reaching and teaching ells through writing ivona todorovic gf public schools dakota tesl conference...

REACHING AND TEACHING ELLs THROUGH WRITING Ivona Todorovic GF Public Schools Dakota TESL Conference October 29, 2012 Fargo, ND [email protected]

Reach Them, Then Teach Them Teachers must create a classroom culture where all students regardless of their cultural and linguistic background are welcomed and supported, and provided with the best opportunity to learn Culturally responsive teachers need to engage in cognitive and emotional processes

Basic needs are sensitivity and self- consciousness Knowledge (about other cultures, nations, behaviors) Empathy (understanding needs and feelings of other people) Self-confidence (knowing what I want, weaknesses, emotional stability)

Writing and ELLs Provide a nurturing environment Interactive writing Plenty of time for writing Model writing, make comments explicit and clear Connect writing mini-lessons to reading (writing and reading go hand in hand)

My Life. My Story. February 26, 2003 This morning standing in the classroom I was blinded by the morning sun shyly teasing my eyes. In one moment I couldnt even open my eyes and look because the sun rays were so brightly beaming lightning up the whole room. I walked toward the windows and saw the chipped spot on the window revealing the secret of somebodys false aim. Broken glass, chipped doors, cracked windows, messmy living room thousand miles away and many years agoThen the sound came that kills the nightingale ready for the morning song. People started frantically run.

Writers Notebook A place for students to makes mistakes A place for students to be vulnerable or funny A garden of seeds A tool for lifting craft of writing A place to experiment with writing A place to imitate other writers A place to reflect and write about their own territories It is NOT a journal

Trust + Relationship= Learning Leilas WN entry: My life is really busy because I transiate for my family and only 13 years old I try realy hard to learn and help my family speak Englesh but I can do any thing for the people that I love. My dad needs help that the bank wen I go thear I first I said my dads name is Ismet and he wunts to get $300 dallars from the checking account and I fell up the chek for my Dad and I said Think you and we go outside to pae the car the is 100 dallars the pament fof the car and we go home it is realy hard to help my Dad..

Mustafas WN entry His name is Mutada. He was 12 years old om May 15, 2006. My brother wake up and ask me what time is it? I answered and he said, No, Im late for school My brother never came homeI asked his friendsNext morning at 9:00 am terrorist called the dad and they said, We want 150,000 or your son will be killed and they closed the phone. My dad start to cry loud and he said, My son..why did Allah let this to happen to my son? They will kill him

Habimanas WN Entry I kind of feel bad when I remember my childhood. When I was six years old I use to be shy. I was very shy and scared of anything. So, people called me BUCURA, thats how they call the last child in the family in my country. They called me BUCURAMIKUMUNWA MUZIKO (which mean they should put my mouth in the fire, so I can talk). I never had any friends, many boys would me beat me up and I never knew how to fight back. I would just cry. But everything changed when Tanzanian police took my brother away and we never heard of him again.

Why Writers Notebook? It is a way for a teacher to get to know students better It gives a teacher a close look at students errors (I do not correct or cross out anything in the notebook) It provides a teacher and students a special place to communicate ( I write comments; usually praises or suggestions) A teacher becomes a writer herself/himself and uses her/his writing to teach craft or strategies WN entries can be developed into a poem, essay, or a story It helps students to visual writing process in whole It helps a teacher to see what specific language problems (grammar, word choice, etc.) students struggle with (written feedback) Students may use their L1 and L2 (transitional phase in ELLs writing)

Examples Character study Leads Physical descriptions Strong verbs Interactive peer (class) revisions & editing

When we was runner in rain me and my friend, we had so much fun but in rain was so much mud in ground when I said to my friend can you just quit run in rain my friend said why do you went to quit because is so mud and the thunder is in the clouds so hard the light was so many the sky but we dont give up to run in rain. Tap, tap, tap, rain thumped on my window that reminded me of African stormy days when the rain meant life for me. My friend Mukashaka and I run into rain and screamed so hard that our ears almost popped. We slipped and fell each time we wanted to continue to run. Oh, we were so muddy, but totally careless and brave.

Newcomers Powerful tools for teaching writing and productive language to newcomers: Pictures/visual props (a-z example) Graphic Organizers Wordless books Drawings TPR/oral prompting

Wordless Books Strong visuals Help the students to vocalize the story before writing it down It is a great scaffolding tool for expanding vocabulary and writing sentences It gives the students room to grow because the lessons can be easily adaptable and differentiated It could be used for all ELLs with well designed writing instruction focused on diverse needs of all ELLs in the classroom

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog

Story Phase Excellent for oral exercises

Every page is discussed and different needs of each student are addressed

Grammar is not taught in isolation

Poetry Poem templates (given structure/s) help students be more specific: mirror poem, where I am from, When students have a purpose they are more creative and try harder (pen pals) Not demanding like prose; students can learn about figurative language by writing poems The hardest task for ELLs is writing a poem that rhymes

How can we help ELLs write meaningfully in English before they have developed English skills? Think spelling stages: * writing in first language * mixed L1 and L2 * transitional writing * approaching standard English Code switching is not a deficiency. I associate literacy in Chinese so much with writing and less with reading. (Cindy)

Transitional writing helps students to keep writing and learn new vocabulary when they revisit their WN entry Yans example: The hair makes me think of _______ when I was young; I always had short hair. My mom does not like long hair. I _______somebody called me boy all the time when I was young. Now, I have long hair, I guess my mother _________ on hair. Short hair is simple, _______, and _________.

