narrative writing special education

7 Steps to Teaching Writing Skills to Students with Disabilities

Written expression is a huge part of life inside and outside the classroom. When students with disabilities learn to write, type, and/or select appropriate communicative responses, it opens the door to greater opportunities to reach their learning goals, communicate their preferences, and establish rapport with the people around them.

Today’s post shares 7 important steps to consider when designing programs for teaching written expression to students with disabilities. These are excerpted and adapted from the excellent guidebook More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities, edited by Diane M. Browder and Fred Spooner.

Assess Students’ Current Repertoire

Which words and communicative responses does the student already use? Before you select a student’s instructional targets, start by determining his or her current writing and communication repertoires through formal and standardized assessments. An assessment of communicative functioning should target:

• Speaker skills, or expressive skills: communication skills that affect the behaviors of others
• Listener skills, or receptive skills: communication skills that involve responding to the words of others

To help you easily determine instruction objectives, you might also use a curriculum-based assessment tool that uncovers information about a broad array of skills relevant to writing, such as a student’s fine motor skills, communication, visual discrimination, and imitation.

Make Writing Meaningful

• Ask what’s important and potentially reinforcing to students, and use the answers as engaging topics for written narratives. Try presenting pictures of characters from a book and asking the student, “Whom would you like to write about?” Let the student select their three most preferred characters to focus on during writing instruction.
• Teach students to request desired objects by exchanging pre-written words for preferred items. For example, you might instruct a student to get a cookie by handing the written word cookie to a partner. Once the student masters this, he or she can be taught to combine the written words big and cookie to communicate a desire for a larger cookie. This is a powerful way to give students direct control over their environment as they learn the functional use of written words. As a bonus, it allows students to use pre-written words without having to learn more complex fine motor and cognitive skills first.
• Deliver reinforcement right away. When your student displays any type of writing or prewriting behavior—holding a crayon, scribbling, pressing keys on a computer, drawing on a SMART Board—follow it up with immediate praise and reinforcement. This will hopefully increase the frequency of their writing behavior and improve the fine motor skills they need for handwriting or keyboarding.

Encourage Imitation

When learning to copy words, some students may need assistive technology to circumvent weaknesses in fine motor skills. You may need to use adapted keyboards (alphabetical, onehanded, large print), AAC selection displays, and/or scanning technology for students who have physical disabilities that affect their gross and fine motor functioning.

Teach Spelling Skills

• Backward chaining strategy. Present the spoken word and then provide a written model for the student to trace. Fade the written model by incrementally removing the letters in the word from the last letter to the first.
• Computer-assisted instruction. Show the student a word/picture combination, and then ask him to select letters from a computer-based array to construct the word shown.
• Cover, copy, compare (CCC) technique. Give the student a piece of paper divided into four columns. The first column contains the targeted spelling word. The student copies the word and writes it in the second column. Then the student folds the first column on the left toward the center (covering the second column) and writes the word from memory in the third column. The student unfolds the paper and compares, and if she’s made an error, she copies the word three times in the final column.
• Video models. Record a video of yourself writing new words on a chalkboard, and display the video on a computer while students type or write the words. Insert a pause in the video to allow the student time to copy the word. Then insert a blank screen, during which the student writes the word from memory, and show the original model once more. (Share the videos with parents to help them support their child in practicing writing skills outside the classroom.)

Encourage Sentence Construction

• Once students have acquired a small word-to-picture repertoire of about 50 words, start using sentence starters (“I see a _____,” “The boy is ______”) to expand the length of these responses.
• Fade the sentence starters gradually so that students are independently constructing sentences.
• Once students can write a single sentence about a picture, encourage them to write multiple sentences about a picture. Present pictures containing a variety of stimuli and highlight features of the picture to help students identify content in which to describe or label. These prompts can then be faded to ensure students can choose to write about the stimuli that they deem important.
• Fade the use of pictures so that students can eventually write about things they have learned. Slowly increase the amount of time between the observation of the picture and the writing response. This fading is important, since students will rarely be asked to write about things immediately present in their environment.

Note: If students have not acquired sufficient spelling skills to write sentences, then they may require the use of selection-based writing software in which words or combinations of words are presented within arrays on a computer screen.

Teach Narrative Writing

• Begin by teaching students to write simple paragraphs. Show them that a paragraph names a topic and then tells more about that topic.
• Teach students to apply this rule when writing a paragraph about a picture. Help the student to identify the content of a topic sentence by highlighting a key element within the picture.
• Present a visual organizer and show the student how to use it during planning and while writing his or her paragraphs.
• To give students a model for simple storytelling, show them a series of pictured events or video recordings of real-life events (e.g., child plays ball, child falls down, child cries). You might also give students a series of pictures to sequence themselves before they write a story.
• Once students can write or construct a paragraph about a picture or other visual aid, fade the use of visual supports.

Provide Editing and Revision Instruction

• After teaching a student to write simple sentences, instruct the student to identify whether he or she has included both a person or a thing and something more about the subject.
• Direct the student to look for ending punctuation.
• Ask students to identify missing elements in their stories. Have them practice by presenting a variety of examples and having the student record the presence or absence of the elements.
• Teach students to use checklists to increase the inclusion of critical elements during writing activities.
• Show students how to graph their use of writing elements and monitor their own progress, so they can become more independent and effective writers.

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MULIANI BT ABU BAKAR says

I need an advice(s) the teaching strategies to kids with learning difficulties. Starting by teaching phonics , hoe else should I proceed. Fitzroy Readers are so far very effective. Tqvm

jlillis says

Hi! You can find our complete list of books related to teaching children with learning disabilities here: https://products.brookespublishing.com/Learning-Disabilities-C1059.aspx. Many of these have sections on teaching literacy skills, including writing, to students with learning difficulties.

Daisy Simpson says

Amazing article. All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students. I want to add one more method by which you can try to teach them writing skills. You can ask students to read some story of their choice and ask them to write the same story in their own words, it will help them to write on the beginning stage because they know the story and just need to write by themselves. Writing a story without reading can be difficult for students but if they have read the story can write it.

