Project WeGotIt!: A tool to help your students improve their writing

Students with learning disabilities or emotional behavioral disorders can find writing a challenging endeavor. These students may be inattentive, or they may lack the ability to self-regulate, which can lead to difficulties in composing thoughtful, well-crafted text where ideas are presented in an organized, coherent, and structured manner. For some of these students, writing can become a frustrating task—one in which they invest significant effort with limited results. This can exacerbate a student’s feelings of frustration and make them anxious about the mechanics of writing. Their motivation and desire to write can be negatively affected. However, innovative technology is providing an opportunity to support these students in the writing process by helping them in the planning, drafting, revising/editing, and publishing of their written work.

Faculty and researchers at George Mason University’s School of Education have developed a technology-based graphic organizer (TBGO) which provides multiple supports to help students in K-12 with learning disabilities and emotional behavioral disorders improve their writing literacy. The TBGO was developed as part of Project WeGotIt! (Writing Efficiently with Graphic Organizers—Teachers Integrating Technology), funded under a grant from the US Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. The TBGO developed by the Mason team is a Chrome-based web application which includes a table-to-text graphic organizer with a mnemonic strategy (IDEAS) that guides the student in organizing persuasive facts supporting their essay composition. The following is a breakdown of the IDEAS mnemonic which walks the student step-by-step in planning and organizing their writing:

• “I” = Identify your claim (I.e., What do you think about the topic?)
• “D” = Determine a fact (or facts) supporting your claim.
• “E” = Elaborate with evidence (Tell us a little more about this fact. How do you know it is true?)
• “A” = Add transition words (The TBGO provides drop-down menus containing transition words that help students with the logical flow and appropriate sequence of ideas and sentences within their composition.)
• “S” = Summarize (State your claim again.)

Embedded within the TBGO are self-regulated learning strategies including goal setting, self-instruction, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation. The TBGO also contains features such as word prediction, audio comments, text hints, and speech recognition allowing students to dictate their sentences to the computer through a microphone. Finally, the TBGO incorporates videos correlating with specific prompts that provide the student with further information and examples of the main parts of an essay.

To find out more about how the TBGO works, please watch the video on this page and then click here to walk through a demonstration. To learn more about the technology-based graphic organizer, read this article by faculty in the Assistive Technology program at George Mason University’s School of Education. Mason’s Assistive Technology (AT) program is designed to develop professionals who can effectively implement, assess, and research applications of AT devices and services that provide greater independence for those with disabilities. For more information on degree offerings, please visit the program website.