Effective Strategies for Improving Writing Skills of Elementary English Language Learners

Procedure 

For the experimental group (Group 1), journals were given to each ESL student. As 

explained to the students, the purpose of the journals was to simply get the students writing 

without the concern of scrutiny. I started the communication process by commenting about 

myself and then writing a question in each journal. They would then be expected to respond, thus 

keeping the written conversation going. I would respond back to them and so it continued 

throughout the year. As stated in the literature synthesis, these journals were a way to provide 

ESL students the opportunity to write with freedom about whatever they desired, ask questions, 

and simply practice their English skills. Not only was it beneficial for them, but it also provided 

me with much needed insight as to how to help them in the classroom.  

Generally speaking, the classroom teacher and I spent about two weeks for each genre of 

writing and then repeated the process. In between genres, we addressed grammar issues both on 

a basis of need and those outlined in the second grade curriculum. Using the pacing guide as a 

map, we navigated our way through the school year quite successfully. She and I took turns 

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being the lead teacher so we each had ample opportunity to be among the students throughout the 

lessons. We purposefully set out to create an encouraging writing environment so that all the 

students felt comfortable and safe to write their ideas without fear of harsh criticism. However, 

as experienced teachers, we knew when we needed to push and when to step back.  

We began each genre by activating prior knowledge with a book, a piece of realia, or a 

think-pair-share. For example, if the genre was narrative, we had various books on display and/or 

discussed television shows and movies that told stories. We then conducted a read-aloud 

followed by rich engaging discussions, charting the components of the genre with the students 

for a visual aid and future reference. Charting the elements of a narrative led to vocabulary pre-

view opportunities and in this example included the terms setting, characters, problem, solution, 

beginning, middle, and end. Using the text we just read, we identified and charted each element. 

Through informal assessments such as observations and class participation, we could pinpoint 

those who were ready to move on and those who were not. At the beginning of the year, we 

repeated this process the following day with a different book. If vocabulary was still a hindrance, 

we often physically acted out words of concern, showed examples, and allowed for collaborative 

learning experiences with their peers, but we made sure each and every student was ready before 

we moved to the next step. Using differentiation, we were able to provide students, who were 

ready from the onset of the lesson, opportunities for extension.  

 For every genre and task, scaffolded instruction was implemented as we progressed 

through the writing process. Graphic organizers were used to assist students in organizing their 

thoughts for the pre-writing stage. Differentiated organizers were also used as we had one 

student who had just moved to the United States and obviously required a more basic organizer. 

After modeling a class graphic organizer, the students began completing their own. The next 

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lesson would include taking our ideas from the class organizer, which was projected on the 

promethean board, and turning them into sentences. After we modeled our beginning, the 

students would create their beginnings and so on. Following each mini-lesson, students wrote 

and we monitored the room conferencing with students on a daily basis. When a rough draft was 

complete, we modeled revising followed by editing and finally publishing. By the year’s end, the 

students were able to go through the process with less assistance and finally independently, but it 

was spring before they were ready to do so and some still needed assistance like our new-comer.  

During the writing process, we were careful not to focus on punctuation and grammar 

mistakes. We wanted the students to have the freedom to express their ideas in written form also 

known as Fluency First. Ideally, and from what I gathered from the literature review, not 

focusing on conventions during the first half of the year would be greatly beneficial to the ESL 

students but it is not realistic as each student is graded in that area with the same rubric every 

nine weeks. Since grammar and conventions were scored with each genre, explicit lessons were 

provided between genres and of course, when individuals required it, but again, it was not our 

focus.  

During post-planning, the team reconvened to analyze the data and discuss the 

improvement of the writing skills for most of the students and possible reasons for those that did 

not. We concurred that using the techniques outlined above proved to be beneficial to not only 

ESL students, but to general education students as well.