Thank you, Daisy! Great suggestion!

maheshsea says

Thanks for sharing the significant information. It helped my children and will help others a lot. Nice.. ...All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students

Basudeb Das says

Well explained

Andi Duferense says

Amazing article. All the 7 steps are just wonderful for students. I want to add one more method by which you can try to teach https://www.google.com/ writing skills. You can ask students to read some story of their choice and ask them to write the same story in their own words, it will help them to write on the beginning stage because they know the story and just need to write by themselves. Writing a story without reading can be difficult for students but if they have read the story can write it.

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Creating Positive Student Outcomes in Middle School Special Education: Creating Richer Personal Narratives

May 5, 2019

This post is part of a series about helping students with LBLD experience academic success.

Read Erin’s other blog posts:

• Start the Year with Writing Instruction
• Scary Story Contest
• How to Teach Point of View
• Tackling Text Structure

by Erin Broudo

Each year, I do a personal narrative writing unit with my seventh grade students. There have been years where I’ve received some really moving, thoughtful narratives…. and years where a student tells me the only event he can think of to write about was the time he accidentally shaved off part of an eyebrow. (Yes, that particular student did find that it was a little more difficult than he thought to stretch that experience out into a full story!) Usually, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. This year, in working towards my writing goals, I decided to spend more time front-loading narrative writing skill instruction. I used mentor texts paired with a series of shorter narrative writing prompts so that they could really have time to reflect on several different events or subjects and choose one for their final piece that would ideally have a little more narrative heft.

Teach the elements of a narrative

To begin, I reviewed the three main types of narrative essays: personal (about your own life), biographical (about someone else’s life), and fictional. I wanted to make sure that my students understood the differences and also the connections between these genres, and that while a personal narrative is non-fiction, it should feel like a story, not like an essay. There have been years when I’ve been able to assign all three types of narrative, and I’ve really enjoyed having the students choose someone to interview for their biographical narrative. However, this year I decided to focus solely on the personal memoir. We reviewed literary elements such as plot, conflict, and character, and talked about how a personal narrative includes these elements, just like a fictional story. We talked about the elements that make up a plot, such as an inciting incident or conflict, rising action, and a climax. We then read an example of a personal narrative to identify each part of the plot and look at how conflict functions in a personal memoir.

Make brainstorming a hands-on activity

My first official assignment as part of the personal narrative unit this year was to ask students to bring in a “mystery bag” containing five important items that symbolize something about them and/or their childhood or life. This assignment was a huge success and a lot of fun! My students brought photos of family members or pets, items that reminded them of a story from their childhood, and, of course, well-loved stuffed animals. They all loved sharing the stories behind their objects, and some went into great detail. Trying to harness this momentum, I asked students to choose one object to keep on their desk as inspiration, and to write the story of that object with plenty of description. The students’ stories were descriptive, and I think it really helped to have the object right there on their desk as a visual. I told them that the stories and memories they shared that day could all turn into a wonderful personal narrative – it was really one of the best brainstorming activities I could have imagined.

Use mentor texts

After this introductory activity, I moved on to some skill instruction and shorter writing assignments paired with mentor texts. The use of mentor texts is always important, but particularly so when it comes to this genre. My goal in choosing mentor texts was to focus on specific skills that I wanted to teach explicitly, but also to help students see that a personal narrative is, at its core, a story . First, we read the chapter called “Harlem” from Walter Dean Myers’s memoir Bad Boy . For this assignment, I asked students to highlight details about the setting. Following our reading, I assigned students the task of brainstorming details about a setting in their lives and writing a short essay focusing on that setting. Next, we read “Nintendo Saved Me” by Ned Vizzini , and I assigned students the task of writing about a favorite toy from their childhood. The last piece I assigned in this introduction to personal narratives was a “school story.” for this, I like to use either “Let’s Hear it for the First Grade” (another chapter from Bad Boy ) or Patricia Polacco’s children’s book Thank you Mr. Faulker , or both.

Teach voice

One topic I really wanted to explicitly teach and review with my students in this unit was using voice in writing. We talked about the three elements of voice: personality, color, and emotion. For a creative writing warm-up related to emotion, we read a short passage I had written about an incident involving a class pet. I had students work in groups to try to add personality, color, and emotion to the straightforward and simple narrative. Then, I gave each student a card with a different emotion written on it and asked them to rewrite this story so that their assigned emotion was clear in the tone and voice of their narrator. Each student read their story and their peers had to try to guess the emotion they were attempting to convey. I instructed students to make it fairly obvious for this exercise – but we talked about how sometimes the emotion in a story is more subtle. For a mentor text on voice, I used an excerpt from a David Sedaris essay published in a magazine specifically for students (and therefore edited appropriately!). The excerpt is entitled “Tricked”, and tells a hilarious story of one Halloween when Sedaris’s neighbors come trick-or-treating one day too late. Following our reading of the story, we talked about the use of Voice and identified examples of personality, color, and emotion in this mentor text.

Teach structure

The last topic I covered with students, before assigning their final writing piece, was the structure of a personal narrative. I wanted students to understand that a narrative often contains four parts: the hook or opener, the set-up (introducing the story), the zoom-in (the story itself), and a zoom-out where the author reflects and maybe infers a lesson learned from the experience. For this topic, we read Annie Dillard’s “The Chase” and identified each of those four structural elements in her personal narrative. 

Assign a personal narrative

Finally, it was time for students to produce their own longer personal narrative. For this assignment, as for all assignments, I provided an organizer for students to fill out to make sure they included all necessary elements. Once students completed a first draft, I also gave them a checklist so they could make sure they included those elements, such as a strong hook, sensory description, emotion, dialogue, and a clear setting. Students were required to use this checklist to mark up and add to their first draft before submitting a final version of their narrative.

