empoweringells-writing-instruction

Guiding Questions
  1. How can teachers scaffold writing for ELLs?
  2. How can mind maps support ELLs through writing?
Goal

In the previous article, we talked about how using Quick Writes develops writing fluency and critical thinking – both prerequisites to tackling complex writing tasks.  

The goal of this article is to share another visual strategy to support ELLs’ performance on writing assignments: deconstructing the writing prompt.

Research Suggests

Krashen (1981) proposed a theory called comprehensible input: that teachers must communicate in a way that fosters ELs comprehension.  This refers not only to oral communication, but also to the way educators write instructions and design tasks such as writing assignments.

The language in writing prompts can be quite academic and rigorous.  Writing prompts often require students to have prior knowledge of the content and expect writers to think critically about a topic.

Additionally, writing prompts usually ask students to do several types of thinking simultaneously such as first describe and then analyze or compare then draw conclusions.

If ELs are to produce writing that meets the standards demanded by the prompt, they must first fully understand what it’s asking.

Past Practices

Mistake # 1 – The Sage on the Stage

I knew writing an extended piece of text was going to be difficult for my ELs because I had yet to develop their familiarity with writing or their writing stamina using Quick Writes.

 Additionally, I feared ELs might “fail” at writing because it’s an academically rigorous task. To help them, I spent a significant amount of time explaining the writing prompt.  

I would clarify the kind of thinking the prompt requested, recommend a an order to communicate the ideas, and described how to get a good grade.  I was the “sage on the stage” trying to impart a process just by having ELs listen to me talk.  

The problem with this approach was that I was the one interacting with the writing prompt instead of supporting students as they attempted to break down the assignment.  When I analyzed the prompt, I robbed ELs of an opportunity to develop a skill that is needed across all disciplines.  I focused on the successful completion of the writing assignment rather than the process of writing.

Current Practice

A better way to make writing visible for my students is to collaboratively deconstruct the writing prompt and then mind map the academic verbs found in it.  I will take you  through this process using this prompt I designed for my 10th graders who were expected to create an expository essay on the concept of “heroes.”

“All societies around the world have stories of heroes and brave acts of courage.  Some heroes are fictional, while others are real people. In this unit, we watched CNN  honoring people they consider to be ‘heroes’ and read an article about one person in particular.  In this expository essay, describe what a hero is and evaluate the most significant character trait of a hero.”

Step 1: Read Sentence by Sentence

As I described in my post on Visible Reading,  just as we mentally stop at commas and periods to gather information, we pause at these punctuation marks when reading the writing prompt to analyze what it’s asking ELs to do.

Writing prompts are often multi-sentence, so ELs need a process to help them understand the prompt sentence-by-sentence.

Step 2: Identify the Thinking Verbs

As we read the prompt, sentence by sentence, we stop to identify the thinking verbs that the prompt expects to be addressed. It’s important to identify these verbs because we do not want them to describe when they were asked to analyze.  For the prompt above, the thinking verbs are “describe” and “evaluate”.  

Step 3: Visualize the Thinking Verbs with Mind Maps

Once the verbs are identified, we begin to analyze them.  However, simply talking about them does not, in itself, support ELs because the academic nature of the words is still effectively “invisible” .  

Though they may have mastered “describing” a girl/boy they like or “evaluating” the pros and cons of the newest social media app, ELs  are not usually familiar with the definitions of these words in an academic setting. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to familiarize their ELs with the definition of these verbs in the academic context.

One way to do that is with mind mapping.

A mind map is “[a] graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that structures information, [and] helps you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas” (Passuello, 2012). Each verb is drawn as a visual scaffold to help students internalize its academic definition.  

In Wai’s (2004) research, students reported finding value in using mind maps as a prewriting tool because it helped them generate more ideas, organize information, and make connections between ideas more easily than if they had not used mind maps.

Furthermore, I have come to encourage my colleagues to use these diagrams in their content classes because they really are easily transferable to different contexts and are so integral to supporting ELs’ high-level thinking.

For example, in the classroom, I’ll share with students my diagram of the word “describe”.  With the image projected on the board, I explain that the when a person is describing something, they are giving details about who was in the text, what happened, how did it happen, where did it occur, and how was it resolved (if at all).”  These ideas are built into the diagram to further illustrate the concept to the students.

