A snapshot of my classroom: context and the problem

The classroom context

I teach what I have labeled as a very challenging and special class. :)
It is a collaborative special education classroom. My class has five identified special education students (these are a mixture of behavioral and academic classifications) and several students who are being monitored for possible referral. These students are each demanding of my time and I am the only certified teacher in there for the majority of my Writer’s Workshop. Almost all of the students in my classroom can orally tell a story with many details. A handful of the students in the classroom who can orally express their thoughts and stories cannot independently write them down on paper. Each student's struggle with writing is shown in a different way but they all are most confident when they orally tell their story and I write it down for them to then copy.

As a classroom teacher with twenty-one students sitting down and writing five or six students’ stories each day is not a possibility. If these same students demand and get my attention daily, the other students in the classroom will not flourish as young writers. Developing strong writers in the early grades is so critical because of the strong relationship between reading and writing.

The problem

The demands of my students led me to ask this question daily....

What strategies will help struggling writers to become expressive independent writers?

What is the plan?

I plan to use two different strategies with my struggling writers. They will be divided into two different groups.
Group 1 will focus on using technology. They will be using a voice recording app on the Ipad to record them orally telling the story. They will then replay their recording while they independently complete their writing.
Group 2 will be collaborative partnerships. This will be two students (1 reluctant/struggling writer and 1 on/above-level writer) who will work collaboratively but will each produce their own individual writing piece. The struggling/reluctant students in these partnerships are ones who require significant one-on-one support while writing.

Now lets give this thing a go......