Empowering Educators: The 4-Step Writing Process for Special Education Teachers
Written by Cristina Rosato
Dara Bain, M.S., CCC-SLP, one of our speech language pathologists at 30th Street, led an engaging professional development session titled “The 4-Step Writing Process – Strategies for Special Education Teachers.” With over a decade of experience as a speech-language pathologist in special education, Ms. Bain provided our educators with practical strategies to help students scaffold their writing across all content areas.
Writing can be a daunting task for students with language-based learning challenges, but with the right support, all learners can develop strong written communication skills. Ms. Bain’s session focused on breaking down the writing process into four manageable steps— Brainstorming, Outlining, Drafting, and Revising/Editing, with each step having tailored scaffolds to meet student needs. Teachers explored a wide range of scaffolding strategies categorized by the level of support needed—minimum, moderate, or maximum, with the goal being to gradually foster student independence in writing. Examples of some strategies that were discussed included structured graphic organizers, sentence starters, and multisensory techniques designed to help students organize their thoughts and transform ideas into cohesive writing pieces.
One of the activities during this professional development was a hands-on workshop where educators collaborated on lesson planning that targeted specific writing skills, and implemented both single-paragraph and multi-paragraph (3+) writing assignments in their classrooms. Ms. Bain also shared methods for integrating speech and language support into writing instruction, reinforcing skills like vocabulary development, sentence structure, and self-editing techniques.
Teachers left the session equipped with ready-to-use resources and a deeper understanding of how to make writing accessible for all students. By implementing the 4-Step Writing Process into their classes, Aaron School 30th Street educators are continuing to help build student confidence and independence in writing, one step at a time.
Thank you, Ms. Bain, for your expertise and dedication to empowering both teachers and students!
