Have you gotten stuck with some students on perpetually learning how to form letters, trace, or copy words? Sometimes we forget that writing is a creative activity. Fine motor skills and written expression are two different things. You can still engage in the writing process with students who cannot physically write. It is SO important that you do so, too! But, how do we do it? I will take you through the writing process to show how your students who cannot physically write can join their general curriculum peers.
Brainstorming
Write on slips of paper or create a word bank of possible writing topics. Allow your student to choose topics that interest them by verbalizing or pointing. Have students glue those selected topics onto a brainstorming list.
Your students accessing the general education curriculum can do the same activity, but they won’t need as much support. They can write their own ideas down on the same list.
Planning
Now, it’s time for your student to pick one topic they want to write about. Once they have chosen their topic, give them some ideas within that topic. For example, if the student is writing about their family- write on slips of paper some ideas about family (mom, dad, love, hugs, etc.). Have them choose some ideas about the topic and glue them onto a web.
Drafting
Now comes the fun part! We all know that a good paragraph starts with a topic sentence, has at least 3 details, and ends with a conclusion sentence. Write these pieces of the paragraph for your student, but write multiple choices! This way, they can pick which sentence they want to use. It will look like this when they’re done:
Revising/Editing
This is the part of the writing process where we want to add more detail and fix our mistakes. Your general education students can check for appropriate capitalization, punctuation, and add more details. Your students with fine motor difficulties can choose better sentences too! Give them the option-” keep this sentence the same, or change it to this.” I put their original sentence and a new sentence side-by-side. They can then choose which one they want to use.
Publishing
Finally, it is time to publish the final product. Have the student cut and glue the chosen sentences in the correct order!
Check out this video!
Are you more of a visual learner! I created this video showing how my students complete the writing process. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0DwQ5XOA8w
Check out “Intro to the Writing Process” for your students. It includes 10 pre-made topics for all steps of the writing process and editable pages so that you can easily create writing pages for your own topic.
