word processing and the readability of print, facilitate teaching techniques which are highly beneficial for the anxious, low-writing child. Many of these techniques appear to be unique to the word processing environment and would rarely occur when children are writing with pencil. We would argue, in fact, that the most useful aspect of the word processor for learning disabled students lies not so much on the student's writing as in the access it gives the teachers to the child's writing process. This example illustrates this accessibil i ty feature of word processing. As a way to have her fourth grade learning disabled students begin to use the word processors, the teacher typed a series of simple sentences directly on her students' discs then asked them to expand them adding a pre-positional phrase. complied with this exercise but sighed and acted very bored, resting his head on his left hand and typing slowly with his right. Noticing his lack of involvement his teacher reached her hands over his shoulders to the keyboard and typed Sam will be rested in class by. Surprised, sat up straight, read what she had written, and energetically completed the sentence typing sleeping on the job. He folded his arms across his chest, dramatizing satisfaction. The teacher again extended and put her hands on the keyboard and typed Sam is trying to get the teacher's goat by. When said he didn't understand what she meant goat, she erased that word and typed attention. laughed and quickly added sleeping. She typed a third sentence, Sam will get the teacher's approval by and completed it with working all day like always, smiling broadly and now fully engaged in the activity. It is difficult to imagine a teacher taking a child's pencil from his or her hand and writing on the child's paper, without being intrusive. The more public character of the word processor, created an upright, visi-
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Jan 1, 2016
William T A Harrison + 4
Open Access
