When English Language Learners Write: Connecting Research to Practice, K-8 - Tapa blanda

Reseña del editor

Unfair mythologies about English language learners have sprung up in schools around the country. Unsure how to help nonnative speakers write, some teachers and administrators have resorted to deficit-based stereotypes:ELLs can't write They have writing problems They are reluctant writers They need to be taught the skills of writing before writing independently.

In reality, however, ELLs benefit from the same smart, research-based instructional strategies as mainstream student writers, and inWhen English Language Learners Write, Katharine Davies Samway explores second language writers, shattering myths and in their place offering meaningful insight into powerful instruction.

When English Language Learners Write helps you connect the latest thinking on ELLs and language acquisition to your everyday classroom practices. Samway helps you understand numerous important factors affecting nonnative writers, including:

• what young children know about print and about the connection between oral and written language
• how their native language influences the process of learning to write in English
• how gender, race, ethnicity, and social class affect writing
• how adult expectations, school-based writing experiences, and participation in bilingual classrooms affect children's development as writers
• which current developments in writing pedagogy help the most.

• understanding the literacy practices of non-mainstream cultures
• discovering what ELLs can do as writers before they become fluent in English
• moving from looking at only the writing itself, to investigating writers' processes
• providing a print-rich environment to cement the reading-writing connection and foster literate behaviors in a new tongue
• incorporating reflective writing such as logs and dialogue journals to support ELLs' literacy development
• providing a learner-centered workshop approach to teaching writing.

Biografía del autor

Katharine Davies Samway is Professor of Education at San Jose State University, where she teaches courses in reading/language arts, assessment, writing, and multicultural literature for children and young adults. Her research focuses on the literacy development of English language learners (particularly their writing development and processes), and influences on teachers' beliefs and practices. Her previous books with Heinemann include Myths and Realities (1999) and Buddy Reading (1995). She also cowrote Literature Study Circles in a Multicultural Classroom (1996).