Using Invitational Learning and Discourse-Based Strategies to Address Writing Competence for Students with Disabilities

• In Event: Invitational Learning in Multiple Contexts

Abstract

This session will present findings related to two middle grades special education classrooms engaged in the process of creating an Invitational Learning environment in an effort to improve students’ writing competence. The development of a classroom observation coding system using the Intentionality, Discourse, Engagement Analysis Scale (IDEAS) will be described. Classroom discourse was coded according to Purkey and Novak’s (1996) Intentionality/ Invitation Quadrant with levels corresponding to intentionally inviting, intentionally uninviting, unintentionally inviting, and unintentionally uninviting. The IDEAS also included elements of the Interaction and Language Analysis Scale (Ornelles, 2007). Classroom observations and audio-recorded teacher-student and student-student conversations will be coded using the IDEAS. Results of our initial findings will be discussed.

Authors

• Rhonda S. Black, University of Hawaii

• Cecily Ornelles, University of Hawaii - Manoa