Resource Topics

Teaching Writing - English Language Learners

Creating Intentional Communities to Support English Language Learners in the Classroom

English Journal, May 2008
Judith Rance-Roney
Rance-Roney, who is with the Hudson Valley Writing Project, advocates for inclusion of ELL students in English classroom by proposing strategies that encourage interaction of native English and ELL students in ways that benefit both groups. More ›

Texas Teachers Build Understanding of ELL Students at Border Literacy Conference

March 2008
Dolores S. Perez
The fifth annual Border Literacy Conference brought 150 teachers from all over Texas to discuss building bridges across the different kinds of borders that ELL students find themselves facing. More ›

A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners

Research in the Teaching of English , 2007
More ›

Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners

2007
This report, commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, outlines an action-oriented agenda that includes reform in teacher education and educational research, reform in school administration practices for ELL students, and the introduction of new instructional approaches likely to increase student achievement. More ›

Educating English Language Learners: Implementing Instructional Practices

2007
This guide is designed for teachers and other educators. Teachers of English language learners and bilingual classes should find its instructional strategies and guidelines helpful for engaging ELL students. More ›

ELL Professional Development Adapts to New Bilingual Education Legislation

July 2007
Gavin Tachibana
A Massachusetts state law bans teaching children in their own language. So Western Massachusetts Writing Project's ELL professionals threw teachers a lifeline—a course full of strategies and insights, based on their years of experience. More ›

Resources for Educators of English Language Learners: An Annotated Bibliography

October 2007
Judith Rance-Roney, Lynn Jacobs
The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to collect diverse perspectives in the field of teaching English language learners and to provide audiences with readings that will involve, inform, and inspire. More ›

The Pathway Project Demonstrates Success with Cognitive Strategies for Reading and Writing for English Language Learners

November 2007
Carol Booth Olson, Robert Land
Can sustained writing project professional development in cognitive strategies for reading and writing lead to improved academic literacy outcomes for English language learners? The Pathway Project demonstrates that it can. More ›

California English: Building Bridges with English Learners

California English, Summer 2006
Writing project teachers authored eight articles for an edition of the journal California English. This issue focuses on helping teachers meet the challenges of teaching the growing numbers of English language learners. More ›

Love Ties My Shoes: Long-term English Learners as Thoughtful Writers

California English, Summer 2006
Lynn Jacobs
Every now and then someone would ask Lynn Jacobs if she thought her class could really make a book. After much hard work, they did. More ›

Academic Language: Everyone's “Second” Language

California English, Summer 2006
Norma Mota-Altman
If English language learners are never engaged critically with the curriculum or taught to use higher order thinking skills, how can they be expected to effectively express themselves in academic settings? More ›

Building Bridges: Supporting English Language Learners in AP English Literature and Composition

California English, Summer 2006
Jennifer Pust
When enrollment in an AP English program doubles, how does a teacher help those students succeed? These strategies proved successful for one. More ›

Cultural Citizenship and Latino English Language Learners

California English, Summer 2006
Maria Franquiz, Carol Brochin-Ceballos
A student's image of a teacher devouring his failing students is a powerful metaphor of Latino students' sense of powerlessness in the classroom. Fostering "cultural citizenship" can make classrooms a safe place. More ›

Flipping the Educational Script: Teachers as Learners

California English, Summer 2006
Rosa Jimenez, Marjorie Orellana
If teachers learn to recognize and value the translation work that students do with their immigrant parents, they can better build those skills into academic literacies. More ›

La Pluma es Lengua del Alma: Using Writing to Chronicle the Soul's Journey

California English, Summer 2006
Bobbi Houtchens
Teachers must lead their students through literature by authors from many cultures to provide the inspiration and models necessary to master the written word. More ›

Preliterate English Learners: Refugee Camp to the U.S. Classroom

California English, Summer 2006
Beverly Alsleben
Despite high motivation to learn English, Hmong students, like all new arrivals, present educators with unique challenges. How can teachers begin to understand these students, their backgrounds, and their needs? More ›

Time is Not on our Side: Literacy and Literature for High School Language Learners

California English, Summer 2006
Dana Dusbiber
Given that teachers often have too much to teach, and too little time, Dana Dusbiber suggests an alternative approach to teaching literature for secondary English language learning students. More ›

“I’m a Writer Now!” The Who, Where, and When of an ELL Newspaper

The Quarterly, 2005
Joe Bellino
Bellino, a teacher of English language learners, describes the process of publishing a newspaper written by his students and talks about how this paper has positively affected readers, writers, and the school. More ›

