How to Help Students Who Struggle with Writing

Writing difficulties vary in form and origin. This is because writing involves applying multiple skills simultaneously, including penmanship, spelling, syntax, and mental organization. Students may have trouble with any of the following:

• Handwriting—more specifically, a condition called dysgraphia, which often involves fine-motor impairment that affects one’s ability to write (e.g., the ability to form letters or hold a writing implement).
• Written expression, meaning difficulty with any writing task, whether in terms of planning, the structure and organization of ideas, syntax, revision, and so on.
• Spelling, usually due to difficulty associating sounds and symbols or problems with motor memory (the ability to remember how letters are formed).

Understanding the different types of writing difficulties is the first step to determining what strategies will help students improve their writing skills.

The Ministère de l’Éducation’s Référentiel d’intervention en écriture (available in French only), a framework for helping students with writing difficulties, describes several elements that research has shown to be key components of effective writing instruction. They include:

• Getting students to write on a regular basis: The more practice they get, the better. If you routinely give your students different writing assignments, they can focus on specific elements or objectives each time, which will help them improve. Writing workshops and 5 to 7 exercises are great options.
• Explicitly teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies: Explicit instruction through modeling or demonstration and guided practice, followed by individual practice, helps students become more efficient and autonomous.
• Keeping lessons balanced: This is essential to students’ learning. When planning your writing lessons, aim to strike a balance between skills (such as spelling) and strategies, as well as between individual and collaborative work.
• Choosing authentic writing situations: To develop their writing skills, students need practice with a wide range of writing tasks that reflect real-world situations. For example, we recommend choosing writing assignments that allow students to be creative (while working on a particular skill), match their abilities, and are intended for a specific recipient.
• Encouraging students to think about language so they can understand it better: Talking to their peers and asking thoughtful questions will help students improve their writing skills as well as their overall learning.

Here are a few strategies you can use to help students with writing difficulties. Note that each is meant to address a specific issue.

• Provide feedback: Giving students specific feedback on their writing, their approach, their strengths, and where they could improve helps them become more aware of their abilities.
• Analyze your students’ mistakes and adapt your lessons accordingly: In terms of spelling, if you identify the most common mistakes your students make, you can tailor your lesson material to address them. You can also work with students one-on-one by rereading their work together; simply hearing their writing out loud can help them recognize where they made mistakes.
• Teach morphology: This is another great strategy for students who have trouble with spelling. Morphology, which is useful for both reading and writing, helps students understand word structure, identify prefixes and suffixes, and recognize words with similar roots.
• Help students develop planning skills: For instance, have students work together to create mind maps or brainstorm, and teach them planning strategies while giving them feedback.
• Give clear instructions and reminders about the purpose and recipient of each writing assignment: Students should be able to refer to this information at the planning, writing, and revision stages and understand why it is important to keep in mind.
• Set one or more specific objectives per writing assignment and limit the word count: Your students will be more likely to improve if they can focus on a few goals at a time and get regular practice writing relatively short texts.
• Be flexible: Writing is a demanding task in and of itself, even for students who do not have writing difficulties. If a student appears exhausted by a particular writing assignment, consider letting them finish it another day, or ask the student to tell you what they want to write and write it for them.

 
Lastly, it goes without saying that encouraging students to read regularly will only benefit their writing skills.

For students whose writing struggles are related to motor difficulties, using a computer on occasion can alleviate the mental burden of writing by hand. That said, typing should not become their only means of writing; it is crucial for students to practise handwriting as well, in particular so they can learn to associate letters and sounds.

Other tool-based strategies include:

• Keeping a printout of the alphabet either at the student’s desk or elsewhere in the classroom to help them memorize the shapes of letters
• Using different writing implements and materials (lead, ink, wax, chalk, etc.)
• Using different types of paper, including graph paper instead of lined paper
• Using pencil grips, although these should only be used as a temporary solution, as students should be encouraged to practise holding a pencil properly
• Using word processing software

Academic success is influenced by a student’s level of motivation and engagement. Unfortunately, in Quebec, studies indicate that students’ motivation and engagement when it comes to writing tend to decrease as their schooling progresses, likely because their writing assignments become more and more demanding. All the more reason to do everything in our power to help students stay motivated.

Here are a few things to consider before you set a writing assignment:

• The value for your students: Is the assignment stimulating? Will students be genuinely interested in doing it? Think about factors such as the theme and purpose of the text and its intended recipient.
• Your students’ ability to complete the assignment: Is the purpose of the assignment specific and realistic? Are your students equipped to work through their writing difficulties? Do they have the tools they need to succeed?
• The controllability of the assignment: Will students feel they have control over the writing activity? Will they be able to make choices? Can they alternate between different writing projects at different stages?