Research Writing for Special Education Students

So, we finished up our research using our new KWL chart.    The kids took lots of notes.

After we finished up our notes, we made sentences with the facts that we learned.

We review the notes that we made and decided on a topic sentence.

Then, the students copied the topic sentence and added their own details.  As they needed help with spelling, we created a word box on the board for them.

Here are some rough drafts before we discussed them.

An otter is built for swimming.  They have long tails.  They are very mean.  They are fast.  They have webbed feet.  They have sharp teeth.  They are brown. They are special.  They are intelligent.

An otter is built for swimming.  They are great swimmers.  They have sharp teeth.  They are webbed feet.  They are brown.  They have a strong tail.

An otter is built for swimming.  Their tail is very powerful.  It helps them to steer in water.  Otters have webbed feet which helps them swim.  Their fur is water proof.  That way they can swim faster.

For my lower students,  we decided which sentences went together and which sentences did not belong.  We put the sentences in an order that made sense. 

These students copied the topic sentence then we added the rest of the sentences that belonged in the paragraph.

All paragraphs were reviewed with the students.  We talked about what sentences that didn't belong. We also corrected spelling.  Students then wrote a final copy.  When we finish with our other 2 paragraphs, students will put it all into Book Creator to publish their work.

You can find my research writing guide here.