Write, Write, Write

One of the things I do daily with my students is WRITE!

Many times my class periods are limited to 30 minutes and I have a lot to do within that short time frame.  I try to get in some guided reading as well as vocabulary front-loading and practice, etc.  However, we always write, write, write.

We use Writing A-Z and the Write Source for ideas, but every student has a writing journal for their daily writing.  Frequently, we use blank composition books, especially with the older students, but I found a great writing journal with prompts for my first grade students.  It is called "My First Writing Prompt Journal" from Lakeshore. 

 My primary students LOVE these!  I started using them second semester with my first grade students last year and sent them home at the end of the school year with the directions to finish the journals over the summer.  This year, I distributed the journals to my first graders on our first day of ESL.  One of the girls in my class actually squealed when she saw her journal because she was excited to get one of her own!  (Her older sister brought her journal home in May and completed it over the summer.)

What I like about this particular journal is the interesting and child appropriate writing prompt on each page.  We read the prompt together and then talk about the choices in the word bank below.  After a brief "thinking" time, I direct the students to trace with their pencils over the blue writing prompt words and then finish the prompt with a word from the word bank.  I also expect a period at the end of their sentence.  After they complete their sentence, then they may draw a picture to accompany their sentence.  Each child reads their sentence to me as they complete it and they may tell me about their picture as they draw.

I know the writing prompt journal doesn't allow for a lot of creativity, but my students do other journal writing in their classrooms as well.  Using the writing prompt journals in my ESL class time allows me to squeeze in some writing every day.  Plus, my students really enjoy writing in these journals and will ask me for them if I forget to pull them out.  You can't beat that, in my opinion!  I love it when my students have a positive view of writing...whatever it takes.  

Bow Wow Meow! Animal Sounds in Different Countries

I found a fun video today on Vimeo called Bow Wow Meow!  It features people saying animal sounds in 17 different languages. The languages are English, Mandarin, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Hindi, Canadian-French, Romanian, Japanese, Russian, Dutch, Bengali, Brazilian-Portuguese, Colombian-Spanish, Swahili and Mongolian.   The one sound that seems to have the most commonality is the sound of a cat.  Most of the languages sound similar to our English "meow".  The other animals are dog, rooster, cow and pig.

I think this would be a great video to show students and then do a writing project on it.  I could see making our own video with our iPads, too.  Our ELL's include students who represent at least 9 different languages.  
What fun and it could be a great way to include some of our ELL parents, too! !

Here's the link to Bow Wow Meow on Vimeo.  (Note:  Be patient.  It took a while for it to download and buffer before I could watch it on my computer.) 

Expanding Expression Tool (EET)

Continuing on the theme of teaching writing to children, I'd like to tell you about a great tool I love to use with my students!  It's called the Expanding Expression Tool or EET, for short.

The Expanding Expression Tool is a hands-on way for students to think about things they want to write about and how to describe them.  Each bead on the strand stands for a different way of looking at the item.  For example, the Green bead (with the smiling face) represents "Green - Group" or what group the item belongs to.  The Blue bead is for "Blue - Do."  It stands for "what does this item do OR what would you do with the item".  The White bead with the eyeball on it represents "what does it look like" while the brown wooden bead means "what is made of".  The Pink bead is for "Pink - Parts" (what it is a part of OR what are its parts).  The plain White bead represents "White - Where" for where would you find it or where does it reside.  Finally, the Orange bead with the question mark stands for "What else do I know".

Here is an example of two descriptions of a football.  One is written by a group before using the EET and the other description is by the same group after they used the tool.

Mrs. Pokey and I have had success using the Expanding Expression Tool.  In fact, we're going to be working with a fifth grade class tomorrow.  We have four English Language Learners in the class, so Mrs. Pokey and I will be pushing-in to the classroom tomorrow and working with the whole class along with their teacher, Mrs. Cookie.  (Yes, she makes marvelous cookies!)   Mrs. Cookie has a whole bag full of Mexican   jumping beans.  I can't wait to work with the students tomorrow afternoon on how to describe their jumping beans!  (I was in the classroom this morning talking with Mrs. Cookie.  The whole time I was in there, the beans were jumping in their little clear plastic boxes.  Click, click, click, click, click, click, click!)

To find out more about the Expanding Expression Tool, please go to their website at www.expandingexpression.com.   I also found few good YouTube links to share with you.  

The first one is from a school district in Ohio:

Expanding Expression Tool

The second is from Expanding Expression: 

Expanding Expression Tool, 2

I also found some good PDF's about EET online.  They're worth downloading and reading.  I hope you'll give EET a try with your students, too.  

