Individualized Instruction for Students with Special Needs Who Present Challenges with Regard to Writing

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. Accordingly, our mentees should know how to individualize instruction.

Below you will find several modifications to individualize instruction for students with special needs who have challenges with regard to writing.

Specific Learning Challenge	Some Suggested Modifications to Individualize Instruction*
Writing	· Modify the writing tool to make it more comfortable for the student such as pencil grips, felt tip markers, or larger pencils. · Allow the students to write on a computer. · Allow the students to audio-record his/her responses. · Provide lined paper, rather than blank paper, or draw lines on workbook pages.**

*This is taken, with permission, from the website of the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ), special needs menu, http://urj.org/educate/specialneeds/. Retrieved January 30, 2009.

** The double asterisk denotes an activity that can be done by a teaching assistant, a trained madrich, a trained parent volunteer, or the student or co-teacher.

In the next post we will share specific modifications to individualize instructions for students who present challenges with regard to oral expression.