Making a Difference in Clinton City Schools
February 2013
Effective Writing Strategies for Students
Writing is both a social and a cognitive process. In the world outside the classroom, people write to communicate
with an audience, drawing on their knowledge of content and writing, strategies for planning and revising, and basic
writing skills. All students can benefit, at some point in their development, from direct instruction in the basic writing
skills of handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and sentence formation. For many students with writing problems,
difficulties in these skills are a significant barrier to writing. These students need extra time devoted to explicit
instruction and practice in basic skills.
Handwriting
The basic goals of handwriting instruction are to help students develop writing that is legible and fluent, that
is, relatively rapid and not effortful. As in reading, fluency is important. When students are not fluent and have to
pay attention to handwriting, it interferes with other aspects of the writing process. Either cursive or printing can be
effective. Instruction should include teaching how to form letters correctly, as well as how to hold the pen and paper.
Short daily practice sessions (10-15 minutes) followed by application in meaningful writing tasks are most effective.
Fluency in handwriting is best promoted through frequent writing, and develops gradually over time. Instruction in
the primary grades for children experiencing difficulty with handwriting may help to prevent later writing problems. In
addition to instruction, teachers and parents should consider the use of word processing or other computer tools as
a way of compensating for problems with handwriting.
Spelling
Spelling and decoding skills are strongly connected. Both require phonemic awareness and phonics skill,
knowledge of spelling patterns, and familiarity with high-frequency words. Thus, spelling is part of both reading and
writing instruction. Students with reading and writing problems generally need explicit, intensive instruction in
decoding and spelling that emphasizes sound-symbol relationships and patterns. In writing, the practice of
"invented spelling" in the primary grades helps students to develop their phonemic awareness and phonics
knowledge. Instructional methods that emphasize spelling patterns by grouping words with similar patterns are
effective.
In addition, students with spelling problems need support in memorizing the spelling of high frequency,
irregularly spelled words (for example, "right," "laugh," and "their"). Word lists, word walls, personalized spelling
dictionaries, and strategies for studying spelling words are all common ways to support learning high-frequency
words.
In addition to instruction, students need opportunities to practice spelling words both in lists and in the context of
writing. A few recommendations pertain particularly to writing.
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First, instruction should pay special attention to the words most commonly used in student writing. 3
Second, because many students with learning disabilities will continue to have problems with spelling even
after learning to read fluently, it is especially important for such students to learn strategies for proofreading
their writing.
Third, they also need to learn to use tools, including dictionaries and spell checkers, to monitor and correct
their spelling. Personalized dictionaries, in which students write the words they are learning, can be
helpful.
Sentence Formation
Even good writers often pause to figure out how to express their ideas in sentences. For struggling writers,
writing correct, effective sentences is a significant problem. In addition to learning to write grammatically correct
sentences, they need to learn to write sentences with embedded clauses, write topic sentences that introduce main
ideas, use transition words, and construct introductory sentences. There is less research on instructional methods
in this area than for spelling and handwriting, and some of the research results go against common wisdom or
practice. For example, traditional grammar instruction, with its focus on rules for correct writing, has little impact on
the quality of students' writing.
Three methods that have support from research or from the practices of effective teachers are sentence
expansion, sentence combining, and teaching sentences within paragraph types. 4 All three methods require
students to apply their language sense (asking themselves: "Does that sound right?") to writing increasingly complex
sentences, rather than learning grammatical rules. In sentence expansion, students begin with "kernel sentences"
composed of a subject and verb, for example, "John ran.” Then they add elements to expand the sentence to tell
more about the "who, what, why, when, and where.” In sentence combining methods, students begin with several
short sentences and learn how to combine them into longer sentences that are more complex. In paragraph-based
methods, students learn sentence patterns for the topic, detail, and concluding sentences in different types of
writing, such as sequence paragraphs and persuasive paragraphs. As always when learning skills, it is important for
students to have opportunities to practice these skills in meaningful writing tasks, with regular feedback.
MacArthur. C. Effective instruction for students with learning problems (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/LD-ADHD/970-writing-instruction-students-with-learningproblems.
Making a Difference in Clinton City Schools
Parent Involvement Opportunities
Upcoming Parent Involvement Dates
"Plan for the future,
because that is where
you are going to spend
the rest of your life."
— Mark Twain
 Parent Advisory Council
o Monday, March 18th at 3:00 at NCES
 Special Education Information Sessions
o Monday, February 4th at 6:00 at SCES
 Computer Skills
o Monday, March 4th at 6:00 at SCES
 Transition Meetings
o Monday, April 8th at 3:00 at SCES
o Tuesday, April 9th at 3:00 at CES
o Wednesday, April 10th at 3:00 at NCES
Parent Advisory Council Information
The Clinton City Schools’ Special Education Parent
Advisory Council is looking for new members. Any
parent of a Clinton City School student receiving
special education services may serve on the Parent
Advisory Council. The nine members of the council
that will meet three times a year to review parent
concerns and to address service issues with the
schools system’s special education staff.
The mission of the Parent Advisory Council is to:
Comments & Questions
Welcome!
If you have any comments or questions
regarding ‘Making a Difference in
Clinton City Schools’, please contact:
Jackie Easterday
212 N. Hicks Street,
Clinton, TN 37716
865-457-0159
easterdayj@clintonschools.org
 Provide information and emotional support to the
parents of special needs students.
 Foster understanding of special students’ needs
and help increase student achievement by
disseminating this understanding to other
parents.
 Provide a forum for parents to share knowledge
and concerns about students with disabilities.
 Increase parent awareness and involvement in the
delivery of services to parents and students.
www.clintonschools.org