How to Teach a Teenager With a Learning Disability How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay

Writing a sentence is difficult for students with learning disabilities, let alone a whole paragraph. How can a student with a learning disability learn to write a five-paragraph essay?

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Bookstore Gift Certificates
• Dictionaries
• Thesauri
• Pencils
• Colored Ink Pens
• Erasers
• Index Cards
• Notebook Papers
• Pens

1. Read. Read out loud. Read independently. Listen to books on tape. Read a group story and then watch the video. Talk about character feelings, plot, setting and all other aspects of the story. Immerse your students in reading and build writing experiences from the topics and ideas you read about.
2. Assess your student's writing skills. If your student cannot write a complete sentence or cannot put paragraph ideas into logical order, it will be unrealistic for you to expect your student to write an essay.
3. Teach the writing process. There are four basic steps to writing: thinking of an idea, writing a rough draft, revising and correcting, and publishing the finished piece.
4. Have several spelling strategies available for students to learn from and use. One of the most frustrating aspects of writing for teenagers is not being able to spell.
5. Write and edit the introduction paragraph. In the first paragraph your student will be introducing the idea that the paper will cover, and the contents of paragraphs two through four. Talk about the ideas the paper will cover and come up with descriptive and main idea sentences. Write the main idea and description sentences on note cards or strips of paper. Write ideas on a huge piece of poster board. Edit the sentences and put them into a logical and readable order.
6. Write and edit paragraphs two through three. By now your student should have an idea of what paragraphs two, three and four will cover. Following the same procedure as with the introduction paragraph, have your student write sentences on note cards or large sheets of paper for editing and to organize ideas. Some students may need to lay out all three paragraphs and others may be able to start writing without using the visual guide.
7. Write and edit the conclusion. Explain that the last paragraph will sum up the contents of the entire paper. Write and edit using the visual aids, if necessary. Compare the conclusion and introduction paragraphs for similarities, and change close wording.
8. Publish the finished piece. Encourage your student to dress up the finished product with a decorative cover. Let the student use the computer for typing instead of writing by hand. Add pictures and graphs or anything to emphasize the content of the essay.

Tips & Warnings

• Praise. Praise. Praise. Writing an essay is a big deal!
• Provide choices for writing instruments. Have available spiral notebooks, chart paper, notecards, pens, pencils, rulers, markers - anything to interest your student in writing.
• Create a writing portfolio for your student to keep track of writing progress.
• Have your student make a personal dictionary with a spiral notebook or note cards and a recipe holder.
• Use the dictionary instead of telling students how to spell a word.
• Know when to give your student a break. Focusing on a problem area for too long can prove frustrating and make efforts of instruction futile.