I found that the quality of my students’ personal narratives was consistently improved from past years as the result of this focused instruction, practice, and use of checklists to ensure they had included certain elements in their stories. As with all of the writing units described in this blog series, by taking the time to explicitly teach and practice specific writing skills, I was able to help my students produce writing that was more sophisticated, more descriptive, and more effective than they might have created if given the assignment without this front-loaded instruction. Perhaps even a story about an accidental half-eyebrow-shaving could have been improved upon, if I had only given that student these same tools!

Erin Broudo currently teaches in a language-based program for grades 6-8 in the Wachusett Regional School District based in Holden, MA. Prior to this position, she worked as a special education coordinator at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, MA. Erin began her teaching career at Landmark High School, where she taught literature and grammar & composition courses in the preparatory program, as well as one-on-one language arts tutorials, for seven years. She has been teaching online courses for Landmark Outreach since she left Landmark and continues to participate in Outreach seminars, as well as other professional development opportunities related to dyslexia and language-based instruction.

Strategies to Download

Practice writing with voice

Teaching and using voice in writing

Memoir structure practice using Annie Dillard’s “The Chase”

Personal narrative organizer

Personal narrative checklist

Purchase Erin’s booklet on Writing Research Papers

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Teaching the Writing Process to Students with Special Needs

• Deb Killion
• Categories : Inclusion strategies for mainstreamed classrooms
• Tags : Special ed information for teachers & parents

I am a lifelong writer. Writing always came easy to me. I brought grades up in college from a “C” to an “A” because of this gift. But like any talent, the same gift was not bestowed on everyone. I struggled with Math, especially Algebra when I was a student. Some people struggle with Writing and English in the same way I struggled with Math. Once I realized that, I became a better teacher.

This series is meant to be a guide and a step-by-step lesson series on how to teach writing skills required for the standardized tests, as well as other contexts.

Teaching Writing to Resource Students

Knowing your students and where their strong points are is essential to helping them flourish with the changing demands of today’s current education system. So, first, assess what skills your students have, including content-writing skills, grammatical ability, spelling, and more, and analyze what they need to work on. But, in order to effectively teach writing, we must start with the most obvious: Content-writing. We will also look at the various steps of writing, and model it in the way students with special needs learn best.

Step 1: The Pre-WritingStage

There are many components to good writing, which include content, grammar, style, tone, voice, and sentence structure. All of these are important but can be difficult to teach to students who struggled with Language Arts skills and writing structure. One of the first things you should teach is content . Content is the fabric that holds the piece together. The rest are just vehicles to good writing. Without good content, you do not have anything. So, starting with good content about a topic is the first step.

To get students to think about what to write about, here are 10 idea starters that may serve to spur their imaginations:

One fun thing I did last summer was….

If I could do anything for a job, it would be….

My favorite memory of Christmas at home was….

The best car for the money right now is….

My goals for the future are…..

Cats make better pets than dogs because….

__________ is the best place to go on vacation because…

What Makes a Nice Person is…..

The Grand Canyon is much more than just a big hole in the ground….

People should not smoke because…..

These 10 writing starter ideas include many of the most important skills tested on the Benchmark exams. They include the skills the standardized test creators expect them to know, including analysis, comparison, persuasive language, and evaluation. They also include the skill of research in some cases, such as defending why a certain place is the best place to go on vacation, or what the Grand Canyon is, besides a big hole in the ground. In addition, they require students to use their imaginations to come up with ideas on their own. These writing starter ideas are only meant to get a kid’s imagination going, and hopefully spur them on to their own ideas. They all require analytical thinking; some require comparison writing, and other skills they should learn to effectively communicate their own ideas.

Content is really about what they know. This requires some former knowledge, but this is also something teachers can teach. Brainstorming is the most essential element of writing at the pre-writing stage. During this stage, get students to think of everything about the topic they possibly can within 5 minutes. They should write everything that pops into their heads. The good writer has often said, “Don’t think. Write.” This is true in this initial stage while working on ideas for content. The revising and perfecting stage comes later.

So in this part, simply have students write everything they can think of, organize their notes, then “weed their garden,” so that their essay will not be too broad. Once they have decided on a topic and developed the ideas, they are ready to move on to step 2: The Writing Stage

• http://www.readingrockets.org/article/215/
• http://www.weac.org/Issues _Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/speced_links.aspx
• http://specialeducatorswebpages.com/

This post is part of the series: The Five Step Writing Process for Students with Special Needs

The 5 steps to good writing include: 1) Pre-writing (Brainstorming), 2) Writing (Content), 3) Rewriting/Revising, 4) Editing/Proofreading, 5) Publishing. This series goes through each step, outlining some ideas to try for students who struggle.

• Teaching Writing to Students with Special Needs
• Teaching Students with Special Needs: The Writing Phase
• Rewriting and Revising: Teaching Students with Special Needs
• Proofreading & Publishing: The Final Stage in the Writing Process

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How to write an effective IEP

Writing quality individual education plans (IEPs) that give a clear view of a student’s strengths and needs is such an important part of a special education teacher’s job. For all other teachers, IEP best practices can help support student learning during COVID-19 and as we begin to move past the restrictions of the pandemic.

I spent the first 13 years of my K–2 teaching career performing academic testing for eligibility for special education services and then writing eligibility determination paperwork and IEPs for my students. It has been almost nine years since I wrote a plan (I left the workforce for a few years after the birth of my third child), but once a teacher, always a teacher. Since leaving the classroom, I have volunteered as an advocate for families as they navigate the evaluation and IEP process in their school.

A lot has changed in the last decade. Many states now require dyslexia screening of young students, for example, which leads to earlier identification and earlier access to services. But one thing has stayed the same: a well-written IEP that is read and understood by all members of a learning team is imperative to student success.

Spring is IEP season, and as you begin the work of updating IEP goals and amending plans for transitions from one grade to the next, it will be important to pay close attention to how pandemic and post-pandemic learning needs impacted children with special needs. COVID-19 changed everything, including how students with disabilities access instruction and make progress on their IEP goals. Here are some things to consider as we learn and grow after this unprecedented time.  

