Understanding Written DiscourseELL students often come to class with a very limited
writing backgrounds. They are sometimes overly self-critical and reluctant writers. Therefore, it is important to be encouraging of writing that students produce. Narratives that are description or exposition- based, as well as poetry, are important forms for ELLs to share their story and culture. Personalized classroom journals are a great place to start. Students can write about whatever they would like, although a teacher-created list of writing prompts is always helpful to keep in the journal. The teacher can ask questions and respond to the student's journal entry. Professor Walt Wolfram contends that different cultures may structure their writing in different ways. This diversity of writing should be welcomed in the journals. It is also a good starting point to have students begin persuasive or expositional writing with a basic thesis-driven paragraph. Students are expected to have a topic sentence that introduces and frames the focus of their writing. I have begun with the "hamburger format" to help students organize their topic sentence, supporting details, and concluding sentence. This helps students understand how to create structure in more formal writing. It is also important that students receive specific praise more often than critique when first beginning in a language. Spelling corrections should be limited and non-threatening. Ann Curzan describes a “scavenger hunt” idea. “Students can…purse ‘scavenger hunts in written text for particular pelling patterns such as <gh> , <ea>, or <ou>” (p. 146). When students can practice experientially the discovery of various spelling patterns, this appears more interesting and more likely to stick in one’s memory. Students should complete authentic writing tasks, including: writing a resume, a letter to a congressman, or an email to a landlord or a note to a child's teacher. The more practical applications, the better. |
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It is always helpful for students to be exposed to forums with diverse writers that are of the same culture, age group, or life circumstance. School or classroom blogs, websites, newsletters, and shared google documents are an excellent place to begin. Some of my favorites include, The Change Agent , an Adult Education journal for social justice, Street Sense, a newspaper written by homeless authors, and Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop written by incarcerated young poets.