Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Prioritizing Oral Rehearsal

Before we jump into lesson one of our published opinion unit, we prepare our students with a of week of genre immersion. The goal of this immersion is to encourage students to sound like the genre. This simply means students produce oral language that follows the structural and linguistic patterns of the genre. In order for students to successfully write these opinions and justifications, they first need to be able to say them. If they can say it, they can (most likely) write it.  

We created a series of writing workshop lessons to support this language development. Writing workshop includes a mini-lesson, independent practice, and a closure, or share. We decided to prepare our class, which is primarily ELLs, for the specific work of the first bend, or section, of the unit. In this bend, students will evaluate a collection of items brought from home to determine which they think is the best and explain why. They will then evaluate each other's collections and decide if they agree or disagree with their peers' choices. 

Mini-Lesson

Warm-Up

1. Review definitions for "opinion" and "reason" using Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) techniques. If you don't know WBT, definitely click the link!
2. Shared Reading of Opinion poem and shared opinion writing from the previous day.

Here are the charts and poem we used:

Direct Instruction/Active Engagement 

1. Reveal a labeled collection (collection name labeled in purple, each item labeled in green)
2. Think aloud, observing features, and select the best item.
3. Use the "reason cards" to support opinion
4. Use a color-coded cloze to generate an opinion and justification sentence. Purple represents the name of the collection, green the selected item, and blue the reason.
5. Read aloud/echo read sentences together.

For the demonstration, we specifically chose collections that would allow us to utilize language from each reason categories.

Day One: Writing Tools (erasable marker, crayon, marker, pen, pencil)

Day Two: Candy (Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, Life Savor mints, Hershey Kisses)

Day Three: Movies (Jaws, Finding Nemo, Transformers, Coco)

Day Four: Pets (snake, hairless cat, collie, fish, turtle)

Day Five: Shirts (scratchy sweater, fluffy sweatshirt, tank top, t-shirt)

Independent Practice 

Around the room, we set up five different collections. Each collection was labeled in purple and each item was labeled in green. Again, these colors correspond to the cloze chart.  We placed the "reason cards" on a ring at each center. 

Students were heterogeneously grouped for this activity.  Each day, they visited a different collection center. Their task was to choose the best item in the collection. Using the "reason cards" as a guide, they negotiated a justification for their selection.  We met briefly with the groups, coaching and differentiating instruction based on the individual needs of the students.   

After about twenty minutes, the groups were instructed to come to the carpet with the purple collection label and the winning green item label. 

Share

On the carpet, groups quickly shared the winning item and the reasons for their selection during a brief turn and talk. Next, we revisited a Shared Writing piece from the previous day to help students internalize the structure and language of the genre. Finally, we selected one collection to write about as a class. 

Here's what our share time looked like across the week:

Monday 
Topic: Playground Equipment 
Method: Shared Writing using the cloze sentences  

Tuesday 
Topic: Balls 
Method: Shared Writing using the cloze sentences 

Wednesday
Topic: Blocks
Method: Shared Writing (no cloze)

Thursday
Topic: Books
Method: Shared Writing (no cloze)

Friday
Topic: Cars
Method: Shared Writing and Interactive Writing

As the week progressed, we released scaffolding so students took more control of the task. We started the week with a highly scaffolded piece of writing. Using the cloze sentences as a template, the teacher elicited the content from the students, guiding them to clearly see the structure of the sentence as she scribed.  We removed the cloze template mid-week as students became more confident with the syntax and grammar of the sentence.  Students were consistently producing oral language that "sounded like the genre" so we decided to Share the Pen during the lesson.     

Genre immersion activities, like the ones presented here, provide ELLs with a solid foundation for sharing and writing strong opinions. 

With informed teaching and the proper scaffolding, ELLs at any level CAN engage in grade-level writing tasks. It is true that ELLs need time to develop the language of school, but we, as teachers, can maximize that time by designing instruction that is focused, relevant and meaningful. If you missed a post in the Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing Series, you can find it here:


Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Introduction

Part One: Choosing Language Objectives

Part Two: Teaching Academic Language
Part Three: Developing Reasons

And as always, we'd love to hear from you!  

Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Developing Reasons

Expressing opinions comes naturally to many children. However, supporting their opinions with reasons is a bit more challenging. Many students have yet to master the descriptive language skills in English that enable them to justify their opinions. Statements like, "I like this car because it's cool" or "This is the best book because it's good" are commonplace in many classrooms.