PDF from the 2012 Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Convention

PDF from the 2011 Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Convention

Writing A-Z

At the beginning of last school year, Mrs. Pokey and I sat down and looked at the scores of our students on our annual "Really Big Important State Tests For English Language Learners".   The "Really Big State Tests" look at the progress of our English Language Learners in four areas.  The areas are reading, speaking, listening and writing.  The students receive scores from 1-5 in each of the four areas.  The area scores are weighted and combined to make a composite score.

We use the composite scores to decide where the students will be placed in our program.  I am the ESL unit teacher and I work with the emergent and beginning students (composite scores of 1 and 2).  Mrs. Pokey is our ESL paraprofessional and she works with the intermediate and advanced students (composite scores of 3 and 4).  Under current state rules, a student who receives composite 4's two years in a row or a composite 5 after 3rd grade is exited from the ESL program.   Our goal is to keep our students advancing and eventually exiting the program.

After looking at the data, we realized that writing is the "make or break" score for our children.  It is weighted more heavily and affects the composite score.  The writing score makes the difference between a student working with me versus Mrs. Pokey AND determines whether or not they can exit our program.

Therefore, Mrs. Pokey and I decided we really needed to place a high priority on working on writing with our students.  We looked at what was available to us from the district and what was available from other sources.  Finally, we decided to try Writing A-Z, an online program from the Learning A-Z folks.

We've used Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids from the same company for several years.  We like both programs and feel they've been beneficial for our kids.  So, we piloted Writing A-Z for the school year to see how we liked it.

Well...our test results came in just before the school year ended in May.  Our students ROCKED the "Really Big Important State Tests for English Language Learners"!!!   Mrs. Pokey and I were so excited we nearly expired from happiness!   Yipppeeeeeeee!!  We were able to exit several students while others advanced up from unit level services to tutor level (working with Mrs. Pokey).  Moreover, we even had a few students who advanced TWO levels in writing.  Hallelujah!

Mrs. Pokey and I are convinced that trying Writing A-Z last year made a difference for our students.   We especially liked the way it tied in so well to Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids that we already use.  We're excited to keep moving forward with it this year as well.  Now that we've had a "shake down" year with it, we have more ideas to try.

And...the best part of all this??  The district bigwigs noticed our test scores and agreed to provide Writing A-Z to all our elementary ESL programs.  (Thank goodness I don't have to buy it myself this year! <grin>)
Stay tuned throughout the school year and I'll share some more writing tips with you.

If you'd like to check out Writing A-Z for yourself, here's a link.  They will email some free samples to you and periodically they have free trial subscription days.

Writing A-Z link http://www.writinga-z.com/razwritingweb/home.do

 Here's what they say on their website about Writing A-Z:  

Writing A–Z is a website offering a comprehensive collection of downloadable lessons and materials. The core lessons are grouped under five main writing genres: expository, narrative, persuasive, procedural, and transactional. Each genre category is further divided into a subset of text types with accompanying resources to teach each type. Lessons and materials are provided at four developmental levels to meet the needs of students at different writing stages, from beginning to fluent. In addition to the specific text type writing lessons and materials, the website houses a collection of mini-lessons on writing skills such as sentence and paragraph writing. There is also a collection of support resources to aid writing instruction, including writing prompts, wordless books, read-aloud books, rubrics, and writing samples.

http://www.writinga-z.com/

How to Make a Coke Float (Writing Activity)

Before the holidays I came across a great writing activity called "How to Make a Coke Float." I found it on the teacher blog, Ginger Snaps.  (By the way, she has a lot of other great ideas, too.  Be sure to check out her other posts.)

My third and fourth grade students LOVED this writing unit!  I've never seen them so excited about writing.  They also thought the YouTube clip describing how to make an ice cream float was hilarious!! We watched it several times in order to make sure the students understood all the words and the concepts.

A direct link to the video
 
Finally, making and consuming Coke floats (made with vanilla ice cream and Coca-Cola) in ESL class was a very popular (although somewhat messy) activity!  Even after the Winter Break and several weeks of school, my students are still hinting that they'd like to make floats again.

Writing with English Language Learners

This school year, Mrs. Pokey and I are going to concentrate on writing skills with our students.  In our state, all ELL's are required to take state tests in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.  Our students typically do fairly well on the tests, but they all struggle with the writing test.  Writing is the "make or break" score on whether or not the students are deemed "proficient" and graduate from the ESL program. 

I found these articles on writing on the Colorin Colorado website.  I think Mrs. Pokey and I will have to try some of the strategies.