Students with ADHD

“Human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers,” says filmmaker Beeban Kidron (2012). We, as humans, share our experiences through stories. Young children make up stories to amuse themselves and their parents. Somewhere along the line of traditional schooling, however, storytelling starts to lose its magic for some students. These students, who struggle with the traditional organization and independence of traditional schooling, struggle to write the creative stories they once told as little children.
Bound by pencil, paper, and their own limitations, students with ADHD struggle to write well-organized and well-developed stories. It is, therefore, the teacher’s job to help the ADHD student rediscover his inner storyteller and organize his story in a way that all can understand and enjoy. The use of technology for writing is just one way that research has found improves student writing. As a result, this study will seek to determine if the use of multimedia software, PowerPoint, has a positive effect on the writing of fictional stories by middle school students with ADHD.
Rationale for Study
ADHD is an increasing diagnosis among American students. General education teachers now balance a wide variety of instructional and behavioral needs, as elucidated in IEPs and 504s, while at the same time trying to ensure that all students are successful in achieving academic success as dictated by state standards and expectations. This can be a daunting task and teachers need to be armed with the most effective and most efficient strategies for helping all students achieve their goals.
As an English teacher in a small private school where class sizes are already small,...

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