Writing for Beginners: Part 1

Writing For Beginners: Part 1

As a pull-out ESL teacher, I typically see 6-8 students at time for 60-90 minutes a day. We try to do some form of writing every day. So today, I want to share some strategies for teaching writing to Newcomer ESL students or early elementary students with very limited English language proficiency. These are not new strategies, but I have combined them in a sequence that I have found to be very effective. There are about 6 stages and students will spend various amounts in each stage, depending on how quickly language acquisition happens for them. In this blog post, I will focus on the first 3 stages.

Stage 1: Drawing with Dictation

For Newcomers, this may be all they can do for a while as they are so very limited in their knowledge of English vocabulary.

Drawings should be used in response to content. If you are learning about school supplies, students should be drawing something that relates to that topic every day.
Teacher always models first.
Student should always dictate or tell you something (word or sentence) about his picture. The teacher will write the dictation on the drawing or write in highlighter and the student can trace the word. This dictation is what helps students to understand the relationship between the spoken word and the written word.
Students should always share his words and pictures with peers.
As a student begins to acquire more language, he will be able to share more words about his picture.

Stage 2: Drawing with Labels

As soon as students start to develop a basic level of vocabulary (school tools, family, animals) and a beginning knowledge of letter sound relationships, the student is ready to start labeling his pictures.

Start with an anchor lesson and an anchor chart for students to refer to. There are lots of ideas for labeling anchor charts on Pinterest.
Model the process of drawing a picture and writing a label next to your drawing.
During this stage, we also start adding more detail to our drawings. This will give them more to label. I ask each student to label 3 objects in every drawing. I also like to use a simple picture rubric to help them analyze their drawings.
This step can be differentiated based on a students phonemic awareness and ability to segment phonemes in a word. Since ability may differ within the group, some students may be able to label with more sounds then others.
We usually start labeling with beginning sound, then progress to beginning and final sound and then on to beginning, middle and ending sound.
Finally, students will share their words and pictures with peers.

Stage 3: Sentence Frames

Sentence frames are one of the most powerful tools in an ESL teacher's toolbox. I love the way that they can be used for both speaking and writing.

Sentence frames help establish the connection between oral language and writing. Oral language must be practiced and developed before a student can become a competent writer. If you can't say it, you can't write it!
Starting with a simple sentence frame like "I see _____", students practice the sentence orally before writing it. Students will copy or trace the sentence frame, then, using the labels from their drawing, they will complete the sentence.

Integrate the sight words that students are learning into the sentence frames that you introduce.

An example of a sentence frame from my "Transportation Unit". TLW draw and label the car and then use his labels to complete the sentence frame.

I could go on and on about using sentence frames in writing, but this post is starting to get really long-winded! Stay tuned Writing with Beginners: Part 2!

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Writing for Beginners: Part 1