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Similaire à What Classroom Practices Best Promote El Ls Writing Develoment
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What Classroom Practices Best Promote El Ls Writing Develoment
- 1. Nancy Curran 4 th grade teacher Russell Elementary
Notes de l'éditeur
- D
- When we were studying leads I pulled out many different styles of text that demonstrate what a good beginning looks like and what makes it good. Showing them numerous styles allowed the kids to find their own style and feel successful. When we studied expository text, and the prompt asked, “Should there be zoos?” I read the multi-copy text regarding the same question that posed both sides, written by 4 th grade students. The students were completely engaged and had so many ideas to write about, their papers turned out to be one of the best they’ve written all year. When we studied commas I read the book, “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” to demonstrate the importance of commas used in a list. Kids then could refer to it as they tackled the skill in their writing.
- I want to focus on the phrase clear expectations from the quote above. For most kids and especially ELLs the lesson from the teacher needs to be one, clear focus. Effective teachers model writing correct grammar, one skill at a time. That way the students won’t get confused by mixing two concepts instead of mastering one and moving on. At the beginning of my students’ draft book they have a page titled I Am Learning To…/I Can… Students learning is individualized. Where I am expected to teach apostrophes to the whole class based on the curriculum, a student may still be struggling with proper nouns, commas, periods, etc. This page allows them to focus on one specific skill at a time until they have proven in their writing they know how to do it. The skill is specific to their individual needs. When that happens, I draw an arrow over to the I Can part and we choose another skill based on what they are approximating in their writing. This page is especially effective for my ELLs because they can focus on one, clear skill that is specific to their needs and not feel overwhelmed by what everyone else is doing.
- In 4 th grade we do a social studies unit on notable people in Colorado. For their project they do a power point presentation on someone famous and create slides about that person’s childhood, education, family, career, etc. The use of graphics, clip art, and audio makes the writing much more enjoyable. Presenting it to the class and their families makes the writing authentic and purposeful. This type of computer use can help students develop their writing skills; however, it is recommended that composition for beginning and struggling learners should be a guided activity so students don’t become frustrated. Pairing ELLs with the most beneficial partner is essential. If possible have ELL students use e-mail to communicate with students from a different school. This elicits self motivated learning and the authentic purpose will aid in the students’ language skills. For more details read the article found at the above web site.
- I was encouraged when I read this article because with the rubrics I use to assess my students, there isn’t that holistic approach of a single overall score. I don’t assign too much weight on grammatical errors, especially for ELLs, but rather I focus their grade on what the unit of study was all about. I assign a score to each trait, for example: conventions, beginning, ending, middle, and the current unit of study such as quotation marks. The article suggested making the prompt clear and allowing it to be about their culture. I agree. We are assessing their writing skills, not their knowledge on our culture. Some prompt questions I wrote are: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “If you had $1000, what would you do with it?” “You’ve been given the chance to change our classroom, what would you do and why?” “Tell a story about the events taking place in the picture.” When giving feedback from their written assessments I need to choose a strength and then one specific suggestion. This praise and suggestion can come from the scores received on the rubric. That way the students know why they got that score and one way to improve upon it.