Writing for ELL Kids: 5 Best Practices for Teachers
Finding the best steps of writing for ELL kids can be tricky. It’s not uncommon for English Language Learners to feel more comfortable learning how to speak versus how to write.
Most students who are just beginning to speak English will practice writing by filling in the blanks. It’s simple and straightforward. But there are many other ways to engage with writing.
As a teacher, you can simplify the steps of writing to make it easier to understand. In this blog, we’ll go over the best ways we found to build English Language vocabulary through writing.
Best Practices to Build English Vocabulary through Writing
Most ELL students learn a language following a universal format— listening, speaking, reading, and writing. With writing, more processing comes into play. Here are some of the best practices to improve English Learners’ writing abilities.
- Build Comprehension First
Assist students with building an understanding of phonics when learning about the meanings of different words. You can also organize comprehension-building activities that connect to the readings like picture walks.
You can even have students journal about the assignment once they get to a certain level. Most importantly, your students have a detailed understanding of the words before they start practicing writing the words down.
- Use Word Banks
Once students get to a certain point where they can connect meaning to specific words, you can then have your students do writing worksheets that provide a word bank. This allows students to practice context clues along with working on writing the word.
The word banks can start as simple expressions for the worksheets and then grown into complete statements as students develop more understanding during the course.
- Encourage Prediction, Confirmation, and Self-Correction
Give space in the classroom environment for students to make predictions about the correct answer to the question, work with other students to confirm, and then figure out how they went wrong with self-correction.
This helps students learn the proper steps to learn how to write when it comes to the English language. It also helps them understand that your classroom is a space to make mistakes and learn from them. Learning a language means trying out answers to see if it works with the context of the sentence.
- Use Word-Study Skills
Another activity you can do to help support ELL kids’ writing is creating assignments that require word-study skills. These assignments can look like sorting words by spelling patterns to promote vocabulary development.
You can also create opportunities to transfer spelling from reading to writing. You can turn these assignments into fun games like word scramble or a word scavenger hunt. Being creative will help students stay focused and involved.
- Mixing Reading with Writing
Have students do activities like creating recipes that mix reading activities and comprehension with writing. This activity can be helpful for students who are still getting used to the handwriting of words and need more practice with identifying and recognizing concepts. It groups with students at a higher level; you can start incorporating journal writing at the beginning or end of class to give students room to practice writing in English to express themselves.
These are just a few things that have helped me along the way. What are your best tips for writing for ELL kids? I’d love to hear them!
