Differentiating the writing process for ell writers
- 1. August 6, 2012 Oregon Writing Project @ Willamette University
- 2. Pollenating ideas “Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.” ~James Russell Lowell
- 3. Pre-planning Annotations Mentor texts
- 4. Mentor texts Learning by example Seeing concepts modeled Getting the bigger picture Reading good writing
- 5. Annotations Reading critically Increasing comprehension Interacting with the text Writing to learn
- 6. Your turn to write… Explain your journey from student writer to writing teacher. What twists and turns and obstacles have you encountered and overcome as a writer? What challenges and triumphs have you had as a writing teacher?
- 7. Planning Stretching out the process Activating the language centers of the brain Providing plenty of practice
- 8. Stretching out the process Slowing down Taking smaller steps Giving students more learning time
- 9. Activating Language Using prior knowledge Building schema Bridging the gap between languages
- 10. Practicing Finding and narrowing topics Generating ideas Using multiple brainstorming methods
- 11. Your turn to write… How many ways do you use writing in your class? What has worked well and what has failed miserably? What writing experiments would you like to try with your students?
- 12. Drafting Integrating language instruction with writing Guiding students through a draft
- 13. Including language instruction Learning grammar concepts Building new vocabulary Understanding collocations
- 14. Guiding student writers Breaking down the prompt Creating smaller puzzle pieces
- 15. Your turn to write… How do you include language instruction into writing? What do you do to help struggling writers?
- 16. Editing and Revising Learning the difference between write and wrong Looking locally and globally
- 17. Write and Wrong Giving mini-lessons on writing concepts Editing writing samples together Helping students edit work on their own Dealing with idiomatic language problems—fixable or non-fixable errors
- 18. Local and Global Peer and self-editing for simple errors Teacher help for major problems
- 19. Your turn to write… What does editing and revising look like in your class? How much do you fix in your students’ writing?
- 20. Feedback: Less is more Pick only a few issues to deal with at a time—one language problem, one content problem Only fix what students cannot fix themselves
- 21. Feedback: More is more Confer with students one on one Give clear, specific feedback Provide students with extra support for recurring problems
- 22. Grading Keep all drafts low-stakes Teach grading criteria clearly ahead of time Show examples of what fits the criteria Be consistent
- 23. Your turn to write… Dialogue journal—respond to another person’s writing and share how you use writing in class.
- 24. Review Pollenate students’ writing with good writing examples Engage students in critical thinking Slow the writing process down and spend more time brainstorming Integrate language instruction into the writing process Help students take smaller steps Encourage students to view mistakes as learning opportunities
- 25. Your turn to write… Plan a writing lesson using something you have learned today