Mainstream Teachers' Responses to Formal Features of Writing by Secondary/Learning Disabled Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to isolate specific formal features to determine which of seven features contributed most to teachers' ratings, and to learn whether secondary teachers of core subjects would disregard gross errors of spelling and mechanics if they were told that paragraphs had been written by learning disabled students. Thirty-five teachers of English, social studies and science from tan schools ranked sets of paragraphs written by learning disabled (LO) students. Findings suggest that teacher demands for formal writing skills hold for LD students; that is, spelling errors will not be overlooked and teachers will expect elaborated sentences.