1. The ESL Writing Process and Using Writing Frames
Ronna Magy
Campbell Adult and Community Education
August 14, 2014
Part

2. Objectives
By the end of today’s session, participants will be able to....
Identify reasons for teaching writing to ESL students at all levels
Identify the stages of the ESL writing process
Learn instructional strategies for teaching ESL students the collaborative, teamwork and academic writing skills involved in using sentence and paragraph frames
Identify strategies for supporting adult learners in transferring writing skills from the classroom to home, school, the workplace and civic environments 2

3. Brainstorm: Why Teach Writing?
Why is it important/ necessary to teach
ESL students
to write? 3

4. Why is it important to teach ESL students to write now?
Writing skills are acquired over time. Writing is more than just a final product.
Communication Skills “Writing is more important today than ever before.” Much of today’s communication is via digital writing: ing, text messaging, blogging, web posting.
Evaluation of a Person Writing is often the primary basis upon which work is judged-in college (academic papers and lecture notes), in the workplace (writing memos, proposals, and making workplace reports), and in the community (presentations, outlines, timelines).
Career Planning Job applications are now online.
Entrance Exams (GRE, ACT, SAT, GMAT) include written components.
Errors are more evident on screen. 4

5. Why Teach Second Language Writing?
Full participation in the world community, particularly within interconnected economic, technological, and geopolitical realities, can require a fluency in English that goes beyond the spoken language and embraces a variety of uses of the written language.
~ Barbara Kroll, ed. Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Language learners.... need to understand that developing strong writing skills is key to their future academic and professional success.
~Denise Mussman, ed., New Ways in Teaching Writing,
TESOL, 2013. 5

6. Writing today is..... not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for the many.
....the ability to write well is a critical component of being able to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences.
People who do not have adequate writing skills may be at a disadvantage and may face restricted opportunities for education and employment.
~ National Commission on Writing, 2012 6

7. Today, in the 21st Century, people write as never before-in print and online ~ National Council of Teachers of English 7

8. Writing: An Essential 21st Century Skill
Family and Civic Life: s, text messages, lists, note-taking, meeting reports/presentations, publicity flyers, blogs, message boards, website newsletters Work: job applications, resumes, s, memos, daily logs, work orders, safety-accident reports, performance reviews, websites, newsletters Academic settings: note taking, charts and graphs, research-based reports, journals, registration forms 8

9. The ESL Writing Process
What skills are we teaching when we teach students to write?
What are the stages of the ESL writing process? 9

10. Five Stages of the ESL Writing Process10

11. The Five Stages of the ESL Writing Process Defined
Prewriting—Students generate ideas and plan their writing.
Writing—Students draft their writing. (First draft.)
Revising—Students revise their writing based on feedback by expanding and clarifying ideas, adding details, looking at organization and flow of information.
Editing—Students edit their writing based on feedback by correcting grammar, mechanics, spelling, and punctuation.
Post-writing—Writing is “published.” Teacher reviews “common” grammar errors. Topic related vocabulary can be expanded. Teacher provides feedback and assesses student attainment of the writing objective. 11

12. Pre-Writing: Starting to Write
How do you get students to begin writing? 12

13. Pre-Writing: We can encourage students to begin writing by...........
Bringing in picture prompts-single picture or picture series
Using Realia-Objects
Practicing Total Physical Response
Playing music; Dancing
Sharing experiences-Language Experience Approach
Having students ask and answer questions about a topic: food, the weather, families, pets, health, sports, dieting, music, families, dating, freedom, government, war and peace
Promoting conversations on “current” topics: careers, water conservation, the rain forest
Reading a newspaper article, online story, discussing and writing about it
Watching a video or a television program and writing about it
Using Teacher Modeling and “Think Alouds”
Pairing students as reading and writing buddies
Providing sentence starters: I like ________because__________ 13

14. Prewriting Stage & Writing Stage
Brainstorming
Clustering/word web
Free writing
Ask questions about a topic
Outlining
Writing Stage:
Topic sentence
Main idea
Supporting details
Conclusion 14

15. Writing Fluency and Grammatical Accuracy
Research suggests that... too great a focus on language errors neither improves grammatical accuracy nor writing fluency. Grammar should be taught in the context of and in support of the writing lesson. ~ ESL Institute, Teachers should focus on the composing processes of student writers instead of on the products they produce. ~ Barbara Kroll, Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom, 1990. 15

16. Revision for Writing Fluency; Editing for Accuracy
Revision Stage (Content and Organization):
Expand and clarify ideas
Add details
Look for coherence, organization, flow of ideas
Editing Stage: correction of
Grammar
Mechanics
Spelling
Punctuation 16

17. ESL Writing Process: Matching Activity17

18. Exit Tickets: Name two things you will remember from the first part of today’s writing training ....
Two things I will remember from
this part of the training include:
_______________, _____________. 18