Step 1: Define the learning team

When the pandemic started, many annual IEP review meetings happened late and/or virtually instead of in person in many areas of the country. This may still be the case for some teachers, students, or caregivers who have compromised immune systems. Whether these meetings happen in person or remotely, it is important for each member of the learning team be present to ensure their communication with students and families is clear and that they check frequently for understanding.

Each member of a learning team is important and needs to understand both their role and the information in the IEP.

• Student: The student is the most important member of any learning team! Student participation throughout the process, including in meetings, will ensure they have a voice in their education. I have had children as young as nine attend their IEP meetings, and although it is not necessary that early on, if a student is interested, be sure to include them. As a student gets older, they should have increased responsibility in the meetings. Be sure to ask them questions and give them plenty of time to speak, too; they will have the most valuable, up-to-date information regarding what they need to meet their goals, especially as they travel from class to class and teacher to teacher.
• Family: A student’s at-home support system is invaluable. Be mindful of relationships because not all parents live in the same household and some kids may be cared for by a grandparent, adult sibling, or other guardian. Be sure to include everyone and be prepared to make duplicate copies of correspondence so family can stay informed. Be proactive and find out if a translator is needed (request them ahead of time if there’s a need). Sometimes, parents have family or others they trust for translating and they should be invited as well. But ensure the school also provides a translator who is well versed in the type of information being presented so the family does not miss anything important. Finally, someone on the school team should take the role of advocating for families to ensure they understand everything that is being discussed.
• Teachers: While a student’s classroom teacher and special education teacher are usually the only ones at an IEP meeting, all teachers who work with a student should be familiar with the IEP. Teachers who teach classes covered by goal areas and teachers who teach classes that may be covered in accommodations only should have access to the IEP, read it thoroughly, and ask questions if anything is unclear. The IEP manager should ensure all teachers who have a role in implementing IEP goals or accommodations are clear on what they need to do to support the student.
• Specialists: Speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, social workers, physical therapists, school nurses, work transition specialists, guidance counselors, education specialists, and any other education professionals who work with a student or are in charge of coordinating paperwork must be a part of the learning team. It is really important that any professional who is communicating information about a student presents that information in a positive, factual manner. Be mindful of any jargon and make sure that students, their families, and other teachers understand what is being said. It can be tempting to hide behind jargon when presenting delicate information. Be mindful of this and ensure the family understands the information being presented.

Step 2: Present levels of academic achievement, functional performance, strengths, and needs

When discussing the IEP, it is important to accentuate the positive but not minimize the areas of need. Keep the focus on the goals and the plan that is in place to ensure the student can achieve them. The staff member acting as an advocate for the family may need to pre-meet with them to go over anything that may contain difficult to understand or potentially upsetting information.  Again, avoid relying on educational jargon only in this space, as non-educators may not understand fully and may be afraid to ask.

A well-written IEP that is read and understood by all members of a learning team is imperative to student success.

The strengths and needs portion of the IEP will have come from the eligibility conference and doesn’t change until the re-evaluation. The needs are used to drive the goals (which, in turn, drive services), and the strengths are used to determine the areas to highlight when teaching, writing accommodations, and motivating the student.

“Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance” ( formerly known as “Present levels of performance” ) indicate where the student is currently performing in each developmental area. This portion of the IEP serves as a narrative, but it also contains qualitative or quantitative information about the student’s achievement and performance. The focus here is on where the student is currently compared to how far the student may need to go and what, if anything, needs to happen to bridge the gap.

Educators or family members should have a clear grasp of what the student can do by reading this portion of the IEP. It sets the stage for the goals that are written for any need-based area. It is also a great place to highlight strengths a student has, both in need-based areas and in areas where there will be no goal written.

Step 3: Set goals

The pandemic really made a mess of achieving and updating IEP goals set for previous school years. It was not realistic to expect students to achieve goals amid so much chaos, including school closures, remote instruction, increased absences, and physical barriers (such as masks or shields), and frequent changes in instructional methods. As you begin working on IEPs for next year, please don’t ignore the existing IEP or carry over the same goals and present levels. Be honest with yourself and the rest of the learning team as you look at the existing IEP and write a comprehensive update. Rely on your student’s strengths and areas of growth and really capitalize on those in the goal-setting process.

As I mentioned earlier, goals are written to address each area of need identified during a student’s eligibility conference. If there are four areas of need identified, then there should be (at least) four goals written to cover the areas of need. The goals should be:

• Succinct. Aim for one to two sentences.
• SMART.  “SMART” stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
• Ambitious. Keep the bar high for each and every student. The point of an IEP is to help a student close a gap, so goals should be written to allow them to achieve more in the school year than the average student. This is how we close the gap.

Student and family input for this portion is imperative. Involve them in meetings and discussions prior to writing the goals.

Step 4: Understand “accommodations” and “modifications,” and decide how to use them

Some people say the “Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance” is their favorite section of the IEP. I think mine is the accommodations section.

The International Dyslexia Association has a great definition for “accommodation” that makes it easier to differentiate between an accommodation and a modification. They say, “Accommodations are adjustments made to allow a student to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities without lowering learning or performance expectations and without changing what is being measured (e.g., providing text in audio-format when academic knowledge [e.g., history, biology, literature] is the target skill being measured).” They go on to explain that giving a student a needed accommodation to help them access curriculum or show what they learned is not giving them an “unfair advantage” or changing the scope of what they have to do; it is leveling the playing field for the student with a disability. To further drive this point home, I love this popular visual published on diffen.com . It is a great visual to show just how important this part of the IEP really is.

Modifications are different in that they are changes to work expectations (e.g., only doing the even numbers in an assignment instead of all of them) or changes to content. I believe modifications can be really beneficial when setting work expectations, but they should be used sparingly because most content modifications lower grade-level expectations. This does not allow a student to access grade-level curriculum, which does not help them close the gap in their learning.

Choosing accommodations or modifications for a student should be purposeful and thought driven. As a student ages and becomes more involved in their education, they should be an active participant in this portion of the process as well. Keep the strengths and needs along with the goals handy as this portion of the IEP is completed.

