WritingChecklist

ESL/ELDWriting
Asteachersinamulticulturalsocietywearepresentedwithmanychallengesand
opportunities.Oneoftheseopportunitiesisworkingwithstudentswhosefirstlanguage
isnotEnglishandwemusthelpthesestudentsdeveloptheirsocialandacademic
Englishtohelpthemachievesuccessbothatschoolandoutsideofschool.Onearea
thatstudentsmayfeelintimidatedandoverwhelmedbyiswriting.Thefollowing
documentwilloutlinesomestrategiestohelpyouastheteacherencourageand
empoweryourstudentstobesuccessfulwriters.

WritingtoLearn
Writingtolearnisamethodthatoffersstudentsanopportunitytowriteinshort,
frequentburststhatareincludedregularlyinthelesson.
Writingtolearnplacesonemphasisonproductionnotperfection.
Regularexposuremayhelpstudentsfeelcomfortablewriting.
Somestrategiestousewritingtolearnincludethefollowing:
Quickwriteswherestudentsrespondtoashortprompt.Anemphasisis
placedonwritingquickly.Canbeusedtobuildtext-to-selfconnections
ChunkandChewactivitiesthatasksstudentstotakeshortnotesat
variouspointsofalessonwherestudentscantakeaminuteortwoto
writedownkeypointsofthelesson.

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Exitandadmitslipscanbeusedatthebeginningandendofalessonto
checkforunderstanding.Exitslipstohelpstudentsreflectonwhatwas
learnedduringthelessonandadmitslipstohelpstudentsreflectonwhat
waslearnedinthepreviouslesson.

GraphicOrganizers
Studentscancreateduallanguagepicturebooksasidentitytexts

ELLsshouldhavetheopportunityuseplentyofgraphicorganizerstohelpthem
organizetheirthoughts
ThismayincludeL1draftworkaswelltohelpthemmakeconnections
betweenEnglishandtheirL1
Teacherscanusegraphicorganizerssuchas:KWLchartsthatstudents
canreferbackto;brainstormingmapswithacentraltopicandmany
sub-topics,frayermodelvocabularysheets,timelines,character/plot
maps
Thesegraphicorganizerscanbeusedonpaperorwithtechnology.

CollaborativeWork
ELL/ESLstudentsshouldhavemanyopportunitiestoworkwiththeirpeers.

Thismayincludesmallgroupcollaboration,think-pair-sharesorcollaborative
sentences.

Studentscanusetechnologysuchasgoogledrivetocollaborativelycreate
documents.

Studentscantakepartinthelearningprocessbyparticipatingintherubric
creationprocessandeditingpeerwork.

Resources
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_Writingt
oLearn.pdf