By Joan Wittan, MA, IECA (MD) and Kyle Kane, JD, IECA (MD) 

Most students with learning challenges struggle with writing. It is often the last academic skill to be acquired because it builds on developmental skills, such as reading, spelling, and sequencing. In addition, writing is mostly a planning and organizing task, so those students with executive function challenges are especially vulnerable.

As independent educational consultants (IECs) who specialize in students with learning differences, we spend a lot of time with our students on essay writing, but we have chosen not to get pulled into over-involvement with writing the actual essays. Instead, we help students improve their writing skills, adding value and improving efficiency with explicit instruction. This strategy is a win-win because our students often become more independent writers, ultimately saving us the agony of approaching each essay anew. We also develop common language for the process, enhance metacognition, and bolster executive functioning. Because college work is writing intensive, it’s an opportunity to significantly improve our students’ college-readiness skills.

College essays provide an ideal vehicle for writing instruction. Students with learning disabilities are frequently ready to learn to write by high school, but may have missed the explicit instruction of writing mechanics that were taught in elementary and middle school because they simply were not developmentally ready to learn it. With focused instruction, students are finally able to make sense of some aspects of writing as they draft their college essays. Although essays are much less intimidating than writing a research paper, the writing process is very similar. As we progress through the essay tasks, we are really bolstering students’ abilities to write many types of papers. Students are required to write about themselves and their experiences; there are no bibliographies or annotations, so we can focus on the writing process while still insisting on evidence and support for ideas.

The Process

Our process has added value for students because we stress goal setting and planning. We begin each session with metacognition by asking students to set specific goals. At first, we model goal setting for them, but expect the students to take over within a few sessions. As we work through a session, we keep a running list of action items and next steps. Rather than hand students a to-do list of those items at the end of each session, we ask them to open their Google calendars and schedule the individual items that need attention. Email reminders are added to each task to help students remember their commitments. Perhaps most important, we break the essay process into writing and editing. You can use any systems you like, but we find that separating the two components allows ideas to flow more freely.

WRITING

The writing approach we used is ACE4, which is adapted from our local public school system and stands for the follow writing tasks:

• Answer the question. We ask the student to paraphrase the question to ensure that he or she fully understands it. We then brainstorm possible answers. Depending on the student’s needs and preferences, we might introduce a webbing model, such as Inspiration. The ground rules are that there are no stupid ideas and all thoughts are welcome. We continually go back to the question to clarify and delve deeper. Some students benefit from dictation software that allows them to capture their ideas quickly without the mechanical challenge of handwriting or typing and spelling. In some cases, we may even take dictation for the student.

• Cite the evidence. Students must look for evidentiary sources in their personal lives, reading, studies, work, or travel. We discuss what that evidence will look like for a research paper and might introduce Noodle Tools or other assistive technology that captures and organizes notes and sources for more complicated papers.

• Explain, expand, end, and edit. We address the first three sequentially with the student as we add new ideas to the essay—reading it over and over as if the student has never heard it before—and brainstorm a novel and insightful conclusion.

EDITING

To edit, we use concepts from 6+1 Trait Writing, which was developed by Education Northwest. We explain to students that there are three phases to editing: global, qualitative, and mechanical.

• The global edit focuses on ideas, content, and organization. We always begin by rereading the prompt and reflecting for a moment. Next, students read the essay aloud (often we do the reading) because everyone’s eyes too easily skip over mistakes when they read. We want the student to listen as if he or she had never heard the content before and answer the following questions: Does the essay answer the prompt question? Is it organized logically? Are the ideas interesting? Do the paragraphs need to be reordered to improve the logic or add drama?

• The qualitative edit addresses the quality of the writing, and we read paragraph by paragraph to focus on voice, word choice, and sentence fluency:

–The essay should be the student’s authentic voice, not sound like a parent or a teacher.

–Precise language rather than using big words is the goal. For example, the overused awesome is meaningless; similarly, there are better choices than said for dialogue.

–Students often gravitate to long sentences. We show them that a mixture of short, medium, and long sentences gives the writing more texture and flow.

• The mechanical edit is what students usually think of as editing until we introduce the three-step process. We read aloud, line by line, to review conventions/mechanics. Often students can identify parts that don’t sound right even if they don’t know the rule. We can’t make up for years of lost instruction, but we can correct a few common grammar issues, for example, its versus it’s and noun/pronoun or verb tense agreement can be difficult for our students. We offer students a simple writing guide and often add information about items that trip them up. 6+1 Trait Writing also includes presentation as part of the mechanical edit, but we don’t spend much time on that.

Wrapping Up

The process wraps up with reflection and self-assessment to improve metacognition. We might ask, What worked well? What did you learn about writing? Is there anything you want to try differently next time? Items that need to be addressed at the next session are recorded. Finally, we recognize progress and end on a positive note. The essay is undoubtedly better than it was and the student is an improved writer and editor.

This approach to writing college essays has become a hallmark of our work with students. Although our practice focuses solely on students with learning challenges, this approach can help all students become more proficient writers. It is a common lament among college professors that students are not sufficiently prepared to tackle college-level writing. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to bolster our students in this important way. The glow of satisfaction from a well-written essay is rewarding, but the skill to write another is a precious gift.

Joan Wittan, The College Consulting Collaborative, can be reached at [email protected].
Kyle Kane, The College Consulting Collaborative, can be reached at [email protected].