Laura Granger Blog # 6

In the article, Including Students with Special Needs in a Writing Workshop by Fu and Shelton, it covers different methods a teacher can use to help special needs students fit in with the mainstream students. Every child has different needs that a teacher must meet but the real question is how can a teacher do this. If a child doesn't know English or cannot write their letters the chances of that student writing is very slim to none. However, there are other ways that a student can express his or her ideas. For example, the article talks about this one student who draws pictures instead of writing what she thinks about the subject. The teacher can ask the student about her/his drawings and write down what that student has to say. This method can be very helpful when dealing with students who cannot write yet. The teacher can also simply expose the students to different genres and throughout the year students will pick up on different elements that a story requires. Many times a student needs to have independent time to go over the story and figure out what makes up that story.

As a future teacher, I found this article very helpful because it dealt with the emotional as well as social needs of the child as well. You do not want to cause a child embarrassment because their confidence is one thing that will help push them to succeed in writing. A teacher must make it comfortable for a student to have room for error. If and when a student makes a mistake the classroom atmosphere must be accepting and realize that everyone makes mistakes and that we are all here to grow. Being creative and having different ideas is also a part of writing. Without imagination writing cannot be achieved and since everyone has an imagination writing is possible for anyone, regardless of how that is expressed.