Teaching writing no longer falls only on the English teachers. If your school has decided to focus on writing in every class, but you have a mixed bag of students including some lower level ELs, you will need some scaffolds. My top 3 suggestions are sentence frames, multi-lanugage writing, and picture answers.
1. Sentence Frames
A sentence frame is like a fill in the blank answer. The teacher provides most of the structure of the sentence answer, but leaves an opening for the student to complete the thought with the key elements of the answer. Here are a few examples of what this might look like.
Science class: The control in this experiment is _______________. This is the control because____________.
History class: The event that started WWI was _________________________________.
Math class: The __________________ is the ______________ side of a right triangle and is __________________ of the right angle.
This might feel like you are giving them too much of the answer, but really you are setting them up for success. You won’t give this to every student in the class, but it will support many more students other than your English language learners, too. Many times, I created scaffolds for out ELs and the co-teacher utilized it for struggling students who were native English speakers. Sentence frames can be a valuable tool.
Sentence frames can be used with choices like the English example below. The teacher may choose to embed vocabulary words to see if the students really understand the difference between the protagonist and the antagonist.
English class: The (protagonist/antagonist) in the story is ______________________. I chose this character because _______________.
Math class: The answer to #____ is _________. To solve this equation, first, I ________. Next, _______. After that I ____________. Finally, ________________.
Note: Math is not my area of expertise. It is not usually associated with writing sentences; however, writing can be integrated into vocabulary lessons; students can be required to explain how they came to the answer for specific problems; or students could also be required to answer word problems using the language found in the problem.
For example, “How many miles did Susie travel?” Instead of giving a number and the unit; a student could answer, “Susie traveled ______ miles.” In the beginning, the students might need this frame, but they could eventually learn other helpful strategies like Turn the Question Around (TTQA).
These are just a few examples. You could adapt the sentence frames to whatever you are reading in class. They can also be used if the students are assigned silent reading. These types of sentence frames are amazing to help guide ALL students in the class to take notes on the reading.
Sentence Frames in Silent reading
Have you ever assigned a section of the text for silent reading and note taking to discover as you are circulating the room that all of their papers are blank. Nobody is taking notes. The ELs in your classroom (and other struggling readers) aren’t writing down anything because they cannot decipher what is important enough to write. They may not pick up on the text cues or understand the text enough to pull out the information. Chances are the ones who are writing are picking random words and sentences to copy.
Assign short chunks of the text at a time. Give them sentence frames to use after reading each chunk. After they read one to two paragraphs, require them to stop and jot notes. Instead of them raising hands only to tell you, “I don’t know what to write.” Give them some sentence frames to guide their notes. Let’s look at a few options.
This is what I understand about what I just read_____________________. A summary of this paragraph is___________________. I think the most important take away is__________________________. I don’t understand__________________________. I do not know the word__________, but I think it means_______________.
There are numerous possibilities for these depending on the class and the reading, but these are some pretty great generic examples. If the expectation is they stop and take notes using at least one of the sentence frames, you will see their comprehension increase and they will be practicing writing, too.
Side note: Sentence frames are also helpful for discussions. Often ELs don’t feel confident enough in their language ability to contribute to a discussion even if they know the answer. A cheat sheet of sentence frames can bolster that confidence. I have seen it help native English speakers navigate a class discussion as well.
Start Framing
Sentence frames are a wonderful scaffold. EL students need to be able to produce complete English sentences, but they aren’t always ready to do that alone. These are great tools to tape to the desk, so they are always available. They can be printed onto bookmarks, printed as part of a worksheet, or posted on the board or on anchor charts. There are so many ways to use sentence frames!
2. Code-Switching
Linguistic code-switching is the practice of alternating between two languages or dialects in communication. For example, a student may start out writing a sentence in English, but include a word or phrase in Spanish, and end the sentence in English. Code-switching can be used as an advantage when dealing with a reluctant writer.
Leverage the skills they have. Not every EL student will come to you possessing adequate writing skills in their native language because there may be gaps in their education. However, I am a proponent for tapping into what they bring to the table.
Reluctant Writers
Let’s look at a fairly common scenario.
