Adapting the Writing Process
for English Language Learners
Judie Haynes
Yimin’s Writing
 I like be eagle becas eagle birds king and he fly very up. They scard. When
they baby, they take off they feather and they squek they claw. (Yimin,
September 2003)
Challenges in Writing
 Writing in English is processed through the filter of student’s native language.
 Translated writing results in garbled grammar and unintelligible sentences.
 Number of errors makes editing problematic for teachers.
Tips for Teaching Beginners:
 Don’t give ELLs opportunities to translate written English from native
language.
 Don’t encourage beginners to keep journals.
 Don’t assign personal essays to beginning writers. (i.e. “How I Spent My
Summer Vacation”)
Do:
 Begin with nonfiction reading and writing.
 Expand nonfiction vocabulary.
 Use graphic organizers to scaffold writing, provide language chunks.
Prewriting
 Develop nonfiction topics orally.
 Brainstorm and chart facts in sentence form.
 Model correct sentence structure.
Prewriting
 Strengthen the link between oral and written language.
 Have the students read the facts from your chart orally.
Prewriting
 Keep a running list of content vocabulary.
 Review and practice vocabulary and facts daily.
 Model how to develop an organizer on a nonfiction topic.
Prewriting
 Show clearly what information to cover; how it should be organized.
 Brainstorm a group graphic organizer.
 Have students practice making their own organizer.
Graphic Organizers:
 Serve as visual tools to help students understand, organize, focus, summarize,
and interpret text.
 Promote active learning.
 Act as mind maps.
Writing
 Have students practice writing from their graphic organizer.
 Use a writing frame.
 Teach students write directly in a word processing program.
Editing
 Editing process for ELLs will need to be teacher-directed.
 Don’t expect ELLs to edit work themselves.
 Hold frequent conferences to discuss works-in-progress.
 Teach students modified peer editing.
 Group ELLs in pairs to edit.
 Chose editing buddies carefully.
 Teach a mini-lesson on items to be edited.
 Assign a specific item to check. (i.e. -s at the end of a 3rd person verb.)
Mini-lesson on Capitalization
 Don’t capitalize the general names of animals unless they are the first word in
a sentence: fox, dog, roadrunner, owl, spiders, rattlesnakes.
 Do capitalize the first word in the names of specific animals: Elf owl, Kangaroo
rat.
Revising
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Involve students in the editing process for more meaningful revisions.
Don’t overcorrect.
Mark changes clearly on papers.
Avoid vague directions such as “Add more information here.”
Do write “Tell what hedgehogs eat here.”
Joseph’s Report - Editing
 Hedgehog
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The name of this animal is hedgehog. It is mammal. It live in Africa, Asia, Europe. It
live in desert. Hedgehog eat insects, snails, snakes, bird eggs and grass. It is
omnivore. It is nocturnal because it eat food at night. Something unusual about my
animal is that spines come out when hedgehog is scared. It roll into a ball. It ha
enemies like owl, fox, mongoose and wolf.
 Joseph, check the “s” on the end of third person verbs.
Publishing
 Help ELLs develop a sense of audience.
 Have students share writing with classmates, family, staff members.
 Display work in classroom, hallways.
Joseph’s Report - Publishing
The Hedgehog
The name of this animal is the hedgehog. It is a mammal. It lives in Africa, Asia,
Europe. It lives in the desert. Hedgehogs eat insects, snails, snakes, bird eggs and grass. It is
omnivore. It is nocturnal because it eats food at night. Something unusual about my animal is that
spines come out when the hedgehog is scared. It rolls into a ball. It has enemies like owls, foxes,
mongooses and wolves
Supporting 1st grade Nonfiction Writing
 Teach students the Conventions of Nonfiction Text
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Title, title page
Table of contents
Chapter titles
Conventions of Nonfiction Text
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Captions, labels
Photographs, drawings
Glossary
Identifying the “Big Idea”
Personal Essays
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Develop topic orally.
Brainstorm a model web
Have students make their own web before writing.
Allow use of phrases on web.
Develop one section of the web at a time.
Impact of Technology on Writing
Students are:
 More disposed to put their ideas on a graphic organizer.
 Willing to expand on their ideas.
 Much more willing to edit and rewrite
Impact of Technology on Writing
 Projects that once took weeks are now completed in a few days.
 Student have become much more enthusiastic about writing.
 ELLs see themselves as writers.