Classroom practices that best promote ELLs writing development.

By: Malissa Ganje-Augustine

Student Population

• Grade Level: PreK• Number of Students: 18• Number of ELLs: 5• First language of ELLs: Arabic or English• Ability Level: 2 students speak both Arabic and

English, 2 speak only Arabic, and 1 speaks only English.

Special Considerations1. All five English Language Learners (ELLs) came to

the classroom with a variety of skills, however, none of the children could identify their names in print or print their names in either Arabic or English at the beginning of the school year.

2. Two of the five ELLs are cousins, but the rest are not related to one another.

3. A translator was provided by the program 15 hours each week to assist both the teacher and the students.

4. At the beginning of the school year the teacher completed a home visit with each family with the help of the translator. All families are encouraged to be a part of their child’s learning.

Effective Classroom Strategies

What

classroom practices best promote ELLs

writing development?

Strategy #1

Develop a sense of community.

• Before any quality learning can begin a sense of community must be established.

• Culture is a vibrant and complex concept. Culture involves values, beliefs, and ways of doing things (or customs). A sound instructional program should be culturally responsive to the needs of the learners. (NCLR 2005)

• Teachers as well as school administrators should learn about and honor the students belief systems; developing an atmosphere of cultural respect.(NCLR 2005)

• Along with this cultural respect comes a sense of belonging for all students which makes learning less stressful and more meaningful.

Strategies to develop community.

• Allow time to get to know each student and their interests; Meal/snack times are a nice opportunity to do this.

• Get to know the families and create opportunities for them to come in and be a part of their child’s learning; For our families the teacher visits the child’s home within the first month of school.

• Incorporate the cultures of your students throughout the classroom with pictures, colors/fabrics, words, books/magazines; This is another way in incorporate the families input into the classroom.

• Label everything! Include both English and the ELLs native language; With the help of the translator we were able to label a good portion of our classroom in both English and Arabic.

Strategy

#2

Effective lesson planning.

• Building background knowledge.• Explicit instruction and modeling.• Guided practice.• Peer practice.• Assessment of content learned. • (Colorado 2007)• Plenty informal opportunities to practice/play

with the skill of writing throughout the room.

Strategies for effective planning.

• When introducing new skills it is the teacher who must first fill in the students gaps in learning and provide them with background Knowledge.

• With our ELLs, this many times came in the form of discussion and guided question and answer periods.

• Games are also a great way to introduce background knowledge in a fun way.

Game Examples: The students sky write with their fingers. Use string or pipe cleaners to form letters. Trace with a “magic” pointer examples of writing.

Strategies for effective planning.

• Explicit instruction & modeling; these occur in our classroom in the form of mini-lessons and daily modeling occurs during morning meeting and writer’s workshop.

• Guided practice can be down as a whole group, small group, or with individual children. This as well as explicit instruction can be tailored to the specific needs of the group or individual.

• Peer practice is a valuable piece, however, not one we get to frequently because of the age and skill level of the PreK children

Strategy #3

Incorporate Writing Everywhere• In preschool we have found it important as well as

enjoyable to incorporate writing and text into all areas of the classroom.

• In dramatic play there is grocery list paper, recipe cards, menus, recipes, cookbooks, and phonebooks.

• In block area there is graph paper, maps, instruction manuals, blueprints, and directions.

• In writing area there is various types of stationary & paper, cards, rolodex of words, picture dictionary, journals, and word logs.

• In music there is sheet music paper, books of music, mini-chalkboards & chalk.

• The list could go on and on, but ultimately you want to expose the ELLs and all learners to a variety of experiences in an unstressful way.

The great thing about PreK is that any activity that will help

ELLs will also enrich the learning for all the children.

Effective Classroom Strategies

What technology is available to foster and/or support the

writing development of

ELLs?

Strategy #4

Incorporate Technology

• Technology is here to stay and even the youngest of students, no matter their ethnic background, has been exposed it.

• As educators we must embrace technology and let it help us better educate our students.

• There is the common word processing, graphic organizers, and multi-media software that is found in all schools, which can turn a struggling writer into an eager one with a few key strokes. There is also software that may not be as easily available, but still an option for children with significant writing needs like tools for creating as well as reviewing texts.

Incorporate Technology

• A quick engine search will open a vast world of software and programs to help support & develop students writing.

• Websites like www.pbskids.org offer a variety of games to help support writing development.

• Games available at sites like www.pbskids.org range from spelling basics in Spelling with Caillou to creating a family storybook in Mister Rogers’ neighborhood: My Family and Me.

Effective Classroom Strategies

How can both informal and

formal writing assessment guide the

instruction of ELLs?

Strategy#5

Informal Assessment

• Teacher’s must always be observing and monitoring the progress of each student.

• In PreK, many times informal assessment opportunities present themselves more often than formal assessments can be scheduled.

• Anecdotal notes from both the teacher and aide can be extremely useful in determining where students are and where they need additional support.

• Checklists, peer and self review can also help support the teacher in planning for writing lessons.

Formal Assessment• Formal assessment, as with informal assessment,

creates an opportunity for the teacher to gauge the learning of each student and plan lessons accordingly.

• The use of rubrics give the teacher, students, and families a guideline of expectations and grading scale.

• Checklists can also be utilized during formal assessment and is the method we utilize in our PreK classroom.

• Also, many curriculums offer formal assessments tools that can be used to determine where each child is and their needs.

Effective Classroom Strategies

MeetingNational, State,

and/or LocalStandards.

Meeting the Standards• Each state has its own standards for writing

education as well as federal standards.• Each of the strategies presented meet multiple

standards from various organizations and they can be found at:– Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards www.portal.state.pa.us- National Educational TechnologyStandards www.iste.org- National Council of Teachers ofEnglish www.ncte.org/standards

ReferencesCenter for Implementing Technology in Education. (2006) Using

Assistive Technology to Support Writing.Retrieved from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?pageid=108

National Council of LaRaza. (2005) Educating English Language Learners: Implementing Instructional Practices.(pp. 21-22)

Colorado, C. (2007). How to develop a lesson plan that includes ELLs . Retrieved from !Colorincolorado! Website.