PATOSS Dyslexia Tutor , Rosemary Dickson shares her tips on writing and strategies to make that easier for dyslexic pupils.
Star Writing ~ An Intervention for Writing Difficulties
‘Writing is a complex task. It requires the coordination of fine motor skills and
cognitive skills, reflects the social and cultural patterns of the writer’s time and is
also linguistically complex.’ 1
I thought I would share with you one approach I use with my dyslexic/dysgraphic students.
As we know, writing requires multiple skills operating together – no wonder it is a complex
task! Problems with writing range from thinking up ideas, organising ideas or having lots of
great ideas but struggling to put them onto paper. Some students can be easily distracted by
background noise or classroom activities; some with weak memory skills forget the aim of the
task and what they are thinking. There can be a combination of planning issues as well as
fine motor writing issues.
Is it any suprise that this leads to frustration and loss of self-esteem? Once students begin to
feel they can’t do it, it is then only a short step to believing they really can’t write. This can
then become self-fulfilling.
‘Research has shown that struggling writers can benefit from explicit and targeted instruction
in word-, sentence-, and paragraph-level skills.’ 2
Star Writing, an approach I use based on the ideas of Structured Writing, encourages pupils
to become Writing Stars! Structured writing is what it says – writing using a very structured
method. My dyslexic/dysgraphic students who do not like writing find it gives them a clear,
explicit step-by-step structure and helps them think about writing in a very different way.
Using Star Writing, they can produce a recognisably interesting piece of writing much quicker
and with less stress than normal – and they enjoy it!
My Star Writing cards have five different
sentence options, set in specific orders.
Each card has different options
| A Star Writing Card. |
and in
different orders. Each card can help produce
a different paragraph.
When starting a writing task, we agree a topic, discuss some ideas and create a mindmap or bullet points. Then, using a Star Writing card, the writing task becomes more like a puzzle as they think about creating each sentence as instructed on the card. Students
find this step-by-step approach non-threatening. They enjoy the challenge and find they have
completed a paragraph in record time and that it reads much better than they expect! They
begin to become Star Writers!
Depending on the age of the student, Star Writing cards can be replaced by Star Writing
Sticks. The student can choose up to five sticks from a bundle and then choose for themselves which order to use them. This
increases independence and ownership
of their writing. As confidence in writing
grows, the student can choose eg two
sticks per paragraph, which continues to
bring a variety of sentence structure to
the work and a measure of support in
thinking, while also developing
independence.
| Star Writing Sticks |
Before long the cards, or sticks, become a familiar way of thinking about writing. The fear of
what to write is reduced as they decide on each sentence type. Soon they find that they are
using eg a three word sentence, a list or a question in their classroom writing. Their work is more thoughtful, the different sentence types add variety and they find they begin to get
praise from their teacher. As their marks improve, so does their confidence and they truly
become Star Writers.
students from 7 to 16 years and all enjoy it. In fact they frequently surprise themselves as
they find they are enjoying writing for the first time!
The method is very flexible, as cards or sticks can be made to suit the specific age of the
student and the writing structures being taught. This could include: use of certain conjunctions
eg however, although; alliteration or similes; a semi-colon; ‘In contrast’ or ‘In my opinion’; a list
of three etc. As an intervention, it helps to bridge the gap from feeling ‘unable to write’, to
increasing confidence and gaining an idea of how writing works. The goal is to move beyond
needing the intervention, when the student becomes an independent writer, able to learn all
the other writing skills along with their peers.
Benefits
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Why does Star Writing work? I find using an intervention like this provides structured thinking
and narrows choices. It gives the explicit, targeted instructions which help the student focus
on a very specific task. This is far less daunting than a whole task of filling a page with writing!
The very specific nature of Star Writing means it is easy to remember and I have found it is
common for students to transfer this naturally to class work. This intervention helps students
write with the greater variety of sentence structures that teachers are looking for and yet
students find it fun and enjoyable. Students learn how to combine sentences to convey their
ideas in an interesting way. As teachers comment on their improvement, the students realise
they can write successfully and confidence is gained.
I have seen students amazed at how quickly and easily they wrote a paragraph, or even two,
where before they would have struggled, lost focus and given up. It is great to see their
enjoyment in writing begin to grow. Students have found their marks for writing have shot up
and some have achieved class awards for their writing and even won school creative writing
competitions!
You too could help simplify the complex task of writing – why not give Star Writing a go with
your student?
By Rosemary Dickson
Specific Learning Difficulties/Dyslexia Tutor
References
1 Myhill, D. and Fisher, R. (2010) ‘Editorial: Writing development: cognitive, sociocultural,
linguistic perspectives’, Journal of Research in Reading. Volume 33, Issue 1, 2010.
2 Santangelo, T. and Olinghouse, N. (2009) ‘Effective writing instruction for students who
have writing difficulties’, Focus on exceptional children 42(4)
Education Standards Research Team, Department for Education, (2012) What is the research
evidence on writing? Research Report DFE-RR238