Interactive Notebooks A collection of notes taken from reading, lists, discussions, and viewing, including corresponding responses, either in graphic or written form (Carter, Hernandez, & Richison 2009). IN helps ELLs to become familiar with academic language Scaffolds content to move ELLs to the stage where they are academic language learners (ALLs) To actively engage in high level skills making learning more efficient

Explicit instruction; clear goals, place to practice applications of skills

Allows ELLs to use skills other than just written language

Writing is ELLs pathway to active engagement with text using the language Writing helps ELLs marinate their thinking in order to become active readers and thinkers: Response to reading (Krishnas example) Western ND project (level questions, business letters to legislatures) Diary entries from the past Movie trailer

Monitoring errors in the classroom Monitoring errors in the classroom How do you usually correct your students oral errors? How do you usually correct your students written errors?

Recast/Prompts Student: It have mixed colors. Teacher: Yes, it has mixed colors. Student: I didnt think about nothing. Teacher: Oh, you didnt think about anything. Recasts are desirables; but unfortunately some students perceive recasts incorrectly These are implicit forms of feedback Prompts-give students a cue to self correct (What did you mean?) Or repeat with intonation on mistake

Written Explicit Feedback on oral and grammar errors Recast and prompts are effective for incidental learning or when repeated many times, but many students need an explicit feedback because they might perceive them more accurately: Corrective feedback is clear! Corrective feedback is not transient!

How do we do it? Teacher writes on a feedback form three suggestions for students frequent errors (pronunciation, intonation, subject/verb agreement, etc.) Teachers handwriting needs to neat and legible Teacher indicates what type of error Short, brief, simple, and effective Ensures noticing, makes type of error salient, non- transient, and not disruptive Students put these in a file folder for further reference and additional exercises

Why Written Feedback? Students like it because It helps them understand specific errors It helps them remember mistakes It helps them to review grammar It gives them more confidence than red ink all over their writing crossing everything that they have done It helps them with pronunciation It can be saved for later study It can be used for hot topics in the future when a teacher plans reviews and lessons

Continued Personalized Individualized Timely Regular feedback helps students to stay focused and feel respected and appreciated

Why is this an effective tool for teachers? It doesnt take a lot of time It is quick and explicit It can be written on any kind of paper or sticky notes It helps a teacher focus and see the pattern of mistakes It can be a class feedback (write on the board and have a class correct them and discuss each mistake) It gives a chance for teachers to re-teach some topics individual students are struggling with

Teaching Grammar & Writing How do you teach grammar? Can you share with our group some successful lessons? How do you incorporate writing in your lessons and why? How often do your students write? What do they write about?

Teaching grammar in isolation does not do much to enrich the quality of students writing, nor does it do much to enhance its accuracy. (Weaver, 2007) Teachers: should operate from solid knowledge (know their students, their subject, and best practices) be risk-takers and experimenters innovators integrators within and across subject areas

Framework for Teaching Grammar Throughout the Writing Process Share a model (from literature, previous or current student, teacher in advance or on the spot) Create another model (teacher, teacher and students together) Compose and do similar activity in small groups or pairs, and clarify as needed. Compose individually and share. Ask students to apply concept in their own writing. Consider giving students a checklist that includes the item to use in their final revision Provide feedback from peers and teacher Teach a new mini-lesson and/or hold revising conferences to re-teach concepts as needed, showing students how to correctly apply the concept in their own writing.

Examples: Participial Phrases/Sentence- combining approach I am a red, round Frisbee. The Frisbee is crashing through a window. The Frisbee is landing in the grip of a canines jaw. The Frisbee is sailing through the air.

Out-of-order Adjectivals and Absolute Phrases Adjectives that occur right at the beginning of a sentence; right after the noun they modify; or at the end of the sentence (even if they modify the subject) Examples: Bare, it looked like a childs top with much too long of a stem. Nervous and eager, she obeyed. She stared up at him, terrified. Daja, angry and hurt, stomped out of the forest. About to touch him, she changed her mind. Beside her they placed her few bags, completely packed.

Absolute phrases An absolute phrase is almost a sentence, but not quite. It acts like a zoom lens focusing in to focus on the detail of someone or something. Examples: She stood alone on deck, the low-slung moon casting a path across the water.

reaching and teaching ells through writing ivona todorovic gf public schools dakota tesl conference...

Documents