Teaching Writing to Students With Learning Disabilities: An Observational Study of Classroom Practices

Abstract

Little information is available about how writing is taught in the classroom for students with learning disabilities. Researchers addressed this gap in the literature by conducting an observation study exploring the writing instruction of 66 fourth-grade teachers (31 special education; 35 general education). The aims of this study were to explore the instructional writing practices used in typical practice settings and to determine if special educators and general educators differed in their use of these instructional practices. Researchers observed 10 326 min of instruction across 226 writing lessons. Findings suggest that incidental approaches to teaching writing were applied more frequently than explicit instruction. General educators used explicit instructional practices and whole-class teaching more often than special educators, whereas special education teachers prioritized individualized support through one-to-one and small-group instruction. Implications for future research and classroom writing instruction for students with learning disabilities are discussed.