Simple ways to assess the writing skills of students with learning disabilities

Ways to Promote Authenticity in Students’ Writing
Focus on the process versus the product.
When promoting authenticity in students’ writing, it is important to place a greater emphasis on the development of students’ ideas relative to the writing versus a focus on layout, grammar, organization and style. A process approach promotes students’ ideas through brainstorming, class discussions, and revision. Students are not asked to merely imitate the structure of a model text, but are empowered to draft ideas and then use models to help them identify ways to convey the message they wish to share.
In a process approach, students should also be engaged in sharing their drafts with classmates for the purposes of reading each other’s work and responding to each other as readers. In a process approach, ideas are the starting point and there is a strong emphasis on the purpose of the writing, the intended audience, and the form. The work is collaborative and students are engaged in a recursive process where their writing is developed through multiple drafts and iterations.
Allow choice.
Our students need to be personally invested in learning for their own purposes. The best way to promote this ownership and inquisitiveness is by involving our students in making choices about what they will learn and how they will communicate their learning with others.
Share students’ writing beyond the classroom.
When students know they are writing for an audience besides their teacher and classmates, the stakes are raised and students are driven to produce their best. Once students know their intended audiences, time should be spent thinking about the different ways to appeal to their audiences. There are number of ways students can do this. For instance, a students’ writing may gain appeal by its stucture, organization, content, craft, evidence, voice, word choice, sentence structure, and layout.
Write for real-world reasons.
Our students inherently have a desire to make an impact on the lives of others. When they recognize the potential power behind their words and see the relevance of their writing, they are inspired to change the world. In the absence of a clear purpose, students’ writing simply becomes an exercise in compliance rather than a vehicle for change.