I am circulating the room helping kiddos with their writing, and I notice Sam hasn’t written one word in 5 minutes. I already stopped by Sam’s desk to explain the assignment; I have him paired with a language buddy who has translated the question; and I have confirmed he understands what is being asked, but Sam still won’t write an answer. Don’t assume Sam is lazy or disobedient. There is a good chance he is frozen by reluctance. Sam is not motivated to write an answer because he isn’t sure how to say all of it in English. Students feel the expectation to perform in the second language and when they cannot do it, they freeze up. I have a solution for this issue, but it seems contradictory to the goal. Don’t give them access to online translation. No more Google Translate.
Google Translate Can Become a Crutch
There are great tools on the internet and in apps, but these become a crutch for the student and do not promote language acquisition. If a student opens Google Translate and begins typing the answer in their first language (L1), there is a good chance the answer will not translate accurately and they are not retaining any learning of the second language (L2). There is a high probability that instead of looking at the L2 translation and comparing it to the L1 answer, the student is choosing copy and paste. Boom. They are finished and no real progress has been made in the English writing domain. Providing the student with a word-to-word dictionary is sufficient. So, before you suggest an online translation tool to the student, consider maximizing their strengths. They have a language. Let them use it.
Invite L1 to the Party
Don’t ignore their skills in their first language (L1). If they know the answer and can produce the answer in L1, let’s work with that. Consider the purpose of the assignment. If I am asking my students to brainstorm ideas or if they are taking notes for themselves, I may suggest they write completely in L1. This removes pressure and helps them in the long run. When I need the student to produce an answer in English, but they are frozen with reluctance, I will tell the student to write in both languages. We usually joke a little and call it Spanglish or we figure out how to combine their language with English (Vietglish, Englabic, Frenglish, etc) They think it is funny and are pleasantly surprised and relieved.
Let them code-switch. Here is how it works. If the EL knows the word in English, they will write the English word. If the EL doesn’t know the word in English, but they do know it in Spanish, for example, they will write the word in Spanish. There are varying degrees of ability here and the more English the student knows, the fewer L1 words he/she will use. At the end, they will be able to go to a translation resource and figure out the words they didn’t know. There is still a possibility the student will just translate and not retain the knowledge of the unknown words, but they will feel accomplished; they will have used and practiced the English words and phrases they know; and they will be engaged in class.
There is still a learning opportunity here. If a student is using this technique to amplify the learning, add a requirement to write and learn the definition of three new words. They can add this to the end of the assignment and write it in their personal dictionary of new words to use.
Adding L1 to the mix has the added bonus of validating their native language. It is important they feel accepted and valued for who they are, and language is a huge part of who they are.
Two important items of note: 1. Code-switching should decline as language development improves. It is a strategy meant to help them grow in language and confidence. You may have to challenge them to use fewer L1 words. High level ELs should not be code-switching unless it is for style and acceptable in the context of the assignment. 2. It's important to note, in the U.S., some states do not have bilingual education. Please make sure you are familiar with the guidelines of your state to ensure you are using this scaffold with integrity.
3. Picture Answers
Providing sentence frames and allowing students to leverage their L1 are helpful scaffolds, but some students will be completely new to the language and both of these seem daunting. Never underestimate the power of images.
When I have a student who cannot produce an English sentence, but they still have to show me they understand the content, I can allow them to draw for me. The student may not know the word for the emotion, but they can find an emoji to copy. They may not be able to summarize the section, but they could draw a story board to show me what happened. The illustration does not have to be perfect and if they are too worried about it, let them find images on the internet.
There is a caveat with this one. Do not accept an image or an illustration alone for the answer. The student must produce some language. This could be in the form of labels on a diagram of the water cycle. This could be in short phrases or words in an illustrated summary of the chapter. In this instance, they should label the characters, settings, and as many actions as possible. They could even practice basic vocabulary by labeling things in the setting (chair, sun, grass, bird, door, etc.) No matter what their level, they must include some English words.
So Much More
There are many ways to help English language learners write in the classroom These are three scaffolds that have proven to work in my own classroom. All kids are different, and all teachers are different. I encourage you to explore other options and figure out what works best for you.
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