Thank you  --  another most helpful idea working with a class and, as well, with individuals.  I appreciate your taking time to respond to my question and value your suggestion.  

Sheryl Rogel
English Instructor
Bates Technical College
1101 Yakima Ave S
Tacoma, WA   98498
253-680-7267 
"Every study of young writers I've done in the last twenty years has underestimated what they can do; in fact, we know very little about the human potential for writing."  Donald Graves
 
-----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of kathleen morgan
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 8:18 PM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2367] Re: advancing competency


Adding to the great suggestions below, make sure they know exactly what they are writing. Is it non-fiction or fiction, descriptive, comparitive, etc? What prompt are they responding to and what sorts of language typically go with that response?

I model the prompt and go through the writing process with my students before they do their own. The work is created through student input and I write it up on the overhead. We have a brainstorming page, then a rough draft, then we edit and then create the final copy. I make copies of the overheads for the students to reference. They know they can't copy our work word for word, but they may find structures that are helpful to their writing. The writing is at their linguistic level and they understand the topic. 

My students are currently creating a one page fiction story that has to have a tree in it somewhere.  They have a story map and time line to complete with me as we edit. I've worked with them for many months or years so we can edit for more than one item (punctuation, spelling, word order, capitalization and verb tense) but as suggested, we started with one focus and added on as their abilities progressed. The last question we always is, "Did you answer the prompt?". Rubrics have increased everyone's understanding and motivation. 

Kathleen




 --- On Fri 05/09, Holly Dilatush < holly at dilatush.com > wrote:
From: Holly Dilatush [mailto: holly at dilatush.com]
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 17:24:01 -0400
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2366] Re: advancing competency

<div>Hello Sheryl, all,</div>
<div>a quick response now, maybe more later --</div>
<div>But setting written specific goals and then developing a rubric (with input from learner and facilitator/instructor on observed error/challenge patterns) --</div>
<div>then ensuring that the rubric is understood, then editing paragraphs with a focus on ONLY one rubric item at a time, repeatedly -- </div>
<div>challenge the learner to take one paragraph, edit it looking ONLY for ONE of the errors she/he is trying to correct, </div>
<div>then have it reviewed by instructor, then edited / perfected again for that ONE error only.</div>
<div>Then repeat with another paragraph and another and another until learner feels more confident in that skill (this may be a day, days, weeks; varying per learner), then POST a written dated track record of progress, and tackle the next item -- I've noticed in informal research that this method yields positive results, measurable results, and is a motivator, and often rapid incremental progress noted, with fewer backslides than other approaches.</div>

<div> </div>
<div>must dash, hope this makes some sense and is helpful in some way -- will try to post/share a sample rubric later,</div>
<div>Holly <br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:29 PM, Sheryl Rogel <<a href="mailto:srogel at bates.ctc.edu">srogel at bates.ctc.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Greetings.  I am new to this blogging world; thus, I may be not applying<br>this form correctly as I am just 'replying to all' via my email.<br>
<br>I am quite interested in the how teachers advance the language of higher<br>level learners of English.  In my regular college prep English courses,<br>I work with a few students each quarter at this level, and in the last<br>
week I have been introduced to two young, 14 year old, Chinese students<br>attending a local private school who want to advance their English this<br>summer.<br><br>They have been excellent students in their Chinese schools and their<br>
thinking shows depth and much of their speaking and writing in our<br>language is delightful --- similar to our high school and adult<br>students.   However, their writing also reflects a variety of<br>misunderstandings about sentence structure and verb and preposition<br>
choices, as well as a lack of depth in vocabulary, i.e. overuse of words<br>such as 'good' - 'nice' - words that appear in primary school readers.<br>They are asked to write page+ long assignments and the misunderstandings<br>
continue to pile up until we must ask,  "Where do we start?"<br><br>Any suggestions focusing on strategies, lessons, and/or ideas that have<br>been successful in advancing English competency would be welcomed.<br>
Thank you.<br><br><br>Holly (Dilatush)<br><br><a href="mailto:holly at dilatush.com">holly at dilatush.com</a><br>(434) 960.7177 cell phone<br>(434) 295.9716 home phone<br>[OK to call 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. EST / GMT -5 time]<br>
<br>"As soon as we begin to generalize, we fail to have meaningful dialogue." (Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, 2008)<br><br>"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature."<br>
<br><a href="http://www.tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com">www.tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com</a><br><a href="http://www.abavirtual-learningcenter.org">www.abavirtual-learningcenter.org</a> <br></blockquote></div>
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