Voces del Corazón: Voices from the Heart

The Quarterly, 2005
Dolores S. Perez
NWP Project Outreach member Dolores Perez was committed to facilitating, in her low-income community, the project's goals of "access, relevance, and diversity." Her pursuit of these goals led to Family Literacy Night. More ›

Book Review: Politics, Language, and Culture: A Critical Look at School Reform, by J. Check

The Quarterly, 2004
Marcie Wolfe
Wolfe reviews Joseph Check's Politics, Language, and Culture, which critiques the "top-down" process of educational reform and focuses on the struggle for school reform in four complex urban environments. More ›

Book Review: Response to Student Writing, by Dana R. Ferris

The Quarterly, 2004
Gabriela Segade
Segade reviews Dana R. Ferris's Response to Student Writing, which surveys the research on teacher response to second-language writing and discusses how the findings translate into classroom principles and practices. More ›

English Language Learners, Classroom Drama

The Quarterly, 2004
Dana Loy
Through a drama and playwriting project, Dana Loy discovers a strategy to engage her Spanish-speaking eighth-graders that both taps into and strengthens their academic skills. More ›

Narrative Writing Works Magic in the ELD Classroom

The Quarterly, 2004
Lisa Ummel-Ingram
Using personal stories as the basis for their projects, Lisa Ummel-Ingram's third-graders created text, storyboards, and art that led to complete books. Ummel-Ingram notes gains in the students' language arts skills and confidence. More ›

The Family Writing Project Builds a Learning Community in Connecticut

The Quarterly, 2004
Valerie Diane Bolling
Connecticut teacher Bolling describes how, through NWP's Project Outreach, she learned of the Family Writing Project in Nevada and used this structure to help her school strengthen literacy and increase parent involvement. More ›

Thirty Minutes with Mikal

The Quarterly, 2004
Beverly Alsleben
Beverly Alsleben encounters many misunderstandings and miscues as she works with Mikal, an adult English language learner. Alsleben makes suggestions for bridging some common cultural differences that arise between teachers and new immigrants. More ›

Want to Connect with Other Teachers Interested in English Language Learners?

The Quarterly, 2004
An invitation to teachers to become part of NWP's ELL network, which supports education about and awareness of English language learners' issues and sponsors opportunities for teachers to reflect on their ELL practices. More ›

Whose Core Is It?

The Voice, 2004
Christina Puntel
Bilingual elementary school teacher Christina Puntel describes the challenges of adjusting to a city–mandated "core curriculum" that prescribes content structure and student performance standards for the entire year. More ›

Con Respeto, I am Not Richard Rodriguez

The Voice, 2003
Norma Mota-Altman
Bilingual teacher Norma Mota–Altman recounts her experience as a Spanish–speaking child in school and explains why "English only" policies exact too high a price from English language learners and their families. More ›

Edelsky Talk Brings Urban Sites Conference Theme Alive

The Voice, Fall 2003
Art Peterson
Professor Carole Edelsky, of Arizona State University, documents the achievements of two fifth grade students in a dual–language program, showing how a dual–language class can become a community of practice. More ›

Theory, Politics, Hope, and Action

The Quarterly, 2003
Carole Edelsky
In this article Edelsky employs the arguments of theory and the techniques of case study to make a plea for rationality in the education of English language learners. More ›

Writing in Home Dialects: Choosing a Written Discourse in a Teacher Education Class

The Quarterly, Spring 2003
Eileen Kennedy
Kennedy, who teaches speakers of Caribbean Creole, uses the authentic language of her students to help them develop stronger voices as writers and become more competent writers of Standard English. More ›

Searching for Excellence in Education

The Quarterly, Winter 2002
Catherine Crystal
Catherine Crystal, a teacher–researcher who spent a five–month sabbatical teaching in Hanoi, Vietnam, shares what she learned about the educational system in Vietnam and how it fuels a drive for excellence in students. More ›

Telling the Louisiana Story

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Charles Larroque
Larroque, a teacher–consultant at the Acadiana Writing Project, examines the idea of introducing a French writing institute to support the teachers and students of French language programs in southern Louisiana. More ›

Toward an Urban New York Spanish Curriculum

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Nathan Dudley
Dudley, a teacher of Spanish–speaking students in his Spanish class, argues for such reforms as the inclusion of Spanglish, relevant texts, and an immersion program that allows real language acquisition to take place. More ›

