I’ve previously published a series on teachers’ favorite lessons for ELL newcomers.

Now, it’s time to do the same for intermediate ELLs.

Writing Sentences

Maria Cruz teaches English for speakers of other languages at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Va.:

Teachers who have given a writing assessment to an English-language learner and been confronted with a stream-of-consciousness narrative may feel perplexed about how to begin introducing sentence structure into the learner’s writing toolbox. To those teachers, I offer that the Sentence Writing Strategy from the University of Kansas can be a path to success for such students.

This strategy offers explicit instruction for four English sentence structures that provide a framework for students to demonstrate language proficiency on any academic writing task. It begins with a low-cognitive load: a simple subject + verb sentence that kick starts motivational investment and builds academic confidence as students work their way up to producing long, compound-complex sentences.

Which students can benefit from this strategy?

The Sentence Writing Strategy was not developed specifically for English-language learners, and any writer who struggles with written composition would benefit from these explicit, graduated lessons. Students must be able to categorize nouns and verbs, so this strategy is best for high-beginner or intermediate ELLs (WIDA 2.5 and up). If a student relies heavily on a translator/dictionary or struggles to express herself in a conversation, she might not be ready for this level of grammar analysis.

How does it work?

When beginning this series of lessons, the teacher should focus on the assets the English learner brings with her—the volume and complexity of vocabulary and the flow of ideas she used to express herself in her initial writing assessment provide a foundation of knowledge that should be recognized and honored. To ensure the students do not become overwhelmed with grammar, the Sentence Writing Strategy uses a series of short lessons that can be divided into daily 15-minute increments.

Each of the four sentence- structure units begins with a deductive model where the class analyzes sentences that follow a particular grammar pattern. The teacher models his thinking aloud and uses questioning to elicit students’ observations.

Students complete a series of increasingly challenging exercises that remove scaffolds in each step; their work is evaluated and results are immediately provided to them. Students then have an opportunity to repeat the practice until mastery is achieved. At the end of each unit, students can produce independent writing that shows a command of logical progression and sentence variety.

Why is this strategy particularly helpful for ELLs?

The incremental, repetitive design of the lessons means that a student does not expend effort deciphering what their teacher is asking them to do. After the first lesson, they understand the process and can dive into the writing and self-analysis with minimal direct instruction. For students who avoid writing or are unused to the expectations of academic writing in U.S. schools, learning the Sentence Writing Strategy is an invaluable experience to create agency in their own literacy skills. The confidence they build through this strategy is an invaluable asset.

Once an English-language learner can see her own growth from stream-of-consciousness writing to elegant sentences, she is more likely to embrace further challenges the teacher presents throughout the course. She is more willing to lean into productive struggle because she has evidence of her own writing development. The teacher can leverage that self-efficacy to increase the rigor of academic writing expectations as the course progresses.

With this strategy under their belts, English learners can move forward boldly to master other challenging English grammar such as rules for using commas, correlative conjunctions, and verb-tense mastery. The Sentence Writing Strategy is the gateway ELLs need to see and believe in their own language development and academic growth.

Persuasive Writing

Teresa Amodeo is an ESL/language-acquisition program coordinator for District 302 in Illinois. She has a master’s in literacy, with endorsements in ESL, middle school (language arts concentration):

For intermediate English learners, I think one of my best lessons took place when completing a writing unit. We had worked on persuasive writing for a few weeks. We began with identifying parts of a persuasive piece, defining persuasion, read and dissecting persuasive texts, and then creating our own persuasive texts given a personal experience.

The students reflected on an event in their life—whether it was school-related, family-related, vacation, visits to fairs, parks—and framed their experience in a persuasive-writing piece with multiple pieces of evidence solidifying their side, through reflection and use of previously taught vocabulary.

Then the lessons transitioned to guiding them through the revision process in completing this persuasive piece. Essentially, it was fine tuning their vocabulary and grammar-convention skills. I utilized grammar- or language-convention checklists to fine tune their writing and reflective questions to journal and guide or outline their writing.

My second favorite lesson would have been “chat stations” during a lesson on community issues and current events. We discussed and shared current events and “hot topics” as a whole group over the course of a few days to have them begin making connections to real-world events and strengthen or bridging language skills .

We then moved to center-based activities, where I had scenarios set up along the classroom and had groups of students rotating to each one and discussing the given issue, identifying the problem, sharing their opinion on it, and creating a plan of action. This particular lesson with its activities was effective in strengthening communication skills in various situations.

Thanks to Maria and Teresa for contributing their thoughts!

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

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