Ensure IEP success

There’s no denying that COVID-19 has made it more difficult to identify and meet the needs of students with disabilities. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel as vaccinations are widely available, the virus has changed, and response to treatments have improved. Most schools have been open for five-day in-person instruction with lessened to no physical barriers since the fall.

Keeping the obstacles of the last few years top of mind when working on IEPs this spring can help students—and their teams—succeed next year. An IEP is a legal document written to ensure success, as well as an equitable learning experience. It needs to be reflective of the student’s strengths and need areas, with goals that set high expectations and allow for appropriate accommodations and modifications.

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How ELA and Special Ed Collaboration Can Produce Great Student Writing

July 25, 2021

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Listen to the interview with Sarah Riggs Johnson:

Sponsored by Listenwise and Scholastic Scope

One September morning in a writing workshop class, Jack, a 5th grader, was telling me about a funny “small moment” he witnessed on an airplane. Apparently, two young 20-somethings sitting in front of him had started up an initial conversation and by the end of the flight, they were kissing. 

“And I mean—a lot of kissing! It was sooo awkward!” he squealed. 

Where most 5th graders were planning their narrative writing about the time they broke their arm/wrist/ankle or their game-winning shot/hit/goal, I thought Jack’s idea was so refreshing. After his detailed description of eavesdropping, I felt certain his piece would be funny and weird-in-a-good-way—a joy to read. I left him to write and went to help other students. When I returned, Jack’s writing teacher (my friend and colleague) stood beside his desk with a hand on her chin, looking perplexed. Jack had sat for 45 minutes with only this written on his page:

On tim on a plaen…

Jack’s accommodation plan said he had dyslexia and graphomotor difficulties, which was one reason I was in his writing workshop that morning: He was one of many students I had the privilege of working with as a learning specialist. Sometimes we would meet in a small group outside of class, and other times I would work with him in his regular 5th grade class. As a learning specialist, my role was to help Jack’s English/Language Arts (ELA) teacher figure out how to help him write. Her role was to help me figure out what skills to focus on with Jack during my intervention time with him. Over years of doing this work, I discovered some essential elements to improving students’ writing through this kind of collaborative practice between regular classroom writing teachers and learning specialists. 

If you’re part of a similar partnership, you may find some of these helpful in your work as well.

Why Writing is Especially Challenging for Students with Learning Differences

Writing is an incredibly complex task. It involves the instant integration of several components—handwriting and letter formation (and later typing), spacing and formatting on the page, spelling, grammar, sentence formation, adding punctuation—all while holding your ideas, and some sort of organizational scheme for those ideas, in your memory. It’s a difficult enough task for most students, who aren’t reading as much as they once did due to our instant access to visual media. But it’s particularly challenging for people with language-based learning disabilities, who often continue to struggle with writing even in adulthood. 

Students with learning differences often experience a more severe “cognitive bottleneck” first described by theorists who studied attention in the ‘50s and ‘60s . Some conventions of written language make it to the page while others…don’t quite make it. Did Jack know how to spell “one,” “time,” and “plane” in 5th grade? Yes, he did. He had years of multi-sensory phonics and reading intervention behind him. However, the other cognitive demands of the writing process caused his spelling to get caught in the bottleneck. 

Other students with learning differences also struggle with writing. Students with ADHD sometimes struggle to organize language, keep track of their ideas, or explain with enough detail. Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders often struggle to understand writing from the point of view of their readers. 

Helping these students become proficient writers takes the synergy of a skilled language arts teacher and a skilled learning specialist. And that synergy can be enhanced if certain elements are in place.

Essential Elements of Effective ELA-Specialist Collaboration

1. a common planning time .

The biggest impact a school leader can make in the quality of instruction for ALL learners is to give co-teachers common planning time. I was lucky to start my career as a special educator in a school where my division head handed me a blank schedule with two periods already filled in. It said, “Common planning time with the 5th and 6th-grade Humanities teams.” For 55 minutes once a week, three humanities teachers and myself gathered around the student work table in my office with coffee (lots of coffee), books, laptops, and a last-minute Post-It note agenda.

As a result of these meetings, reading and writing workshops were problem-solved, social studies lessons were well designed, student work was analyzed, student needs were met, and friendships and co-teaching relationships I will cherish forever were formed. The cast of characters changed over the years as teachers left and were hired, including myself, but the value stayed the same. More recently we’ve had to have these meetings as floating heads on a screen, but the value in sitting down together to talk about how we would teach has never wavered for me. 

2. An Equal Partnership 

Collaboration works best when the ELA teacher and the specialist work on equal playing fields. I like to think of it as a psychologist and a sociologist working together: One is focused more on how an individual is functioning; the other needs to be focused on the good of the group. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong. Sometimes our ideas will seem out of touch with each other’s roles, and that’s okay as long as we honor the value in each other. As a learning specialist, I am not an island in knowing what’s best for students, even students with learning differences. It works best when there is shared ownership; when we can see their growth as “our” shared goal! 

One practical way to accomplish this goal is to rotate groups. There were times when I would work with the most talented writers in the class, giving the ELA teacher more time with our struggling writers. My colleague and I would always have lots to talk about afterwards, and the kids did not feel the stigma of being the only ones asked to work with the specialist. 

Another way the specialist can reduce stigma is by taking part in some of the fun that happens with the class—help judge a competition, give feedback on a project, participate in a class celebration and connect with students other than the ones you are there to serve. Students will come to see you as just another one of their teachers, and as a resource for all. 

3. Reading Student Work Together 

Whenever possible, both teachers should analyze student drafts together to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of students’ writing. Doing this together will help you see different strengths and weaknesses in a piece, and the student will then learn to see these as well.

Sharing the writing load also means you can divide up written feedback on student drafts. By rotating which teacher gives feedback to which students, you give students the benefit of both sets of eyes and continue to establish an equal partnership with all students. 

4. Practicing ‘Less is More’

With a task as complex as writing, all students—but especially those with learning differences—can experience cognitive overload. So it works best to tackle one chunk, one scene, one paragraph at a time. 

