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the entire school day. Educators assess student knowledge through writing, and
students’ inability to express their knowledge clearly can hinder their achievement.
In a case study done on strategies to improve the writing organization of elementary-
aged students, Laud and Patel (2008) found, before intervention, that the students
had impressive ideas and were extremely articulate when speaking their thoughts.
This fluency was not reflected in their writing, which was brief, disorganized, and
full of grammatical errors (Laud & Patel, 2008). With explicit instruction in writing
strategies, students are provided with different tools to organize their writing in a way Emily Malotte is a special
that makes sense to them and helps to mitigate some of the difficulties mentioned education teacher and
in the research. Although the strategies discussed in this article are centered around recent graduate of the
2021–2022 University of
promoting writing proficiency in special education students, these strategies can Nebraska at Omaha CADRE
prove beneficial to any population of students needing instruction in writing. Project. She is passionate
about writing education
The Impact of Small-Group Instruction and making writing
The instructional strategy of using a small-group setting is designed to make accessible to students of
writing more equitable and accessible to all students. Small-group instruction all ages and ability levels.
particularly benefits students who receive special education services and provides emily.malotte@
opportunities for students to work on academic as well as social skill goals (Winestead plcschools.org
et al., 2019). Small-group instruction affords students extended time to write should
they need additional time to process directions and understand what they are being
asked to do. Allowing students to choose where and with whom they sit, whether in
the classroom or small-group setting, makes it easier to manage behaviors because
students have the choice to sit alone or with a peer with whom they may work
best. They also have the chance to sit in a spot other than their desk, giving them a
moment of movement in their day. To help motivate students to continue working
even when writing is an unpreferred subject, teachers can also consider allowing
students to select their own writing topics. Permitting students to choose affords them
the opportunity to become more independent learners and gives them ownership
over their learning, both of which can lead to more self-direction and self-discipline
(Debrowski & Marshall, 2018).

Organizational Strategies
Essential to the core of writing instruction and the use of organizational strategies
is teacher-led, directed, and structured instruction. Four effective organizational
strategies include graphic organizers (Gould et al., 2010; Serravallo, 2017), color
coding of paragraphs (Auman, 2015), writing checklists (Culham, 2005), and peer
editing and revising.

Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers, based on the work of Gould et al. (2010) and Serravallo
(2017), can be used to plan student writing. Many students with receptive and/
or expressive language difficulties or attention and focus issues have difficulties
remembering what they want to say as they write. Often these students forget the
point they want to make or the wording of their sentence as they are writing it.
Providing access to graphic organizers allows students to plan their work beforehand
and gives them a reference to their main points and the direction of their essay.
The graphic organizer can be teacher-created or a ready-made template.
Whichever is used, the organizer needs to be accessible to the students it is serving
and clearly list each key element that needs to be present within their work. Adapting

Educators’ Choice 7