To become strong opinion writers, students need to think broadly and deeply about their arguments. Inspired by Nancy Fetzer, we created these "reason cards" to scaffold the task. There are seven cards: sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell, action and emotions. Below the corresponding image is a sample word list. 

Whenever we model or prompt for a justification, we utilize these "reason cards."     

We hold up each card one by one, point to the image on the card, and prompt students categorically in the following way:

"Do you like this_____ because of...

• the way it looks/what you see (touching eyes)
• the way it feels (rubbing hands together)
• the way it smells (touching nose)
• the way it tastes (touching mouth)
• the way it sounds (making a sound effect)
• what it does (moving arms back and forth)
• the way it makes you feel (placing hand over heart)"

Once students identify a reason category, we prompt them with some of the vocabulary on the card using gestures and images. For example, when we read the word "humongous" we hold our arms out as wide as possible to show the meaning.  When we read "bitter", we contort our face to convey meaning. We like to keep a picture dictionary close by for visual support, as well. Students can use the words presented, or use them as a jumping off point for a word of their own.  

For newcomers, it's helpful to explicitly teach the sensory words. We spent a few days focusing on these words in a small group setting.  

We did a taste test,

 

...went on a photo scavenger hunt, 

stinky shoe

rough carpet 

colorful hands

...used an interactive pocket chart to read the words in context (we covered LOTS of grammar in this activity: syntax, subject/verb agreement, pronouns), 

...and built a word wall together.

Putting these "Reason Cards" into the hands of the students has proven to be extremely beneficial. Flipping through the ring forces the writer to slow down and contemplate the options. They consider new ways of thinking and search for more sophisticated language to match that thinking.  

In our final post in this series, we'll share a few ways to make oral rehearsal both authentic and engaging. 

Part 4: Prioritizing Oral Rehearsal

If you missed our earlier posts, you can catch up here:
Part 1: Choosing Language Objectives
Part 2: Teaching Academic Language

Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Teaching Academic Language

In our last post, we explored how the structure, language features, and vocabulary of a genre can help us determine language objectives. (You can check out that post here, if you missed it.) Today, we will dive deeper into some strategies for teaching academic language. 

Academic language must be explicitly taught to English language learners. This teaching  can be done in different contexts: during a word study block, in small groups during reading or writing workshop, or during an Interactive Read Aloud. 

We incorporate explicit academic language instruction into our morning meeting. We call these academic words our "scholarly" words.  Following the responsive classroom protocol, we engage in a greeting, share, activity, and morning message on a daily basis. Every week we choose a high utility academic word and incorporate it into our share time. We follow an instructional sequence that provides authentic practice with the academic word.  Here's a glimpse of our instructional sequence. We spend one week on each word. Once the students catch on to the routine, it takes about ten to twelve minutes from beginning to end. This particular week our "scholarly" word was "agree." 

To start, we practice the word in isolation. We say the word, clap the parts, spell it, write it, and classify it. We use a call and response approach to keep the energy high. The teacher will begin by inviting students to the task.  This language can be seen in the arrows above. Students respond with the statement in quotations. For example:

T: Scholars, let's clap it.

S: I can clap each part. 

T: a [clap] gree [clap] 

S: [repeat] 

T: a [clap] gree [clap]

S: [repeat] 

T: Which part is louder? 

S: gree 

T: Yes, "gree" is louder. That is the stressed syllable. A-gree. Repeat. 

S: A-gree

Next we explore the definition of the word. We will tell a short (micro) story that uses the word in context. Then, we teach the definition.

T: Scholars, let's define it! 

S: What does it mean? 

T: (Using gestures) Agree means to think (point to brain) the same (hold up hand in stop gesture) way (hold up other hand in stop gesture).   

S: (Mimicking gestures) Agree means to think the same way! 

T: Agree means to think the same way. Please teach your partner the definition of agree. Teach! 

S: Ok! [Students teach with words and gestures.]

We embed grammar into this routine as well. Since opinion writing is generally written in the timeless present tense, we make sure to highlight the subject verb agreement, as seen on the "Use It" slide. 

"I agree with Mrs. K."  

"Mrs. Quinn agrees with Mrs. K."