When it comes to feedback, many students are overwhelmed by too many comments just as they used to be with too much red ink. I rely heavily on giving students genuine praise—for a descriptive adjective, a well-crafted phrase, an attempt to apply the lesson to their writing—and then I follow it up with one or two suggestions for revision. Psychologically, all students have to feel they have something to say; they have to feel positive about the effort they’re making, so very specific, authentic praise will earn you a lot of effort in return.

Another way to reduce the quantity of written feedback is to give some of it verbally, which allows for the levity and nuance that “Insert Comment” can’t achieve. In-person conferencing is ideal, but in the last 6 months, I’ve learned to record quick screencast videos explaining my feedback, highlighting sentences, and typing comments to illustrate different areas for improvement. 

5. Use of Models

ELA teachers tend to read widely! One of the most effective things we can do together is figure out some interesting examples to use with our students who are struggling—the perfect opening paragraph, the perfect fight scene, an example of suspense building, describing the setting, the expert’s quotation being explained. If we have these at the ready, we can pull them to discuss and analyze with students. I also always recommend saving exceptional work (de-identified, of course) to use as models for the next year. For remote learning, I always have models or visuals pulled up as separate tabs and ready to be screenshared as needed. 

6. Use of Word Lists 

I have an entire library of word lists where students can look for the perfect word or phrase. I always end up lending these to the writing classroom. A more specific word for walked , blue , big , or sad can make an emerging writer feel like a poet. This is especially effective when working on writing poetry and descriptive writing, but it can also be used for older students writing analytical pieces as they struggle with transitional language and tying their points together. Why not have a list of templates at their disposal, i.e., “According to…”, “This demonstrates why…” etc.)? 

The act of scanning the lists for just the right word or phrase improves the student’s ability to clarify meaning and see possibilities. The student with a learning difference is also sometimes not well-read and needs exposure to two things: (1) new ways to say things and (2) the nuanced difference in the meaning of certain words or expressions. I will often practice this act of list scanning with students… “Hmm, let’s try out some different words here and see if you can find one that makes you feel something… or seems like the perfect fit!”

7. Staying Together

Try not to remove a kid who struggles with writing from writing instruction. Students who struggle learn more than you think from their peers, even if their writing skill is not comparable. Instead of pulling students who struggle from the classroom during writing, work with the specialist to make the instruction more accessible and more enjoyable. Sometimes the specialist can arrange to physically or virtually be in the classroom working with students, and at other times he or she might “asynchronously” design a graphic organizer, outline, or checklist, or make a plan for integrating assistive technology like speech-to-text accessibility features or dictation apps for certain students. 

8. Letting ELA Work Guide Intervention

Specialists can reinforce mini-lessons, genres, and concepts taught by the ELA teacher in the writing lesson—and add a touch of language remediation. If my students are working on persuasive essays in writing class, every sentence I have them analyze for word study or work on reading fluency will be from a persuasive writing sample and as closely aligned with their personal interests as I can plan for that week. This builds confidence and familiarity with the writing genre in addition to the skills I am targeting. 

There is magic in teachers working together to reinforce the same knowledge and skills. I love it when a student I’m working with exclaims, “Wait a minute, we just talked about this in a writing workshop today!” Then, depending on the student, you can sarcastically feign shock “REALLY?” or just give them a knowing side-eye! We all need all the magic we can muster right now. 

9. Showing Progress Through Writing Samples

Progress towards the achievement of IEP or SMART-style goals can be made visible through a timeline sequence of writing samples. I once taught a student who wrote with no punctuation. Even when this student re-read to add periods, he could not distinguish where a sentence began and ended. It was difficult for him to hear the natural pauses in speech; complex grammar concepts such as subject and predicate or even “being verbs” were difficult for him to grasp. 

His teacher and I came up with a weekly routine that balanced getting his ideas on the page sans punctuation in writing class, and working on dictated sentences (from his own writing!) with me until his natural sense of pause and punctuation improved. We were able to demonstrate this progress by simply sequencing the drafts of his writing throughout the semester and showing him the changes over time. Working online, it is easy to annotate a student’s digital writing portfolio, pointing to their progress with certain skills. When you can show a student their own progress in this way, and have them reflect, it tends to increase their motivation tenfold. 

10. Prioritizing Revision and Editing 

Students with learning differences that impact writing often struggle with clarity and mechanics. Once students write to get their ideas on the page first, they can develop a multi-step process for what I call the R’s: re-read , revise , and sometimes I use the word revisit .  

Ideally, each student would have their own checklist for this process, and it would be generated with and not for the student. For example, I might advise them to start by revisiting their punctuation/ sentence boundaries. Next, they could revisit their spelling. (For a student who doesn’t recognize their own disordered spelling, this can be even more scaffolded by the teacher putting a number of misspellings on the line and asking the student to find them.) The list would include each of the aspects we discussed through our mini-lessons for that particular genre of writing. Through this process, the ELA teacher and the specialist may have different suggestions for revision and improvement, and that’ll only make the writing better! 

Another way to teach revision as a process is to have students re-visit their writing with each square of a single-point rubric , which can be especially valuable if generated by the class.  Revisiting writing with a rubric (all the R’s!) can be fun to do in peer-revision stations, where peers are assigned a specific aspect of the rubric to give the writer feedback on.  

Another tip: I often instruct students who struggle with sentence boundaries, to re-read their piece backward, from the last sentence to the first. This eliminates the memory of what they think they have said and lays bare the sentences as they were written. Students tend to go, “Oh yeah, this is definitely too long to be one sentence!”

11. Combatting Anxiety and Perfectionism

Some students struggle with writing because subconsciously, the fact that they cannot write on the level of the books that they love to read frustrates them (e.g., If I can’t sound like J.K. Rowling, I’m a failure, and so why even get started? ). For a student with this mindset, I work with the ELA teacher to come up with very specific models. (See #5). And always, always show them the timeline of their drafts to reinforce progress (See #9). I also borrow a favorite phrase from my colleague, the ELA teacher: “No matter what kind of a writer you are, when you think you’re done, you’ve just begun!”

