English and Children with Special Educational Needs in Key Stages 1 and 2

Writing difficulties

Becoming a writer - learning how to express and structure thoughts and communicate meanings - should be an affirming experience for children of all levels of experience. But writing is also about learning to spell, about the physical act of putting words on paper or screen, about choosing words and putting them together. Children may experience difficulties with any or all of these aspects. There is a significant gap in achievement between reading and writing in tests in Key Stage 1 and 2, with boys’ achievement being significantly lower then girls. Recent research has shown that children become less enthusiastic about writing as they progress through primary school with children feeling they have less and less connection with what they are asked to write (Grainger, Gooch and Lambirth 2002). For children with literacy difficulties and/or special educational needs therefore, writing presents significant challenges.

The explicit teaching of writing in a wide range of forms or genres has been one of the central focuses of National Literacy Strategy writing targets in Key Stages 1 and 2. However this has sometimes turned into the teaching of formulaic recipes which have proved to be too abstract for many of the children they are intended to support. For children with literacy difficulties and more clearly defined developmental SEN the emphasis should be on encouraging children to write confidently and enthusiastically for real purposes and audiences, which may include a range of familiar forms such as personal narratives, stories, accounts, letters, lists etc rather than attempting to cover all the genres cited in NLS targets.

Activity

At the most fundamental level, for all children, as well as children with special educational needs, teachers need to consider:

Helping children to develop a sense that it is worthwhile to communicate in writing – that they have something to say
Creating purposes and audiences for writing
Creative starting points for writing
A connected experience of writing within the contexts of texts, reading and talk

Ask students to consider the kinds of writing they have observed in schools, and to think about what they have observed in relation to the above points

Writing assessment

As with reading, recent emphasis in primary schools has been on summative at the expense of formative assessments of writing which inform teaching and learning. National Curriculum levels and QCA end of year test do not provide adequate records for children with SEN because a) they are not fine enough to measure progress adequately b) they do not feed into teaching and learning and c) may not, because of the context of the test, reflect or discover what the child can actually do or finds difficult.

Formative writing assessments

A range of writing records might include:

writing samples where teachers make notes about an in depth reading against a schedule

writing sample forms for Key Stages 1 and 2 can be downloaded from:
http://www.clpe.co.uk/researchandprojects/research_06.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page for downloads.

a Spelling Analysis framework, see section Spelling difficulties
more finely grained criteria for monitoring progress eg P Levels or CLPE Writing Scales

For performance descriptions for children working towards Level 1 (P Levels) in English, see Planning, teaching and assessing the curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties (QCA) http://www.nc.uk.net/ld/En_perf.html. The CLPE Writing Scales can be downloaded from http://www.clpe.co.uk/researchandprojects/research_06.html. Scroll to the bottom of the page for downloads.

ways of reflecting the views of children and parents

Parents and children

An important part of the SEN Code of Practice involves taking into account the views of children and parents. Writing records can include notes on literacy conferences with the child and the child’s own comments. There can also be notes on discussions or conferences with parents.

References

Barrs, M., Ellis, S., Hester, H. and Thomas A. (1988) The Primary Language Record Handbook, CLPE
Grainger, T., Gooch, K. and Lambirth, A. (2002) ‘The Voice of the child: "We're Writers" project’, Literacy Volume 36, Issue 3, pp 135-139,

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