STRATEGIES TO TEACH WRITING TO ESOL STUDENTS By

STRATEGIES TO TEACH WRITING TO ESOL STUDENTS By Tara Light ESOL Teacher Shallowford Falls and Tritt Elementary, Cobb County Schools

TEACHING BIO • Teacher in Cobb County for 13 years • IEL (Intensive English Language) at East Cobb Middle for 7 years • Regular Education 6 th grade Science and Social Studies at East Cobb Middle for 2 years • Regular Education 1 st grade at Tritt for 2 years • ESOL K-5 intenerate at Shallowford Falls and Tritt for 2 years

WHAT DO TEACHERS EXPECT FROM ESOL STUDENTS IN WRITING? • Do you hold them to the same grade level standards? • Do you meet them at their language proficiency level and try to bridge the gap? • What are you looking for in their writing? • • Content Structure Grammar Spelling

HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN WISHFUL THINKING AND REALISTIC IDEAS? • Wishful thinking is focusing on all parts of the writing process and expecting students to be successful. • Realistic thinking is when one part of the writing process is focused on and mastered. • Where is the middle ground that will help bridge the gap? • You need to set an individual writing goal for each student. • Expose students to all parts of the writing process but focus your assessments on the student’s goal.

WHAT ARE THE FIRST 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS BEFORE YOU START WRITING? What vocabulary does the student know? What is the student’s reading level? • Does the student only have conversational or social vocabulary? You can use a variety of resources to find out. • What academic vocabulary do they have in English or in home language? • DRA • Does the student need sentence starters? • Lexile • • Does the student need a word bank? • Does the student need a sight word list? • Does the student need a thesaurus or a similar resource? What is the student’s writing ability in their home language? • Do they know the alphabet? • Do they have basic writing skills? • Do they understand the structure of their home language? ACCESS • Can the student write a word, a sentence or a paragraph in their home language? • It is also important to know if the student can read in their home language. • Do they use capitalization and punctuation in their home language? • What does the student read?

STRATEGIES TO GET ESOL STUDENTS TO START WRITING • Fast and Furious Writing- allow students to draw, write in home language, create a story board, anything that gets their ideas on paper • Model- use a variety of text to model, find authentic student work to show them

Can Do’s Text that is copied or adapted from model or source text is generally comprehensible (though comprehensibility may be significantly compromised in original text) and includes: • language that represents an idea or ideas • varying amounts of text that may be copied • adapted text that may contain some original language • words, chunks of language, or simple phrasal patterns associated with common social and instructional situations • possible use of some conventions • usage of highest frequency general content related words • usage of everyday social and instructional words and expressions LEVEL 1 STRATEGIES Create a Graphic Organizer together on the topic with visuals. • Start with a picture or have students create a drawing • Create a word bank from the visual • Use vocabulary words as visuals • Have students place visual in the sentences with the word • Give sentence starters • Have a list of verbs with visual for students to use

Can Do’s Some original text and text adapted from model or source text is generally comprehensible (though comprehensibility may often be compromised in attempts at more complex original text) and includes: • text that shows emerging expression of an idea or ideas and may demonstrate some attempt at organization • some amount of text that may be copied or adapted • repetitive sentence and phrasal patterns and formulaic grammatical structures used in social and instructional situations or across content areas • variable use of conventions • usage of general content words and expressions • usage of social and instructional words and expressions across content areas • possible usage of general vocabulary where more specific language is needed LEVEL 2 STRATEGIES Create half of the Graphic Organizer with students and have students work in pairs to collect the rest • Give students topic sentence • Have them write the detail sentences using the graphic organizer or word box • Have student share their story during different stages of the writing process to get feedback and ideas • Have them reflect back on mentor text to catch grammatical errors and help with motivation • Have students type text to find grammatical errors and to help with spelling

Can Do’s Original text is generally comprehensible (though comprehensibility may from time to time be compromised in more complex original text) and includes: • text that shows developing organization in the expression of an expanded idea or multiple related ideas • evidence of a developing sense of perspective, register, and genre • a developing range of sentence patterns and grammatical structures common to content areas • developing use of conventions to convey meaning • usage of some specific content words and expressions as appropriate • usage of common cognates, words, or expressions related to content areas as appropriate • vocabulary usage that attempts to fulfill the writing purpose LEVEL 3 STRATEGIES Create Graphic Organizers in groups. Have students grouped in multiple levels • Write across pages or create sequence framework for story • When writing, have student go back and reread and edit as they write. • Work in small groups or have a writing buddy to help with ideas • Use vocabulary words in writing with piggy-back sentences • Chunk writing and work on each part one at a time • Identify the goal or purpose of writing piece

Can Do’s Text is generally comprehensible at all times; approaches comparability to the writing of English proficient peers; and includes: • connected text (sentences or paragraphs) that shows an organized expression of ideas with emerging cohesion • some evidence of conveying an appropriate perspective, register, and genre • a range of sentence patterns and grammatical structures characteristic of the content area • generally consistent use of appropriate conventions to convey meaning • usage of specific and some technical content area words and expressions as appropriate • usage of words and expressions with multiple meanings or common collocations and idioms across content areas as appropriate • vocabulary usage that generally fulfills the writing purpose LEVEL 4 STRATEGIES Create Graphic Organizer or story arch with a partner or individually • Write at least 2 openings or introductions to your story • Create your characters and their character traits before you start writing • Identify the problem or interesting event that happens in the story • Find a way to add some kind of figurative language to your writing using mentor text or personal experiences that they can relate to.

Can Do’s Text is comprehensible and related to purpose; generally comparable to the writing of English proficient peers; and includes: • extended connected text (single or multiple paragraphs) that is organized and shows a cohesive and coherent expression of ideas • clear evidence of conveying an appropriate perspective, register, and genre • a broad range of sentence patterns and grammatical structures matched to the content area topic • nearly consistent use of appropriate conventions to convey meaning, including for effect • usage of technical and abstract content-area words and expressions as appropriate • usage of words and expressions with precise meaning related to content area topics as appropriate • vocabulary usage that fulfills the writing LEVEL 5 STRATEGIES Create Graphic Organizer or story arch with a partner o individually • Review writing rubric prior to writing • Have check points during writing process where the student reflects or edits with buddy or teacher • Have a goal set for writing • Have short editing sections, where students are only working on one thing during each editing section • Have student read writing to a peer or review group. This will generate discussion to edit or improve the writing piece.

How to motivate KIDS to write?

Motivation 1. Use journal prompts 2. Give them a box of sidewalk chalk and allow them to write sentences on the sidewalk - join in the fun with them. Fun pencils with colored paper work as well. 3. Write letters to characters from books, pen pals, relatives, or friends. 4. Use fun journals or start a family journal. 5. Encourage your child to write and "publish" a book of poems or stories to give as gifts to relatives. 6. Have your kids write jokes or riddles that can be read during the dinner time meal. 7. Use Mad Libs and have fun filling in the words and reading them to each other. 8. Give your kids fun story starter’s and have them finish the story in 50 words or less. 9. Create a writing kit for your kids to motivate them to write and be creative. 10. Share published writing from students their age.