As depicted in the "Try It" slide, the next activity invites students to use the word in context using a model sentence and then an open-ended sentence frame. In this example, students are presented two opposing opinions and need to decide which one they agree with. We always begin by modeling the sentence frame with a series of options.  This allows us to highlight the patterns in language.  For example, a noun or pronoun will always follow the word "because:" 

I agree with Mrs. K because students will hurt their eyes.
I agree with Mrs. Quinn because video games can teach you new things.
I agree with Mrs. Quinn because she went to college.

We've learned to use more obscure examples when we model, ones we know the students will not use. The scholarly word and grammatical structures are new to students so leaving them with familiar ideas to use helps reduce the cognitive load. After 

We finish our routine with a share time. We craft share topics that prompt students to utilize the "scholarly" word in their response. Students share with partners first, and then a select few share out to the group.

To support vocabulary development and retention, we maintain a "scholarly" word wall. Words are categorized by part of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives. This word wall is separate from our high frequency word wall. 

This routine provides our students with explicit vocabulary instruction. It also gives them ample opportunity for oral rehearsal. 

In our next post, we'll explore ways to encourage development in opinion writing.

Part 3: Developing Reasons

Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Choosing Language Objectives

As language teachers, we consider the linguistic demands of the learning tasks in each unit we teach. So naturally we started by asking, "What language will the students need to be successful writers in this genre?"

Narrative, information and opinion writing have distinct features. The language of stories looks and sounds much different than the language of opinions. When selecting language objectives, we always let the genre be our guide. We consider the three following areas as we establish objectives: structure, language features, vocabulary.  

Structure

We first examine the building blocks of the genre. Students need to have an understanding of how a text is structured. Every text goes through a series of steps to achieve its purpose. For each genre, these steps are more or less predictable. We refer to these as the stages of the text. Stages shape a text, defining its structure. 

There are many kinds of opinion writing including reviews, expositions (arguing for a point of view), and interpretations. Although each of these maintain the same purpose - to evaluate - they have different structures. 

Our first grade students will be writing reviews in this opinion writing unit. A review has three stages: context, description, evaluation. A review begins by stating the subject of the review and a few relevant details to provide context (author, location, classification). In the description, the writer offers a short summary of events or a description of key features. In the final section of a review, the writer shares opinions or recommendations with supporting reasons. 

While our unit objective is for students to use the full structure of evaluative texts, our initial teaching focuses on developing the evaluation stage. The foundation for any opinion text is claims and justifications; therefore, we introduce these building blocks first. Context and description become increasingly more important as students shift to reviewing books, movies and places in the community.

Language Features

In order to be successful opinion writers, students need to have command of the following language features: 

We treat this list as a menu of options, selecting the grammar objectives that meet the needs of our students. It is helpful to choose the widest-reaching objectives, ones that will give the learner the biggest advantage.  

Vocabulary

It is also important to consider the salient vocabulary, specifically the Tier 2 words, that students will come across, and need to OWN in this unit. In order for students to own these words, they need to not only know what they mean, but use them correctly in context. It is imperative that teachers explicitly teach these words so students have a language to discuss and analyze their writing. 

With so many possible goals to choose from, selecting language objectives can seem overwhelming.  Allowing genre to guide this process really narrows the pool of options and makes the task more manageable. This approach also ensures that we are selecting goals that are specific and functional.

In our next post, we will explore an approach for teaching academic language for opinion writing.

Part Two: Teaching Academic Language

Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing

As any teacher is well aware, before one unit is done, the planning for the next has already begun. So as we were fancying up our chapter books, nibbling on cheese and crackers and clinking our grown-up glasses to toast our information writing, our teacher brains were thinking about opinion writing!

We use the Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing by Lucy Calkins, et al. as our writing curriculum.  The content and the workshop model presented by Calkins offer us a wonderful umbrella to work under. In the opinion unit, Writing Reviews, students create persuasive reviews of just about everything, including their own personal collections.

In this series, Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing, we will be exploring the methods, scaffolds and strategies we've used in our classrooms to help ELLs grow as opinion writers.  While much of this work was done in an integrated first grade classroom, these ideas can easily be modified for other grade levels and settings. Here's what you can expect in this four part series:

Part One: Choosing Language Objectives

Part Two: Teaching Academic Language
Part Three: Developing Reasons
Part Four: Prioritizing Oral Rehearsal

Click HERE to jump in.