As we know, writing is an endless, limitless, boundless creative task. Students who are uncomfortable with this type of endeavor have to be taught some strategies to wade into it and find some comfort with themselves, with feedback, and with change. 

These are the tenets of what helped Jack eventually write that narrative piece, one of the most original, giggle-inducing stories in his class. He needed the mini-lessons his ELA teacher taught about leads and dialogue, “juicy” details and setting the scene, creating a movie in the reader’s mind, etc. He also needed the language support, the remediation, the accommodation of some writing by dictation, and the editing and revision strategies taught by the specialist. He needed two writing teachers who were encouraging him to use and develop his comedic voice to write. 

In addition to being good for the diverse young humans we serve, this type of healthy collaboration between educators is a game-changer for teaching practice. I have always found it helps me bring the art and the science together; it’s creative and innovative and validating. It can make you feel like you are on fire in your teaching again, especially if you’ve been teaching alone for a long time. As with all things teaching and learning, it’s not always neat or easy, but it is ultimately pretty dang rewarding.

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Categories: Instruction , Podcast , Working Together

Tags: English language arts , special education

I am presently taking a course, “Teaching Reluctant Writers,” through John’s Hopkins. This podcast reinforced, reminded, reinvigorated.

I agree that co-teachers should be given common planning time. People tend to forget that planning is essential for teachers. Otherwise, they could fall into a spot where they have nothing to teach or their students refuse to learn.

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Sentence Building Activities for Special Ed

Do you have students in your special education classroom who struggle with writing sentences? Or maybe they struggle with putting words together to form a sentence?

Today I would like to introduce you to Sentence Building .

This resource was created out of a desperate need for my own self-contained classroom. Students in my classroom, verbal and nonverbal, were struggling with sentences… writing them, putting them together… the whole nine yards… but they had IEP goals to meet and I had zero curriculum to help them achieve their annual goals.

So I created it for them, providing models and guidance to promote independence with the task…

…and it worked!

Sometimes it is difficult for some of our students to figure out how to organize words in a sentence. There are so many different reasons your students may be struggling, including ( but not limited to ):

• spelling, handwriting, lack of success previously, can verbalize sentences, but not put the ideas on paper…

I understand both you and your student’s frustrations. Writing sentences is tough! There’s so much that goes into it, but it is a life-long skill our students need to learn and master.

You can use this full-year resource to teach students how to write a sentence, or to reinforce the skills through interactive sentence building practice. These leveled activities can be used in small or whole group, in literacy centers, as morning or word work, in sensory bins or in intervention groups.

Daily sentence writing allows students to:

• practice spelling and identify spelling patterns
• use their thinking skills to create a complete sentence, and
• improve comprehension and writing skills.

With differentiated practice, students will feel confident to:

• write a sentence
• read and spell common words and sight words
• answer comprehension questions about the text
• visual how sentences come together by putting words in order
• use pictures to guide their writing, and
• demonstrate growth

Other skills practiced when using Sentence Builders:  capitalization and punctuation, letter formation, spacing between words, parts of speech, cutting and gluing practice, and more!

• 40 weeks of writing and sentence building instruction • 5 levels of differentiation, print and implement ready!

How is this resource differentiated to meet the needs of all of my learners? There are 3 different levels of sentences: Level 1 – 6 sentences with 3 or 4 words per sentence. Level 2 – 6 sentences with 6 words per sentence. Level 3 – 6 sentences with 8 to 12 words per sentence.

{ Grab the Sentence Builder Bundle here . }

So let’s take a look at how it works, the different levels, and the recommendations for use in the classroom.

There are 6 sentences within each level. This is Level 1, so each sentence has 3 or 4 words.

I recommend printing these cards on cardstock and laminating so you can reuse them each year.

Have students work on one sentence at a time. Using the picture cards, have students put the words in order to form the sentence correctly.

Next is getting the cut and paste worksheet ready.

For some students, I will have them cut their own sentence strips apart. For others ( or if we are short on time ), I will cut them out ( typically while they are putting the sentence together ).

Now it’s time to paste!

With this worksheet, there are 4 options available. As shown ( errorless, with pictures ), errorless with words, and just pictures or just words. Having these different levels of differentiation will help you meet the needs of all learners in your classroom, while working on the same thing.

Paste the sentence strip onto the worksheet. We love using our glue sponges !

This first step, putting the sentences together and cutting/pasting activity, is typically done on the first and second day of writing instruction.

As we move into day two, start by having students put the sentences in order again. You can mix all of the picture cards up, have students sort the cards, and then put the sentences in correct order.

Then you will move into the third day of writing instruction with either the trace or write Sentence Builder ( depending upon student skill level ).

Students will use the picture cards as a model to write the sentence in correct order, as well as spell all of the words correctly.

Typically if students finish early, we have this “extra” Sentence Builder activity to complete… and sometimes we will complete this on a Thursday if we’ve completed the rest of our writing work.

This challenge activity provides two options for students. One, use the words given with each picture to write 2 new sentences about that picture with the words. Two, the extra challenge at the bottom asks students to write their own sentence about each image.

This really gets students thinking outside of the box and gives them an opportunity to showcase lesson mastery and creativity.

Level 2 – each sentence has 6 words per sentence. All of the activities are identical to Level 1.

You can easily have students working on the same week’s topic ( this post shows the weather set ), but on different levels. All of the images are the same within each level, but the sentence difficulty increases.

Level 3 – each sentence has 8 to 12 words per sentence. All activities are, again, identical to Level 1.

What are other teachers, like you, saying about Sentence Builders?

“ The sentences are formulated in such a way that they work on sentence structure as well as grammar and can also be used as comprehension activities if you come up with questions for them. ” – Samantha W.

“ I am so excited for this resource!!! Differentiating writing in my class is challenging as they just want to copy each other. Now they have their own personalized stuff. ” – Macy B.

“ LOVE LOVE LOVE! This is differentiated to my lower level writers but also to my writers who need challenged. It is a great resource and I use it in independent writing centers. ” – Passion2Teach

“ What a wonderful, comprehensive resource for writing! I love the differentiated levels- all of my students will be able to participate! ” – Annie A.

