I recently obtained some writing samples from Jane, my case study student. While waiting for Jane to arrive, I observed some other ESL students using magnetic letters (manipulatives) to spell out words that the instructor showed on a card. The teacher showed the card, the student spell-out the word, said the word aloud and used it in a sentence.
When Jane arrived, the teacher reviewed previous concepts such as using a topic sentence and using details to support the topic, and using a concluding paragraph. On an easel, the teacher showed a big drawing of a cheeseburger. The top bun represented the introduction/topic sentence, the supporting details were the fillings and the bottom bun represented a concluding statement. Here is some more information on this and other classroom strategies from the familiar Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_hamburger
The teacher prompted Jane to explain verbally what she had done over the weekend. Then guided the student with some leading questions. As the student was being quiet and timid, it was difficult for the teacher to extract information from Jane. It seemed to me that Jane was afraid of making a mistake. Finally, Jane replied that she had watched a home video. The teacher prompted Jane to write this sentence in the top bun as a topic sentence. As she wrote on the easel, Jane omitted the "a" in "a home video". Jane has shown to need assistance with articles of speech such as "a", "an", and "the".
After further prompting, Jane verbally described some specific things they watched in the video. This allowed the instructor to praise her for a good sentence, or help guide the student in creating a good supporting sentence. The instructor may provide numerous examples of some sentences that would be appropriate. After a few moments of decision making, Jane began to write. When writing a sentence with two ideas contained within it, she forgot to use the word "and". If the student omitted a word, the teacher may ask the student to say the sentence aloud. This technique will provide the student the opportunity to catch his/her mistake.
Jane was good at generating possible sentences verbally, but was hesitant to write anything down without appropriate prompting from the instructor. The instructor guided student to look at the introduction and take some of the words from the introduction to help her create a concluding statement. After the student wrote and read what she did last weekend, the teacher prompted student to provide more details (descriptive writing). This strategy helps the student develop a writing style, organize details and expand on the details to make the paragraph more exciting for the reader.
Next activity: with a few moments left, the student took out her independent reading book "100 Dresses". The student admitted that she read ahead of where she was supposed to, indicating a high motivation level. Some of the prompts by the teacher included:
- Tell me about Wanda
- How did Wanda feel?
- What do you think might happen next?
The student did a look back to recall a specific city contained within the text. The teacher then gave the student some post it notes and explained Jane should use a post-it whenever she has a question or makes a prediction, etc. This post-it strategy has been shown to be an effective technique. Reading Rockets to the rescue again! Here is an article entitled "103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading". http://www.readingrockets.org/article/82
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