Writing+Strategies

M any of our EAL/ELL/ESOL students struggle with writing. I am certainly no expert in the field, but here are some sites and suggestions that might be helpful. Please feel free to add resources and your ideas!

Create a writing guide that is translated for the parents. If we get parental support, our job is a lot easier. Here is an example of our writing guide that is in English and Arabic. 

M odeling and S caffolding Students are not born knowing how to write. If they were born to write, we wouldn't be teaching them :) A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Get the students to write - almost anything is okay, just get them to write.
 * 1) Get small notebooks for use as writing notebooks. These are great for diary entries, journaling, and spur-of-the-moment writing.
 * 2) Provide time for students to write each day, and require that they write something. Encourage students to write down ideas they have, or thoughts as they occur - hence the small/tiny writing notebooks.
 * 3) Have the students share what they are writing (this also helps their speaking skills - nice side benefit!).

I am a terrible writer and writing is not a very pleasant experience sometimes. My biggest problem - I don't know what/how you want me to write. Give me a topic and a form and I feel much more comfortable. I think I'm not alone.

Scaffolding - is a process of providing support to students while they learn to do something. For writing, scaffolding would be providing them supports, gradually taken away as they make progress, to help them get to the point where they can be acceptable writers. Scaffolding is not doing it for them, and scaffolding is not about making it easier. Scaffolding is about providing a guide to help the students understand how to write and what it should look like when completed.

Modeling involves letting the students see/hear what you are thinking and how you would complete the task. Modeling gives the students the first steps to learning - copying your actions. Is it basic? Yep. But a journey starts with one step.
 * 1) Tell the students what you are doing and thinking while you are writing - they aren't mind readers!
 * 2) Show students how to write: step by step.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;">Encourage the students to comment/ask questions when you are writing.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Differentiation - this is not accommodating/modifying the curriculum. This is all about finding ways for the students to show that they understand the concepts and standards. It's not a "dumbing down of the curriculum". One of my newest favorites is using RAFTs as a way for the students to pick a project format that suits their style and interest - they still must complete their standards-based work. Differentiation does not mean you need to design a whole new lesson for each student (that is individualized learning). You simply give the students lessons that allow them to choose the format that they will use to show understanding, or how they will show that understanding - with one rubric to rule them all.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%; line-height: 27px;">Scaffolding Resources <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%; line-height: 27px;">Writing is Fun - lots of templates and a great writing scaffolding website.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%; line-height: 27px;">A great article, with examples, on using scaffolding []

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Graphic Organizers <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Here is a site with many graphic organizers

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Another amazing writing process site

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Differentiation Resources <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">A superb list of strategies - with an explantion of course! []