USING QUESTION-AND-ANSWER SCAFFOLDING STRUCTURE (QASS) TO TEACH STUDENTS WITH AUTISM TO COMPOSE FREE VERSES

High functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) manifest rigidity in their thought and behavioural patterns, which are often regarded as negative and challenging trait that disadvantage them in their learning. As a result, their teachers often dismiss them as incapable of literary appreciation and so exclude them from rich and meaningful literary experiences which include reading classics and creative writing. However, the author, a former mainstream school teacher and university academic, of this paper firmly believes that literary appreciation and creative writing could still be taught to such students by tapping on their thought and behavioural rigidity and utilise it as a teaching tool to teach them how to create free verses. In this paper, the author has created a scaffolding strategy – Question-and-Answer Scaffolding Structure (QASS) – and also illustrated how he has used it to teach his students with ASD to create free verses