Transcript Presentation1 - teachersteachingwriting

ESL: Every
Student Learns
to Write
Amanda Baker
2010 SWP
I’m Learning to Speak English, Por Favor
Be pashunt please, I don’t know how to spell
Or read or write your language. Por favor,
I’m learning to speak English—ESL.
And I am getting better, I can tell.
“The bull is mad. Be carefull, matadoor!”
Be payshent please, I don’t know how to spell.
For words like ant and aunt or bell and belle,
You must know what the extra letter’s for.
I’m learning to speak English—ESL.
My teacher said I’m going to excell.
Excell. A word worth 50 cents—or more!
Be paishunt please, I don’t know how to spell.
She told me that I’d fall…. I did! I fell
Into meaty words like a…carnivore!
I’m learning to speak English—ESL.
I want to know my nouns and verbs so well
That someday I will get a perfect score.
Be patient (!) with me while I learn to spell
And write and speak in English—ESL.
-J. Patrick Lewis
Did you get
that?
Lets slow it down and
use some prompts.
Did you get it then?
Think..Pair..Share
How did you feel?
“I felt different from everyone else… I couldn’t really be with
anybody because they couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t
understand them. There was no way I could try to make things
better for myself. It was hard just feeling bad.
I felt it was hard for me to tell them all that I felt,
express it all; so I just kept some feelings inside myself.”
Immigrant Children From China
Ages 10-11
The Inner World of the Immigrant Child
Cristina Igoa
Feelings an ESL Child Might Go
Through
_________________________________________________
* Isolation- always into their work or staring off
* Exhaustion- from sounds of a new language and all the strange sights and
events in a new culture
*Loneliness- feeling the child gets when he/she is alone, different, and
separate
*Struggle in School- students feel like they are being rushed to learn and
start to struggle
“Cultural Differences- the culture will affect how the student values
education and learns”
The Inner World of an Immigrant Child
by: Cristina Iso
Activity Time
Look at a cultural scenario.
Discuss in your group what you
think is causing the problem.
“Most ESL students are not
only trying to learn to write in
English, they are also trying to
learn how to read and speak in
English.”
-Theresa Tighe
How long does it take to learn
English?
Students who were between 8-11 years old and had 2-3
years of native language education took 5-7 years to test
at grade level.
Students with little or no formal schooling who arrived
before the age of eight, took 7-10 years to reach grade
level.
Students who were below grade level in native language
literacy also took 7-10 years to reach the 50th percentile.
Many of these students never reached grade level norms.
- Thomas & Collier
Stages of Language Acquisition
Stage
Preproduction
Early Production
Speech Emergence
Intermediate Fluency
Advanced Fluency
Student Characteristics
Often verbally unresponsive
Has minimal comprehension
May be silent; no class participation
Draws or points to show understanding
Produces one or two word answers
Has limited comprehension
Participates in class
Understands key words and known phrases
Depends heavily on context to grasp meaning
Produces simple sentences
Has good comprehension
Participates but makes grammar and/or pronunciation
mistakes
More fluent oral responses
Produces complex sentences
Has excellent comprehension
Makes few, if any grammatical errors
Continued difficulty understanding humor and slang
Language approaching academic levels
Approaching native level of fluency
Fluent grade level comprehension
At an academic level of English proficiency
May still struggle with idioms and slang
Approximate Time Frame
0-6 months
6 months- 1 year
1-3 years
3-5 years
5-7 years
Why do ESL students struggle
with writing?
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ESL students have limited vocabulary.
ESL students are reluctant to use invented spelling.
Content being restricted to words they know how to spell.
Some verb tenses are inaccurate- write in present tense.
The chaotic structure and grammar of student’s composition
make their writing difficult to understand.
Students are reluctant to share their work.
When they do share their work they prefer to do it with
another ESL student, and that student can not give appropriate
feedback.
When an ESL student reads their writing aloud, they have no
sense of what sounds right and what does not.
Writing is more formal.
Written English has more reflection.
Expectations are much higher for formal written English.
Six Stages of Writing
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2.
3.
4.
Drawing a picture
Scribble write
Writing via letter like forms
Writing via reproducing well-learned
units or letter strings
5. Writing using invented spelling
6. Writing with conventional spelling
GOAL!!!!!
What should you not do?
 Do not expect ESL students to free-write
in English.
 Do not have ESL students write in journals
every night at home unless you are going to
read them every night.
 Do not assign open-ended topics to ESL
students.
 Do not expect students who are not fluent
in English to self-edit.
-Judie Haynes and Debbie Zacarian
What SHOULD you do?
 Vocabulary Book- you must start with the basics first and with
pictures
 Survival Notebook
 Have them write in their native language: you can have them
alternate days- two days in native language and two days in
English
 Respond to literature
 Word walls or an individual wall dictionary
 Let them copy sentences or make lists
 Pick one skill to work on at a time. i.e. verb tense
 Allow your students to spend more time in the prewriting stage.
 Have the students develop a topic orally with a small group.
 Chart facts about a nonfiction topic. This will strengthen the
link between oral and written language. Have students read the
facts from the chart aloud.
More Strategies
 Use graphic organizers to introduce the skill of arranging
information for writing. Have students learn to write from this
organizer.
 Use sentences on your organizer rather than phrases. ESL
students have a hard time to go from notes to comprehensible
sentences.
 Be more hands-on when editing and revising.
 Research said ESL students need to be taught the writing
process… prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and
celebration.
 ESL students should write about what they know.
 Get parents involved- send home writing packs or have “Family
Write Nights”.
Even More Strategies
 Label the room
 Avoid slang, colloquial language and idioms (i.e. mash the button,
fixin to).
 Model your own writing
 Morning Message- If you write down the day’s activities on the
board as you say the words, you model the organizational
function of writing and the form.
 Dialogue journals- ask a student a question and respond to them
with something about you and another question.
 Alphabet Books- create a word for each letter of the alphabet
 Read alouds
 Vocabulary journals- when a student comes across a new word
when reading- they write it down with the sentence.
Katie Wood Ray Would Be Happy to
Hear This One:
“Read like a Writer”
ESL students NEED model texts. Have them
notice specific things that writers do.
You might have to take it down a level or two.
Teach nonfiction reading writing first. This
type of instruction gives ESLs language chunks
that they can use in their writing.
Let’s Work!!!
What are some strategies you can take
back to your classroom?
Why is writing essential for an
ESL student to learn?
What was I
thinking!!!!
Writing is essential for all students!!
People must be able to fill out
applications, communicate, get into
schools, etc. no matter what language
they speak.
* ESL students do have to work harder at writing and are normally behind in
this area.
“Once children learn how to learn, nothing
is going to narrow their mind. The
essence of teaching is to make learning
contagious, to have one idea spark
another.”
-Marva Collins
“Non-native = Non-intelligent!”
- Dr. David Marlow
Resources
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Into English! by Josefina V. Tinajero and Alfredo Schifini
Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL by Suzanne F. Peregoy and Owen
F. Boyle
The Inner World of the Immigrant Child by Cristina Igoa
www.colorincolorado.org
“Tips for Teaching ELLs to Write” by Judie Haynes
“Crestwood Elementary Students Study Foreign Language: English” by
Theresa Tighe
www.everythingESL.net
50 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners Adrienne L.
Herrell and Michael Jordan
Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas Judie
Haynes and Debbie Zacarian