Writing

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2002 : June : 2

Writing
By Amanda K.

I always do shared writing with my kids at the beginning of the year... it's a good way to start out in writer's workshop. Once your kids are pretty familiar with shared writing, it might be a good idea to give them a prompt,
but model how you would answer the prompt. Then, you can let them go and have them answer the prompt. The ESL kids that I have worked with did pretty well with this after a while. The first several times we did it, they tended to copy a lot of what I wrote, but with practice, they began to start writing things of their own.
Small group writing works great with ESL kids, because

you can really focus on what they want to write about. With my kids, I'd use our week's shared reading story to think of things they could write about, then I'd work with them in small groups to develop their writing. Frequently, at the beginning, I'd give them a sentence starter, such as, "If I had a garden, I would plant _________. I would plant this because ____________. Sentence starters provide those beginning writers with the support they need. I'd write the starter on the board. As they grew more comfortable, they'd be able to write additional sentences that were not part of the starter.