Teaching Writing in Response to Text to Students with Developmental Disabilities Who Participate in Alternate Assessments.
This study investigated the effects of task analytic instruction, systematic prompting and graphic organizers on two students' ability to compose informational text. Participants were provided with information articles from which they identified the key ideas and supporting details. Participants transferred this information to a graphic organizer which was then used to complete a writing template. Depending on the nature of the skill, both a traditional and modified system of least prompts was used during the intervention. Both students increased their ability to accurately compose a permanent product in response to text. Implications for future research and practical implications are discussed. Writing is important for communication, problem solving, and learning (Koppenhaver Williams, 2010) Written expression is an essential skill that extends to almost every aspect of individuals' daily life, both as cognitive and social interaction processes. In schools, students use written language to demonstrate their acquisition of academic content (Mercer Mercer, 2005) Employers want applicants who can demonstrate proficient writing skills upon entry to the workforce (National Commission on Writing, 2004) Most social networks require that members interact using electronic written messages (e.g. e mail and texts) The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Literacy (CCSSELA) have defined literacy and communication expectations for all students. While the standards are divided into Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language strands for conceptual clarification, the processes of communication are connected (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) Writing is not an isolated skill, but builds upon a broad basis of prerequisite literacy skills. For example, many of the writing standards require students to write in response to text. Beginning at grade 4 and continuing through grade 12, writing standard W.9 requires students to "draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) While there has been research on developing writing knowledge and skills for students with disabilities (e.g. Harris, Graham, Adkins, 2014; Harris et al. 2012) there is limited research on writing for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) especially in response to text. For students with ID, writing is additionally complicated by reading level. Some This work was supported by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (H373X100002, Project Officer: Susan.Weigert@ed.gov) The contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and no assumption of endorsement by the Federal Government should be made. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Angel Lee, Attainment Company, 3422 Fairfax Woods Dr. Matthews, NC 28105. E mail: alee@attainmentcompany.com Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2016, 51(3) 238 251 (c) Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities 238 Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities September 2016 students with ID required to participate in alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA AAS) will be early readers with limited comprehension and writing skills. The new generation of AA AAS will require students write in response to text. Although teachers will need to prepare their students for this requirement, few models exist beyond those that focus on mechanics (e.g. spelling) Research on Writing for Students with ID Research supports that students with ID can use written expression in daily activities (e.g. calendars) by responding to directed reading, spelling activities and group activities that modeled writing components (Erickson Koppenhaver, 1995) In contrast, most researchers have focused on either simple mechanics of writing or functional use. A review of practices on teaching writing by Katims (2000) suggested that most writing instruction has been functional in nature with students learning to write for a specific purpose, such as addressing envelopes or writing checks. Pennington, Delano, and Scott (2014) found that most interventions targeted basic writing skills, such as spelling (Stromer, Mackay, Howell, McVay, Flusser, 1996; Stromer, Mackay, McVay, Fowler, 1998) sentence writing (Yammomoto Miya, 1999) and adjective use (Rousseau, Krantz, Poulson, Kitson, McClannahan, 1994) Similarly, in Knight, Browder, Agnello, and Lee's (2010) limited review of academic writing instruction for students with severe disabilities, research in writing lagged behind research in reading and mathematics for students with ID. Research on writing for other students with developmental disabilities, like autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has yielded similar limitations. Early research demonstrated that students with ASD could make requests by using cards depicting written texts (LaVigna, 1977) and improve the quality of conversations when they typed their responses (Forsey, Bird, Bedrosian, 1996) Stromer, MacKay, Howell, McVay, and Flusser (1996) demonstrated that individuals with ASD could generalize spelling skills to handwritten responses using computer assisted instruction (CAI) and delayed word construction procedures. Basil and Reyes (2003) evaluated the effects of a computerized software package (i.e. Delta Messages) on sentence construction skills and found that students could acquire targeted responses, demonstrate additional gains in handwritten responses and show measures of phonological awareness. Yamamoto and Miya (1999) also used CAI to teach sentence construction tasks to students with ASD, with results indicating that students acquired computer based target responses, but also demonstrated generalized gains across handwritten and vocal topographies. Fewer studies have focused on composition in writing. In an early study, Rousseau et al. (1994) helped students with autism improve their narrative writing skills using AAC devices, story maps, storyboards, and adult modeling. In joint writing activities, the students also increased their use of adjectives, number of words used, and interactions with their peers. Trela (2008) created an I Write NOW strategy for writing opinion paragraphs. After instruction using templates, students were able to compose opinion based paragraphs that progressed in a logical order. Pennington (2010) used an intervention for modeling, self monitoring, prompting, and feedback on cover letter writings for individuals with mild and moderate ID and found that individuals increased writing performance when provided systematic instruction. Taken together, these three studies offered promise that individuals with developmental disabilities are able to move beyond mechanics to compose writing. None of the studies identified to date focused on teaching students with ID to write in response to text, a skill emphasized in the CCSS. One option to teach students to do so may be the use of graphic organizers, which have been effective in teaching writing to other populations (Capretz, Ricker, Sasak, 2003; Gersten Baker, 2001) Graphic organizers are visual arrays that show relationships among concepts (Smith Okolo, 2010) For writing tasks, a graphic organizer is a method to support translation of ideas to text as students categorize information into demands of the text structure. The effective use of graphic organizers for improving writing has been documented in multiple studies. These studies demonstrated students Teaching Writing 239 with high incidence disabilities were able to increase participation in writing instruction that responded to the demands of the general education curriculum (James, Abbot, Greenwood, 2001) improve their focus, organization, and quality of supporting details (Capretz et al. 2003) and improve performance on tests of writing skills (Meyer, 1995) The need exists to determine if graphic organizers might be useful to help students with ID write in response to text. Trela's (2008) work provided a potential application in that students followed a template to compose their opinion. Similarly, in teaching students to respond to text, the graphic organizer might provide the template students need to compose their response. Knight et al. (2008) note that an evidence based practice for teaching academics to students with developmental disabilities is systematic instruction including task analyzing the responses to complete an assignment and providing systematic prompting and feedback for each step of the task analysis. These strategies offer a potential approach to teaching students to use a graphic organizer. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of task analytic instruction using least intrusive prompting (LIP) and graphic organizers on the ability to gather and organize information and complete a written product. The research questions under consideration were: 1. What are the effects of task analytic instruction using LIP on identifying key ideas from an informational article? 2. What are the effects of task analytic instruction using LIP on accurately completing a graphic organizer with key ideas and details from an informational article? 3. What are the effects of task analytic instruction using LIP on students' ability to create a cohesive written product using a graphic organizer and sentence starters?