1 by Clifford Morris 2Word Processing: Literacy's Missing Link
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Joan and Bill typify two of many different kinds of exceptional learners who attend
my Special Education Resource Unit (SERU) program. Joan is dysgraphic, the school
chess champion, and excels in pottery and sketching. Bill has been identified as
exceptional in the domain of intellectual giftedness; he also has dysgraphia (Whitmore &
Maker, 1985). Two of his original oil paintings currently hang in my SERU room.
These two grade five (5) students exemplify so many children who "learn differently" but
are stamped by most of our state-funded public school systems as learning
disabled (Armstrong, 1988). They display superior "promise" in what Howard
Earl Gardner (1987) calls spatial intelligence ... but you would never know it from
looking at their handwriting. What's worse, both of them have problems with attention
to task and remaining focused ... so their rewritings become sluggish and
almost painful. Joan and Bill are hampered by a learning disability labeled dysgraphia -- the inability to communicate ideas in writing (Flaro, 1989). Their eye-hand
motor coordination skills of writing, are virtually illegible. At a time when smaller
and cheaper microcomputers are becoming more advanced and more accessible, word processing has
become their godsend. Armed with this modern writing tool, they are now able to produce readable
paragraphs, an initial step in improving their overall writing skills. In a nutshell, that is
the essence of this message.
What follows, then, is a discussion about students who have similar problems
writing with pencil and paper. As writing is considered one of the two basic
skills required for literacy success (the other being reading), this is, essentially,
a brief article on improving literacy. And due to the ever increasing usage of
microcomputers within state-funded public school classrooms, this short article focuses on how this new school tool can improve writing.
Potential of Word Processing Applications
The personal computer in conjunction with a word processing program has quickly
become a promising writing tool, particularly for learning disabled students
who struggle with the process of traditional handwriting methods (Kerchner &
Kistinger, 1984; Morocco & Neuman, 1986). Of particular significance is the
ease of review and revision of what one has written (seldom done with a pen)
and the attractive presentation of the results (Can you recall all those
gifted students with illegible handwriting?). A word processing package offers
other elements essential in teaching writing to students including individualization,
self-pacing, ability to reward instantly, opportunities to learn logical thought, patience and privacy.
The non-discrimination and non-intimidating nature of word
processing seems to provide a more calming environment for writing to occur. Could this
psychological form of inner freedom give the Joan's and
Bill's of our schools a stronger sense of internal control
when interacting with a word processing
package, resulting in a greater willingness to taken written
risks? My experiences in this area would
indicate so, as errors made on a word processor appear
to have a less discouraging impact on the
learner's self-esteem. It has been my observation that
this process increases the likelihood that the user's
attention will remain on task longer, resulting in a
superior written product.
A Tool for the Learning Disabled Writer
It may be easier for youngsters to judge if a word "looks
right" on the video screen than from an untidy,
handwritten notebook. A word processing package may
reduce some of the frustrations associated with the
mechanical aspects of forming letters. I have spent
far too many hours with learning disabled
pupils, who find writing so frustrating and sometimes so
physically painful, that they often refuse to
complete even a paragraph of longhand. And if their writing
disability is severe, they may never learn how to
form cursive or manuscript letters simply by working
longer and harder and doing more of the same.
For example, word errors made while typing on a
microcomputer keyboard may be viewed differently from
cursive errors made using a pencil on paper. After
correcting a paper error, writers like Joan and Bill
are always left with some evidence of the erasure as a
reminder of their errors. In contrast, incorrectly typed
symbols viewed on the computer screen are easily
deleted by touching the backspace key, leaving no
visual evidence of any occurrence (Marini &
Winarski, 1986).
What about those students who demonstrate a
preference for instruction through their auditory modality and who
often show inferior spatial orientation and
page organizational limitations? This weakness can
make writing especially laborious and a frustrating experience. Before introducing the word processor to Bill
and Joan, I gave them many types of pencil grips
to hold their pencils in the correct tripod
fashion; otherwise their pencil points would drift above and
below the page line. Spaces between their letters were
uneven and they failed to leave the standard
distance between words. Being perfectionists, they rewrote
many sentences, resulting in numerous sheets of
paper being crumbled up and tossed into the garbage
can.
By using the word processing program, Bill and Joan
have added quality and quantity to their writing. They
now fashion and revise content easier and have no
problems with the legibility of their handwriting. Simply
stated, with the mechanical details of
writing minimized, Bill and Joan were able to pay greater
attention to their content and style.
Summary
I have seen positive results when special education students use a
word processing program as a tool to improve their
otherwise below normal writing skills. This chance
to write better is most relevant in a culture where
this linguistic "frame of mind" is fostered, revered
and more importantly, considered a central component of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple
Intelligences (1987). I believe that these special
learners perceive themselves as better writers after
printing out their stories. For them, this form of chip
technology has been the "missing link" to their writing success.
While microcomputers and word processing programs are
here to stay, are there instances whereby
they should not be used as school tools for better
writing skills? Or, stated somewhat differently, could
penmanship skills decline if students
composed sentences and paragraphs solely from word
processing packages? Wheeler's (1985) response that "(word
processing programs) may even help students become
better writers when they are not using a word
processor" (p. 54) is worthy of additional research.
Notes
1. Many thanks to Hugues Chicoine for formatting the original
pages of this article.
2. Initially, this article was published in the January -- February, 1991 issue (Volume 9, Number 3)
of Teaching Today by Clifford Morris, a Special Education Resource Unit teacher at John Young
Elementary School in Kanata, Ontario. It was subsequently reprinted
in The Manitoba Association of Resource Teachers, 10(4), 8-9. It was slightly
revised on January of 2010.
References
Armstrong, T. (1988, Sept.). Learning Differences -- Not Disabilities.
Principal, 68(1): 34-36.
Flaro, L (1989, Sept./Oct.). Dysgraphia: Why Johnny Can't Write - Part 1.
Teaching
Today, 8 (1): 19-21.
Gardner, H. (1987). The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Annuals of Dyslexis, 37: 19-35.
Kerchner, L, & Kistinger, B. (1984, Fall). Language Processing / Word
Processing: Written expression, computers and learning disabled students.
Learning Disability Quarterly, 7(4): 329-355.
Marini, A. & Winarski, A. (1986, Apr./May). Releasing Their Potential.
Grade, 1 (1):
13-14.
Morocco, C. & Neuman, S. (1986, Apr.). Word Processors and the Acquisition of
Writing Strategies. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 19 (4): 243-247.
Wheeler, F. (1985, Mar.). Can Word Processing Help the Writing Process?
Learning: The Magazine for Creative Teaching, 13 (7): 54-55, 58-60.
Whitmore, J. R., Maker, J. (1985). Intellectual Giftedness in Disabled Persons.
Rockville MD: Aspen Publication.
Clifford Morris is a resource room teacher at John Young Elementary School, in Kanata, Ontario.
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