Variations in Interactive Writing Instruction: A Study in Four Bilingual Special Education Settings

This study is designed as a set of four case studies to investigate writing instruction in bilingual special education settings and the compositions of students with learning disabilities in those settings. Each case study is in a bilingual special education setting. Special education teachers who were prepared with bilingual authorization in California were studied in each of the four settings; their decisions about writing instruction and the type of writing program they implemented were recorded. Data on students' writing were collected over a 10-week period and 1 year later as a follow-up. Results indicated that teachers chose different approaches for teaching writing, including: (a) interactive journals; (b) Optimal Learning Environment (OLE); (c) Writer's Workshop; and (d) a combination of journal writing, brainstorming-planning, and spelling practice. Based on analyses of narrative compositions, each of the four types of writing instruction appeared to yield higher writing quality after 10 weeks. H...