Writing, in French: A Little Background

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Ann Dobie
Twenty teachers involved in French immersion and bilingual programs participated in National Writing Project of Acadiana's first French writing institute. This institute followed the same model as the summer invitational institute. More ›

Bicultural Literacy: A Personal Exploration

The Quarterly, Fall 2000
Marcia Venegas-Garcìa
Venegas–Garcia tells her personal biliterate, bicultural story to "encourage . . . particularly those in power, to recognize that all children have their stories of literacy," and to encourage a "less myopic," more diverse view of teaching and learning. More ›

Annotated Bibliography on Teaching English Language Learners

The Quarterly, Fall 1999
Norma Mota-Altman
Mota–Altman developed a close–to–comprehensive (when written) bibliography of the most important works available on the teaching of English language learners. This is a sampling. More ›

No Excuses: An Interview with Eugene Garcia

The Quarterly, Fall 1999
Art Peterson
Garcia focuses on recommendations directed at teachers of Hispanic students in a report issued by the U.S. Department of Education's Hispanic Dropout Project. More ›

Revising Words, Revising Worlds

The Quarterly, Fall 1999
Greta Vollmer
Citing a reluctance on the part of many ELL teachers to use peer response as a strategy, Vollmer argues for the cross–cultural understanding that peer response can encourage in a multilingual environment. More ›

The Creation of the ELL (English Language Learners) Network

The Voice, Summer 1999
Norma Mota-Altman
In 1999, ten NWP teacher–consultants met to develop and shape NWP's newest network, the English Language Learners (ELL) Network. More ›

Mi Voz Suena Asi (My Voice Sounds Like This)

The Quarterly, Fall 1998
Cathy Carmichael
Carmichael demonstrates how she brings Pablo Freire's concept of "generative themes" into her ELL classroom, facilitating the expression of student voices and awakening social consciousness. More ›

“Otherness” and Other Imponderables: Teaching Hmong Students Academic Writing

The Quarterly, Summer 1997
Mark Balhorn, Laurie Meyer
The authors describe a tutoring program targeted at Hmong college students, examining the personal characteristics and tutorial strategies that work most successfully in advancing the learning of this student population. More ›

Spotlight on the World of Four Bilingual Educators

The Voice, Fall 1996
Four bilingual teachers discuss how and why they became bilingual educators, and provide insights into the students they teach. More ›

When Third-Grade Writers Do Case Studies

The Quarterly, Spring 1996
Janet Kiddoo
Kiddoo describes how third grade bilingual students became "helpers" in a first grade bilingual class, leading them to understand that each learner is different and to experience the "joy of watching another person grow." More ›

Quoc Tin and Sona: The Story of a Peer Journal Project

The Quarterly, Fall 1995
Myron Berkman
This study documents how, as a result of communicating with each other through journal entries, two very different ELL students connect and become more engaged with language as they struggle to communicate their ideas. More ›

Becoming a Writer of Spanish and English

The Quarterly, Winter 1993
Sarah Hudelson, Irene Serna
Employing a case study method, the writers make the point that bilingual students, progressing according to general patterns of writing development, make their own way and need to be understood, respected, and appreciated. More ›

TR 51-B. Annotated Bibliography of Research on Writing in a Non-Native Language Part II

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Jane Stanley
This annotated bibliography of research in second language writing updates and supplements Sandra R. Schecter and Linda A. Harklau's Annotated Bibliography of Research on Writing in a Non–Native Language, published in 1992. More ›

OP 24. Language Minority Education in Great Britain: A Challenge to Current U.S. Policy

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1991
Sarah Warshauer Freedman, Sandra Lee McKay
The authors compare British and U.S. policies for educating language minority students, suggesting the British decision to place language minority students in "mainstreamed" classrooms challenges the U.S. policy of separate programs for nonnative speakers. More ›

TR 51. Annotated Bibliography of Research on Writing in a Non-Native Language

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Linda A. Harklau, Sandra R. Schecter
This annotated bibliography reviews more than 170 research studies on the needs of non-native speakers of English and their instruction in the area of writing. More ›

TR 54. Bilingual Minorities and Language Issues in Writing: Toward Profession-Wide Responses to a New Challenge

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Guadalupe Valdes
Valdes criticizes compartmentalization within the composition profession, identifies different types of bilingual individuals, and reviews trends in current scholarship in second–language writing. More ›