INTIME Video

I had the opportunity to watch the video set entitled "Assistive Technology in the Writing Process", created by Nancy Amdor, a secondary school special education teacher at Corning high school in Corning, Iowa. Although designed specifically for special education students, this lesson would be an excellent fit for the needs and abilities in my junior language arts classes. Mrs. Amdor takes her students through the three step process involved in writing an informative essay. The steps include: Pre-writing, Writing, and Post writing. During the pre-writing phase, students are encouraged to use the software Inspiration to brainstorm and organize ideas. During this planning stage, students gather information through research and learn to narrow the focus of the topic. The writing stage uses Cowriter software to help students find the words they want to use by audibly predicting possible word choices. By hearing possible word choices, Amdor's students are more successful at choosing the words that are meaningful to the work. During the post writing period, students use Ultimate Reader software that reads aloud student essays, allowing the student to hear mistakes concerning their syntax. Throughout the process, Amdor actively directs each student individually, allowing her to tailor the assignment to the varying learning needs of her students.
Although Amdor's students have moderate to severe learning disabilities, I can see that her approach would be successful with my students. Obviously, she has the advantage of a very small class size to implement this plan, but the principles would be applicable to any class size. I often struggle with the fact that my students do not write well, yet I feel that I teach them the same way that I learned, and I had excellent teachers. This one size fits all philosophy is my greatest downfall as a teacher. What was good for me is not necessarily good for my students. If I employed some of the techniques used by Mrs. Amdor, I think I could help my students, especially in the initial stages of the writing process. I should be more open to software like Inspiration to help students focus their ideas. I usually assign a paper and assume that students have a good handle organizing thoughts and the direction for the paper. This year especially, I have realized that my students have no clue how to organize their ideas. As they struggle with that process, frustration develops, and the paper is often stuck in limbo. I will do a better job implementing Amdor's process for teaching writing, and hopefully students will be better equipped to tackle the writing assignments expected of them in high school.