Oral Language, Writing & Reading Strategies for ESL
Beginning Writers
- Oral Discussion
- Partner Stories Using Pictures and Wordless Book
- Concepts Books: Creating a Teaching Library
- Peek-a-Boo Books for Younger Students and Riddle Books for Older Students
- Pattern Poems
- Personal Journals
- From Journals to Dialogue Journals to Buddy Journals
- Improvisational Sign Language
- Life Murals
- Clustering
- Freewriting
- Correcting errors minimally and selectively
- teacher/student conferences
Intermediate Writers
- Show and Not Tell - It works with form at the sentence level
- Sentences Combining - combines shorter sentences into longer ones while retaining the meaning
- Sentence Shortening - is the opposite of sentence combining, assists students with changing wordy sentences into more concise sentences (Peterson, 1981)
- Sentence Models - Supports punctuation and help students to move from of a few simple sentence structures to more complex structures.
- Mapping - It is a prewriting activity an it acts or works with form at story or essay level. A map is a visual/spatial representation of a composition or story and can assist students with shaping stories or essays they are writing (Boyle & Peregoy, 1991; Buckley & Boyle, 1982)
Assessing English Learner's Writing Progress
- Informal Observations
- Portfolio Assessment
- Holistic Scoring
Oral Language Strategies (Activities) for Beginning Speakers
- Group collaboration
- songs
- drama
- dramatizing poetry
- games
- rehearsed oral activities
- one looks one doesn't
- choral reading
- theme cycles
Oral Language Strategies (Activities) for Intermediate Speakers
- collaborative group work
- oral discussions
- clustering
- drama
- theme cycles or thematic units
Oral Language Strategies (Activities) for Advanced-Level Speakers
collaborative group work such as peer response in literature and writing: continue with peer editing groups.
collaborative group work such as peer response in literature and writing: continue with peer editing groups.
Reading Activities Strategies
Beginning-Level
* read to students
* pattern books
* students continue to read everyday
Intermediate-Level
* Students read self-selected and teacher-selected literature
Advanced-Level
* Students continue with self-selected and teacher-selected literature
* students read more sophisticated literature
* students work in literature response groups
Beginning-Level
* read to students
* pattern books
* students continue to read everyday
Intermediate-Level
* Students read self-selected and teacher-selected literature
Advanced-Level
* Students continue with self-selected and teacher-selected literature
* students read more sophisticated literature
* students work in literature response groups