You can find more diagrams of academic verbs (like “synthesize” and “explain”  on the Bathroom Briefs page.  Bathroom Briefs are posters that I place in the faculty bathrooms to weekly share one language strategy.  My goal is to help everyone be a  teacher of language.  Bathroom Briefs #1-5 contain the visual diagrams of academic verbs. 

Helping ELLs deconstruct command terms

Step 4: Mind-Map Ideas

Once we have identified the thinking verbs and shared our diagrams, I ask the ELs to reproduce the diagrams in their English notebooks.  Then I invite the ELs to begin filling in the diagrams with their ideas.  As they work, I wander around the room observing their progress, reading their ideas, and conferencing with those students that need extra support or encouragement.

Below is  image of some of my students’ mind maps for the “Heroes” essay.  Look how she wrote details for the who, when, where, and how parts.

An ELL's mind map of a writing prompt

Step 5: Talking as Drafting

Now that they have mind mapped their ideas, I invite them to present their mind maps in small groups.  This allows them to use talk as a performance.  

Language moves from being colloquial to becoming more academic when they are asked to present ideas more formally (Bedi, 2016).

Prepared informal talks share the same register as academic language. Asking students to present their mind map scaffolds writing because talk becomes a form of performance.  The students who are listening must give feedback in the form of a praise, contributing a new idea, or by asking a question.  This allows students to grow their mind maps further.

Reflecting on the process

I used to direct students to brainstorm before writing their essays, but this practice assumes that they first understand what the prompt is expecting.  Mind-mapping, in contrast, scaffolds the process of generating ideas from the writing prompt by guiding students’ thinking with easy-to-follow visual diagrams.

The result: students no longer react catatonically – staring at a blank piece of paper or their laptop screens wearing a face that says, “I have no idea where to start.” They are far from throwing their hands in joy and cheering out “I love writing”, but at least I am not hearing “I have no idea where to start!”

Another Process

This process I shared above is the main approach I use to teach my ELs how to deconstruct a writing prompt because it is highly transferable to other classes.  Another strategy that you might want to consider is the RAFT method.  It’s better suited for a writing assignment that requires consideration of a topic from multiple perspectives.  When I first learned about RAFT, it was used to prepare students for the state-standardized assessments.  

RAFT stands for:

Role: Who is the writer asked to be?

Audience: Who is the audience that the writer is addressing?

Format: In what format is the student writing?

Topic: What is content that the student is writing about?

I briefly introduced this approach to you as it is helpful in some instances, and if you would like more in-depth explanation of the method, Cathy Allen Simon wrote an article for ReadWriteThink.com describing this process.

Takeaways
  1. Writing prompts are loaded with complex academic language.
  2. Writing can be scaffolded to support ELs’ thinking and communication of ideas.
  3. Use diagrams and mind mapping to support ELs generation of ideas.
Next Week

Thank you for reading this article.  I hope elements of the process will help your ELs achieve academically.  Please continue the conversation by commenting below.

This is the second article about writing instruction within the Visible Literacy series.  Next week’s article continues to share a process of scaffolding writing for ELs.  I’ll share a method that helps ELs  deconstruct mentor texts in order to learn how to organize their own ideas.

 

A9 Deconstructing writing prompts with ELLs

References

Bedi, I. (2016). Scaffolding Writing Across the Curriculum: An EAL Approach. Penarth, UK: Dragonfly EAL.

Francis, D. J., Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Houston, TX: Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston for the Center on Instruction.

Freeman, Y. S., & Freeman, D. E. (2008). Academic language for English Language Learners and struggling readers: How to help students succeed across content areas. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gee, J. P. (2008). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. London, UK: Routledge.

Hart, J., & Lee, O. (2003). Teacher professional development to improve science and literacy achievement of English language learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(3), 475–501.

Irujo, S. (2007, Nov/Dec). Putting it all together: Integrating academic math language into math teaching.Retrieved from http://www.coursecrafters.com/ELLOutlook/2007/nov_dec/ELLOutlookITIArticle2.htm

Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Passuello, L. (2012, September 18). What is Mind Mapping? (and How to Get Started Immediately). Retrieved from https://litemind.com/what-is-mind-mapping/

Wai Ling, C. (2004). The Effectiveness of Using Mind Mapping Skills in Enhancing Secondary One and Secondary Four Students’ Writing in a CMI School (Masters dissertation). University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms, grades 5–12. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.