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Use of graphic organizers and writing prompts to help kids with writing.

Written assignments are often one of the most difficult tasks for a child with a learning disability, especially a language based disability, such as receptive language, expressive language or dyslexia. Often they have all of their thoughts running on in long sentences and their work lacks organization, details, complexity and quantity. Many times they will say things like "I don't know what to write!". It is extremely frustrating for them to have thoughts and ideas, and not know where to begin. (Or worse, have a three page paper due, but only have enough written to fill 1 page!)

Using graphic organizers for written work is essential for these kids, and they need to be taught a very specific writing process to follow each and every time they write. There are many graphic organizers, and many different writing processes that can be used. They all work, it is a personal preference as to which one to use.

Here are two methods that really work well:

Who, What, Where, When and Why/How; and, Story/Context Webbing.

Who, What Where, When and Why/How is a great graphic organizer for younger children beginning to learn how to write short stories, book reports and research papers. It is easy to use and fun to learn.

1. Begin by tracing your child's hand (use your hand if theirs is too tiny). At the end of each finger, draw a rectangle large enough for 2-3 short phrases or ideas to be written. Now, write the words Who, What, Where, When and Why/How inside each of the fingers beginning with the thumb, leaving the rectangles empty.

2. Have a discussion with your child about what needs to be written. Ask open ended questions to help your child decide each of the following:

-Who is the main character? In the rectangle of the thumb, have your child make notes of the important facts on the main character such as their name, age, gender, personality traits, etc. If there is no main character, maybe they are writing about Japan, so Japan and a few details about Japan would go here.

-What is the main topic of the paper? Maybe it is a book report, so you would use the next rectangle and have your child write two or three phrases related to the main idea of the book. This is where they would write about conflicts or problems that arise in the story. Or if it is a social studies paper, your child would make two or three statements about what they will be covering in the paper, such as Japan's population, industries and

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