If you’d like to try a set out for free, you can download a free set of Level 2 in the Resource Library .

{ Grab the Holiday Sentence Builder Bundle here . }

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

• Getting Students Excited to Write in Any Classroom
• Accommodating Guided Reading Levels: Part 2

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Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Why were so many metro stations in Moscow renamed?

Okhotny Ryad station in Soviet times and today.

The Moscow metro system has 275 stations, and 28 of them have been renamed at some point or other—and several times in some cases. Most of these are the oldest stations, which opened in 1935.

The politics of place names

The first station to change its name was Ulitsa Kominterna (Comintern Street). The Comintern was an international communist organization that ceased to exist in 1943, and after the war Moscow authorities decided to call the street named after it something else. In 1946, the station was renamed Kalininskaya. Then for several days in 1990, the station was called Vozdvizhenka, before eventually settling on Aleksandrovsky Sad, which is what it is called today.

The banner on the entraince reads: "Kalininskaya station." Now it's Alexandrovsky Sad.

Until 1957, Kropotkinskaya station was called Dvorets Sovetov ( Palace of Soviets ). There were plans to build a monumental Stalinist high-rise on the site of the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour , which had been demolished. However, the project never got off the ground, and after Stalin's death the station was named after Kropotkinskaya Street, which passes above it.

Dvorets Sovetov station, 1935. Letters on the entrance: "Metro after Kaganovich."

Of course, politics was the main reason for changing station names. Initially, the Moscow Metro itself was named after Lazar Kaganovich, Joseph Stalin’s right-hand man. Kaganovich supervised the construction of the first metro line and was in charge of drawing up a master plan for reconstructing Moscow as the "capital of the proletariat."

In 1955, under Nikita Khrushchev's rule and during the denunciation of Stalin's personality cult, the Moscow Metro was named in honor of Vladimir Lenin.

Kropotkinskaya station, our days. Letters on the entrance: "Metropolitan after Lenin."

New Metro stations that have been opened since the collapse of the Soviet Union simply say "Moscow Metro," although the metro's affiliation with Vladimir Lenin has never officially been dropped.

Zyablikovo station. On the entrance, there are no more signs that the metro is named after Lenin.

Stations that bore the names of Stalin's associates were also renamed under Khrushchev. Additionally, some stations were named after a neighborhood or street and if these underwent name changes, the stations themselves had to be renamed as well.

Until 1961 the Moscow Metro had a Stalinskaya station that was adorned by a five-meter statue of the supreme leader. It is now called Semyonovskaya station.

Left: Stalinskaya station. Right: Now it's Semyonovskaya.

The biggest wholesale renaming of stations took place in 1990, when Moscow’s government decided to get rid of Soviet names. Overnight, 11 metro stations named after revolutionaries were given new names. Shcherbakovskaya became Alekseyevskaya, Gorkovskaya became Tverskaya, Ploshchad Nogina became Kitay-Gorod and Kirovskaya turned into Chistye Prudy. This seriously confused passengers, to put it mildly, and some older Muscovites still call Lubyanka station Dzerzhinskaya for old times' sake.

At the same time, certain stations have held onto their Soviet names. Marksistskaya and Kropotkinskaya, for instance, although there were plans to rename them too at one point.

"I still sometimes mix up Teatralnaya and Tverskaya stations,” one Moscow resident recalls .

 “Both have been renamed and both start with a ‘T.’ Vykhino still grates on the ear and, when in 1991 on the last day of my final year at school, we went to Kitay-Gorod to go on the river cruise boats, my classmates couldn’t believe that a station with that name existed."

The city government submitted a station name change for public discussion for the first time in 2015. The station in question was Voykovskaya, whose name derives from the revolutionary figure Pyotr Voykov. In the end, city residents voted against the name change, evidently not out of any affection for Voykov personally, but mainly because that was the name they were used to.

What stations changed their name most frequently?

Some stations have changed names three times. Apart from the above-mentioned Aleksandrovsky Sad (Ulitsa Kominterna->Kalininskaya->Vozdvizhenka->Aleksandrovsky Sad), a similar fate befell Partizanskaya station in the east of Moscow. Opened in 1944, it initially bore the ridiculously long name Izmaylovsky PKiO im. Stalina (Izmaylovsky Park of Culture and Rest Named After Stalin). In 1947, the station was renamed and simplified for convenience to Izmaylovskaya. Then in 1963 it was renamed yet again—this time to Izmaylovsky Park, having "donated" its previous name to the next station on the line. And in 2005 it was rechristened Partizanskaya to mark the 60th anniversary of victory in World War II. 

Partizanskaya metro station, nowadays.

Another interesting story involves Alekseyevskaya metro station. This name was originally proposed for the station, which opened in 1958, since a village with this name had been located here. It was then decided to call the station Shcherbakovskaya in honor of Aleksandr Shcherbakov, a politician who had been an associate of Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev had strained relations with Shcherbakov, however, and when he got word of it literally a few days before the station opening the builders had to hastily change all the signs. It ended up with the concise and politically correct name of Mir (Peace).

The name Shcherbakovskaya was restored in 1966 after Khrushchev's fall from power. It then became Alekseyevskaya in 1990.

Alekseyevskaya metro station.

But the station that holds the record for the most name changes is Okhotny Ryad, which opened in 1935 on the site of a cluster of market shops. When the metro system was renamed in honor of Lenin in 1955, this station was renamed after Kaganovich by way of compensation. The name lasted just two years though because in 1957 Kaganovich fell out of favor with Khrushchev, and the previous name was returned. But in 1961 it was rechristened yet again, this time in honor of Prospekt Marksa, which had just been built nearby.

Okhotny Ryad station in 1954 and Prospekt Marksa in 1986.

In 1990, two historical street names—Teatralny Proyezd and Mokhovaya Street—were revived to replace Prospekt Marksa, and the station once again became Okhotny Ryad.

Okhotny Ryad in 2020.

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