The Barriers in Writing With Students: Topic Selection and Organizing Ideas

加米拉

【Abstract】Students with having difficulties in writingcan improve their written expression through choosing topic, planning and organizing ideas. Teaching topic selection through promoting students confidence in writing, providing an opportunity to discover what they know, and presenting a story. With proper instruction, students who need extra help in writing can become excellent writers. And its also important to be able to read what the students with unique needs have written.

【Key words】writing;topic selection;organizing;proper instruction.

【摘要】教師可以通過選擇適宜的題目來幫助在學習寫作上有困難的學生。教師也要充分認識到有著獨特需求的學生所寫的東西。本文就在課堂寫作教學中如何在課堂教學中提高學生的寫作能力,使用何種方法來幫助學生寫出優秀的文章來,做點淺論。

【關鍵詞】寫作 選題 組織 指導

1. Introduction

Students with learning disabilities show a wide array of abilities in writing. Most young children like to scrawl. They take pleasure in writing and drawing on paper, sidewalks, chalkboards, and, unfortunately, even on walls. However, Many researchers in the field feel that students do not spend enough time on writing as an art and are provided too little choice about what they write. Simultaneously, Writing has many negative influences for students because it is often used as a form of punishment and when their writing is returned to them it is fraught with dazzling corrections. The good news is that researchers and educators have made more advancement in written expression for students with disabilities than in any other academic area . When teachers apply effective intervention and strategies for improving written expression, the results are quite optimistic. Consequently, it is indispensable for students with learning problems to learn selecting topic, planning and organizing ideas.

2. Topic selection

The first barrier in starting the writing with students is topic selection. Teaching topic selection through promoting students confidence in writing, providing an opportunity to discover what they know, and presenting a story. Through choosing topics, students can clarify what they know and talk about it. On the other hand, the beginners often encounter two common problems in topic selection: difficulty in finding a topic and persistency in writing about the same topic.

Topic selection is often decided by the student. An educator can facilitate topic selection by enhancing students confidence in choosing the topics and offer them an opportunity to discover what they know.It is not uncommon that students often start writing by telling individual experiences because they are so familiar with these things; as a result, giving students pieces of paper, an educator encourage them to write down something about themselves, their families, and their friends.Provided students with an opportunity to communicating with other partners about their writing, the learner with writing problems can be introduced to a wide range of categories that can provide alternative topics.

For example, a teacher said to his or her students, “You have hobbies and activities that you like to do. You have experiences about things that have happened to you and to others you know. You have lots of things to share with others. I want you to make a list of things you would like to share with others through writing. Do not put them in any specific order but just write them as you think of them. You will not have to write on all of these topics. The purpose of this exercise is to think of as many topics as you can. I will give you ten minutes. Begin.” Then, when time is up, the teacher tells the students to pick a partner and share their topics with him or her. At this time, they may add any new topics they think of. Now, an educator asks the students to opt for the three topics they are most fascinated in writing about and to write them at the top of their lists and then place their topic lists in their writing folders.

An educator also promotes topic selection by applying a kind of writing style –stories because the most important point with creative writing is that it has to be gleeful. Through composing stories, the teacher presents some relatively easy and enjoyable opportunities for writing, and see how engaged his or her students become. In many schools, writing stories is the preferred form of writing training. Students are often given some stimulus to embark on their imagination, such as “ Write a story about an animal that has a magical power.” Then, they are told to work for a half hour or more, after which the class will come together and share.For the student with writing problems, this can be awfully nerve-racking. Even though he may have an excellent imagination and sense of humour, the lack of proper instruction leaves his writing unclear and incoherent. If an older student with learning problems has had many such experiences in the past, he may prefer to write nonfictions rather than stories. The best thing to solve their problems is to offer interesting creative writing opportunities at the level at which students are comfortable. At the word writing level, students first draw a picture and then name the characters and any important objects. At the sentence writing level, children write in teams. The first student writes one sentence to begin a story then passes it on to the second, who writes the second sentence. They continue on for as long as they are excited and attracted in their story. The only two rules are that each person can write only one sentence at a time, and that no one can get rid of another persons character. At the paragraph writing level, here, an educator introduce a topic such as “ This is why I didnt do my homework” or “This is why I just had to eat your plate of spaghetti.” Tell student that after he realizes his wrongdoing, he can have a lot of fun making up a story for why he did it. If teacher considers each students need as uniqueness and integrate these characters into curriculum, students with learning disabilities expand their category for topic and become willing to write.

Besides difficulty in choosing of a topic, students with learning difficulties often repeat the same topic. Many students with learning problems find safety in repeating the same topic or theme in their writing. An educator should look warily at their work and determine whether or not the stories are changing through vocabulary development, notion development, content development, or character development. Also, an educator persists in asking questions about the student writing. If the teachers feel the students are not making any progress, then suggest a change in topic.

3. Organizing idea

In addition to selecting topic, the next goal is to direct students to plan and organize their ideas as they are writing by means of use of cue card and implement of the activity of authors chair. Many students with learning problems think of a topic and begin to write without much planning. They write ideas as they think of them and each idea they write serves as a stimulus for the next idea. Some educators advocate using cue cards to aid students in writing better developed stories or essays. A cue card asks students to consider these elements when composing: where and when; character; problem and plan; and story ending.

Once students begin composing, sharing their work with others plays an important role. Children require time to read and confer their works with individual students, small groups of students, and the teacher. The authors chair is a formal opportunity to share writing. For example, Leila, a behaviourally disturbed freshman , signed up for “authors chair” early during the week. She thought her story about a dog that could fly was pretty good and she is eager to read it to the whole class. During “authors chair,” she sat in a special chair in a circle, which encompassed all students and the teacher. She enjoyed the attention from the group while she prepared to read. During her reading she could tell the story was going over well because the students were laughing and listening carefully. After the reading she asked them whether they had any comments or questions. She called on several students who commented on sections of the story they liked and other students who raise questions. Mike wanted to know more about what the wings on the dog looked like. Rhonda wondered why the story ended the way it did. Leila answered the questions and made some decisions about parts she would change and how she would add more description about what the dog looked like. Sharing facilitates Leila to keep writing and will help her with rewriting.

4. Conclusion

Students with learning problems often are reluctant writers. This is not because they dont have a lot to say or that they are not gifted in this area. In fact, once students receive appropriate tutoring and strategies, they often show that they have unusual capacity. As a result, the elements of the writing process approach, which include selecting topics and organizing ideas were presented, and examples were introduced of how they are taught and integrated into the writing process approach with students who have learning problems. Finally, its important to be able to read what the students with unique needs have written.An educator should keep in mind whether students with learning problems do automatically enjoy writing.What person would do if given the difficulties of the tasks listed above? As I discussed above, with proper instruction, students who need extra help in writing often become excellent writers. And equally important, they can learn to enjoy the work.

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