09/29/2025
Need a practical way to support text comprehension and writing in your students with language-based learning differences?
Try this step-by-step instructional sequence using cause-effect graphic organizers to explicitly teach text structure:
📍 Start with a simple cause-effect organizer to help students visualize relationships in the text.
📍 Guide students in highlighting signal words (e.g., because, as a result) to identify key structure cues.
📍 Model how to transfer information from the highlighted passage onto the graphic organizer to support comprehension and recall.
✏️ Paraphrasing and written responses come next using the organizer as a scaffold. Remember: this process builds both syntactic and vocabulary skills, so modeling and guided practice are key.
🧠 Pair it with explicit strategy instruction (e.g., “Plan what you want to write,” “Use your organizer,” “Re-read what you wrote”) to support executive function in students with LLDs.
📘 For more hands-on strategies, check out Language and Literacy Connections: Intervention for School-Age Children and Adolescents, Second Edition by Geraldine P. Wallach and Alaine Ocampo: https://ow.ly/tqyh50WN1uc
