As a special education teacher, you know the challenges of teaching paragraph writing to students with cognitive disabilities. The struggle to balance engagement, accessibility, and structure can make writing lessons feel overwhelming. That’s why I created this Scaffolded Paragraph Writing resource, designed to transform your writing instruction and help your students achieve writing success!
What Makes This Resource a Must-Have?
This isn’t your average writing unit. It’s carefully crafted to meet the unique needs of students with cognitive disabilities while keeping them motivated and eager to learn. Here’s what makes it stand out.
15 Engaging Fall Topics
Say goodbye to blank stares and disengaged learners! This resource includes seasonal topics like fall leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween costumes—themes your students will love. These familiar and exciting topics make writing relatable and fun, making it perfect for special education writing activities.
Scaffolded Worksheets
Writing a paragraph can be challenging for our students, but not with this step-by-step approach. This new resource includes worksheets that break the writing process into manageable steps, making it easier for beginning writers to develop structured and complete paragraphs. Follow this sequence to break down each type of sentence and build on student skills.
Teach students to write detail sentences, while providing a pre-written topic and conclusion sentence.
Teach students to write topic sentences, while providing a pre-written conclusion sentence.
Teach students to write a complete paragraph.
Anchor Charts and Rubrics
Easy-to-understand visuals and rubrics make writing straightforward. Anchor charts help students navigate the process, and rubrics set clear expectations, giving students the confidence to own their learning.
Multimedia Connections
Bring topics to life with video and book links! These multimedia elements add context, engage learners, and make each topic even more meaningful. Students will gain background information and learn key concepts through anchor books and videos.
Each topic includes links to three books that teachers can access through Epic Reading and two YouTube videos that introduce the topic. These connections are a great tool for teachers wondering how to teach paragraph writing to students with disabilities in an engaging way.
Brainstorming and Pre-Writing Activities
Use the included brainstorming sheets to guide students in organizing their thoughts before they put pencil to paper. This structured pre-writing support builds confidence and sets the stage for success.
Every writing topic comes with a brainstorming web and a handy word bank with key vocab words. As students explore the topic through multimedia connections, they can use the webs to brainstorm ideas for their paragraphs.
Why Special Education Teachers Love It
This resource is designed specifically for students with disabilities, or students that need intensive scaffolding for writing. Whether you’re working with small groups, one-on-one, or encouraging independent practice, this unit provides the tools you need to:
Build foundational writing skills.
Foster independence and critical thinking.
Create a supportive and inclusive classroom environment.
How Can You Use This Resource?
Morning Work or Centers: Start the day with engaging, structured writing practice.
Small Group Instruction: Provide targeted support to help students master each step of the writing process.
Independent Work: Reinforce skills with accessible activities students can complete on their own.
IEP Goal Instruction: Explicitly teach students with paragraph writing goals.
Sample IEP Goal:
Given a writing topic or research question and a word bank, STUDENT will write and revise a 5 sentence informative paragraph (topic sentence, 3 supporting sentences, conclusion sentence) using facts, details and vocabulary related to the topic with ---% accuracy across 3 consecutive data sessions as scored by the attached rubric.
Objective 1: Given a topic sentence, a conclusion and a word bank for an informative text topic, STUDENT will write and revise a paragraph including 3 supporting sentences using facts, details and vocabulary related to the topic with ---% accuracy across 3 consecutive data sessions as scored by the attached rubric.
Objective 2: Given a conclusion and a word bank for an informative text topic, STUDENT will write and revise a paragraph including a topic sentence and 3 supporting sentences using facts, details and vocabulary related to the topic with ---% accuracy across 3 consecutive data sessions as scored by the attached rubric.
What does a Scaffolded Paragraph Writing lesson look like?
Introduce the topic: Use the included links to books and videos. As a group, identify key ideas and details about the topic and take notes.
Brainstorm ideas: Hand out the brainstorming worksheet to students. Students will use the group notes and word bank to generate their writing ideas on their web.
I DO: Model writing a paragraph using the example paragraph provided for the topic. Think aloud as you are writing, and model how to pull ideas from the web into your writing.
WE DO: Handout the cut and paste paragraph strips. Students will practice placing the sentences in order for the example paragraph. Use the anchor charts to reinforce how to write the different types of sentences (topic, supporting, conclusion).
YOU DO: Pass out the scaffolded worksheet that aligns with student's current objective or benchmark. Students will use their own brainstorming web and word bank to write their paragraphs about the topic.
Edit & Revise: Together, help the student edit and revise their writing.
Collect data: Evaluate student's paragraphs using the included rubric.
Ready to Transform Your Writing Instruction?
Transform your approach to teaching paragraph writing with ease! The Fall-Themed Scaffolded Paragraph Writing provides all the resources you need to ensure your writing instruction is effective, inclusive, and enjoyable for your students. Whether you're looking for special education writing activities, or exploring how to teach paragraph writing to students with disabilities, this resource has you covered.
Don't miss out—download your free Apples sample today and watch your students grow as writers!
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