Research
Summary
by Shirley Chin
Research
Question
How does “shared interactive writing” impact English
language learners’ (ELLs) writing performance?
As ELLs develop and use skills and strategies to
compose, produce and present written work in a variety
of genres for different audiences and purposes,
what happens when there is explicit teaching, modeling,
and sharing of the task of writing?
Rationale
As a result of the NCLB Act, all ELLs must meet
the same standards as other students and are required
to take State assessments in the subject areas appropriate
to their grade level. It’s a challenging task to
teach ELLs with various English proficiency levels
to reach the performance benchmarks in the ESL standards.
Students must be able to demonstrate their knowledge,
skills, abilities and competencies in English for
authentic purposes in both social and academic settings
in their grade levels. What happens when students
are admitted year round and they have had interrupted
schooling?
The year round admission policy creates groups
of students who always seem to need to start at
the very beginning, learning the alphabet and letter
sounds, and develop basic communication skills.
I felt Shared Interactive Writing would be a good
entry point for students to begin writing in their
second language because it calls for them to write
what they’re able to write on their own while I
assist them with spelling and the conventions of
writing. The teacher can then work with the students
to write words and sentences based on what they
know and aid their vocabulary development as they
collaborate on the text and share the pen. My thought
was that used daily, the students would develop
their competence with oral language, reading, and
writing.
P.S. 130M is located in the Chinatown-Little
Italy section of New York. There is a population
of almost 1,100 children with the majority entering
as English language learners. The children live
in a community that supports their first language
and culture.
I taught 28 fourth and fifth grade Chinese students
in a pull out program, providing English as a second
language (ESL) services in an all English immersion
program.
Data Collection Tools
Surveys
I asked the students to fill out a writing survey
to find out how they each felt about their ability
to write, their feelings toward writing, and their
feelings about writing in school and at home. Other
questions on the survey helped me understand whether
they understood the purposes for writing and whether
they had problem solving strategies for writing
independently.
Observation Check List
I adapted a Language Arts Development Checklist
from Language Arts Assessment Grades 5-6 by C.D.
Ryan (1994) to record what each student can do in
writing mechanics and what each student can do in
writing tasks.
Writing Samples
I looked at two students’ writing samples to examine
their growth and progress in English language writing
proficiency. This was intended to give me greater
understanding of how the Shared Interactive Writing
influenced student achievement.
Summary of Data
Students had a positive attitude toward
writing and they enjoyed writing. They felt people
wrote to learn to have better penmanship or for
practice. “Good writing” they thought has to do
with correct spelling, nice and neat writing, the
teacher’s grade, and good use of English. They also
thought that good writing was to write more words
and write essays.
The students’ writing skills improved over a six
month period from October to April. There was significant
improvement with the use of capital letters, correct
ending punctuation, and writing simple sentences
with correct sentence structure (100%). A majority
of the students started using quotation marks (53%)
and commas (69%) appropriately and use “and” (81%)
to join ideas. However, the skills that do not exist
in the Chinese language (contractions, prefixes
and suffixes, verb forms, and subject/verb agreement)
had the least improvement with 56% to 69% of the
students occasionally applying the skills.
All but 5 improved by April with writing tasks
such as writing story summaries, stories using beginning,
middle, and end, developing stories sequentially,
using a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures,
writing for purposes and audiences, revising, and
sharing and discussing. Three students and about
half the class showed slight improvement in using
story elements, topic sentences with supporting
details, and dialogue.
The case studies showed the developmental growth
of two students after explicit teaching through
shared interactive writing followed by small group
writing and writing partnerships before independent
writing. Modeling the writing (shared writing) and
sharing the pen (shared interactive writing) helped
the students understand writing expectations. Both
students improved moving through the stages of language
acquisition at their own learning rates. Both students,
A and B, gradually improved their writing skills
with opportunities to work collaboratively learning
to use English words in context. As I modeled how
to write reading responses and how to make connections
to the text, student A, a beginning ESL student,
gradually moved from writing in Chinese to writing
in English as much as she could. Student B, in the
third stage of language acquisition, the speech
emergence stage, added details to his summaries
using his own words and learned to express himself
and his ideas freely (such as a text connection).
As I worked with the fourth and fifth grade students
this year, I learned to accept their Chinese English
as they developed their writing competence and language
skills. For some students writing in their first
language helped them grow as writers as they made
the gradual transition to English. The students
needed to be taught high frequency words, phrases,
grammar, idiomatic expressions, and sentence patterns.
They moved at their own pace, and as new students
were admitted during the year, more time was given
to them in small guided writing groups.
The strategies in teaching writing for English
speaking students were applicable for ESL students
with more explicit directions and modeling. The
ESL students needed more time on language conventions
and reminders of verb tense and plural forms. Although
they knew the concepts for grammar, they needed
time to internalize the concepts to develop the
habit for writing.
Analysis
- Students need opportunities to write to develop
their writing skills.
- Students who struggle
in their first language need more time and attention
to write.
- The skills of speaking, reading, and writing
are interwoven and students should be encouraged
to express themselves and their ideas by sharing
their writing with an audience.
- There should be word walls in the classroom
with words related to a theme, descriptive words,
actions words, or idiomatic expressions.
- Quality literature makes reading and writing
more interesting and meaningful for students.
- When teachers collaborate, instruction is improved
and students’ learning is more connected.
- Students’ placement based on age sometimes
creates struggling students whose first language
literacy is two to three years behind their peers.
- Teachers who receive staff development and support
use the most effective ways to teach new immigrant
students.
- Chinese parents lack the cultural knowledge
of American schools and do not understand how
parental involvement affects their children’s
school performance. When literacy strategies are
modeled for the parents, the parents can use the
same strategies at home with their children (the
strategies can be used with Chinese language books
or translated books).
- When teachers understand second language acquisition,
they accept that students need to use their first
language to build content knowledge and develop
their literacy skills as readers and writers as
they gradually develop English proficiency.
- For many Chinese immigrant children who enter
school, they lag behind the students the same
age and have a difficult time meeting the standards
set for the grade. Although they make progress
in English language development, their skills
are below the standard of the grade in which they
are placed.
- The New York State policy for assessing literacy
development is after three years in the country,
immigrant students will be assessed with the same
measurement as everyone else. Teachers become
pressured to have their students meet the standard
of the pressures of high stakes testing.
Implications
Classroom
- Allow time for students to progress at their
own rate through the stages of second language
acquisition
- Know your students’ educational background
and experiences
- Immerse students in content rich and meaningful
language experiences with opportunities to discuss
topics and write daily
School
- Provide resources and books at various levels
on each grade level for appropriate entry points
- Time for classroom teachers and service providers
to meet and collaborate to optimize student learning
- Placement of students based on educational
experiences, not age appropriate grade level classes
- Staff development and support to help teachers
improve their teaching instruction for ELLs
- Workshops for parents to help them understand
the differences between the two educational systems
and how they can help their children at home
District/City
- Better teacher preparation to understand second
language acquisition and instructional approaches
to help ELLs maximize their learning
- Time allowed for student adjustment and less
emphasis on high stakes testing until students
have acquired and developed appropriate academic
skills in English
|