Jeffrey is an ESL student from China. He is accomplished both in reading and math. But when it comes to writing, his stories are short and repetitive. He often complains, “I don’t’ know what to write about.”
It’s not that Jeffrey has nothing to write about; he has a rich life experience. However, he doesn’t always have the English to say what he wants to. What Jeffrey needs are strategies for generating ideas and support to develop those ideas into meaningful content.
Teachers can use the 6 Traits model for teaching writing to support English language learners’ writing experiences. The first of those traits addresses generating ideas and developing content for writing.
Strategies to Help ESL Students Generate Ideas for Writing
There are a number of strategies teachers can use to help ESL students generate ideas.
Let students brainstorm as a group – brainstorming creates its own kind of synergy; its much easier to come up with ideas when everyone is contributing than doing it alone.
Create lists of topic ideas to post as anchor charts – use the ideas from the group brainstorming to create lists such as topics for personal narratives, people to write about, favorite places, etc.
Create an anchor chart of genres for writing – encourage the group to brainstorm what writers write; this may include personal narratives, letters, memory books, non-fiction books, scientific reports, how-to instructions, poems, plays, etc.
Provide models of good writing – the use of picture books, stories written by other students, and even stories written by the teacher in collaboration with the class provide models for English language learners who are still developing vocabulary in a variety of context.
Invite students to share with a friend – ask the students to turn to a friend and about what they plan to write about. This is particularly effective after a focused brainstorming session.
Provide opportunities for students to share after writing – students benefit from having an audience and from being an audience. Sharing writing in a read aloud format gives other students ideas to build from for their own writing experiences.
Strategies to Help ESL Students Develop Content for Writing
Sometimes the issue is not what to write about, but rather how to expand a particular topic into an interesting story or non-fiction report. The following are strategies that teachers can use to help English language learners develop and expand content for writing.
Encourage students of all ages to draw their ideas – drawing allows English language learners to express ideas and details that they may not yet have enough English to express through writing. Following up on the drawing with conversation, either peer to peer or with the teacher, will help the student expand language and may help with expanding the story through detail.
Create individual target word lists – often students are eager to share their stories verbally; it is the writing process they find daunting. An effective scaffolding strategy is for the teacher to write key words from the student’s conversation on a 3 by 5 inch card or on a planning page. That word list can then serve as a road map for the student’s story or report. With practice even very young students can become independent at using the word list in order to complete the story independently.
Introduce graphic organizers – teachers can demonstrate how to use a variety of graphic organizers for developing subtopics and detail in their writing. Some graphic organizers include story webs, a five senses chart, and a time line. http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/index.jsp
Provide opportunities for writing partnerships and small group collaborations - author Mary Lee Prescott-Griffin says in her book Writer to Writer: Fluency and Craft in the Multilingual Classroom [Heinemann, 2007] that writing partnerships encourage children’s active involvement in every facet of the writing process. “Texts created during joint composing incorporate the voice, expertise, and experience of both authors and result in unique compositions that are often more sophisticated and complex than those the writers would compose alone.”
Encourage students to write on one topic using a variety of genres – students can learn to expand and deepen their topic choice by experimenting with a number of different genres all on the same topic. For example, if a student chooses to write about a favorite video game, he or she can make a list obstacles to be overcome in the game, write a poem about how it feels to master the game, write directions for playing the game, or write a mini-play about the characters in the game.
English language learners need strategies for drawing on their rich backgrounds in order to generate ideas for writing. They will almost certainly need support and scaffolding in order to utilize the 6 Traits model and to communicate their ideas in English with detailed content. With specific strategies and with support and scaffolding ESL students can be successful writing in English.
For more information read "How to Scaffold ESL Students' Writing."
Margaret M. Williams - Margaret M. Williams (Peggy) has been a teacher for over 25 years. She currently teaches first grade in a classroom that combines native ...
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