Berkeley ELL Writing

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Berkeley ELL Writing

• Power Writing and Four Square Strategies

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Writing and the Common Core

• Review the writing standards for your grade
  level
• With a partner discuss the challenges these
  standards present for your students.

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Writing Research

• Only 24 of 8th and 12th graders perform at the
  proficient level in writing, and 3 at the
  advanced level. (NAEP 2011)
• College instructors estimate that 50 of high
  school graduates are not prepared for
  college-level writing. (Achieve 2005)
• Minnesota seniors submitted writing to college
  professors. Over 95 of writing was narrative
  and 97 not deemed college ready!

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National Commission On Writing

• Time The amount of time students spend on
  writing should be at least doubled.
• Writing Across the Curriculum Because of the
  near total neglect of writing outside of English
  departments teachers of history, science, art,
  P.E., social studies, etc. should encourage
  students to write more.
• Assignments More out of school time devoted to
  writing. Students should write every day and
  teachers provide regular and timely feedback.

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Considerations for ELL Students

• Create many opportunities for students to engage
  in rich, purposeful reading and discussion of the
  topic before writing.
• Use mentor texts for examples of structure and
  content.
• Gradual release of responsibility
• Anchor charts with examples, sentence lead ins,
  key words.

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I. Four Square Writing Method


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Four Square

• The Four Square is an organizer that combines the
  best of the outline, web, semantic map and other
  writing approaches (e.g. hamburger).
• Teachers can use it for instructional purposes
  from writing with pictures to producing
  multi-sentence paragraphs.

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Four Square in Primary Grades

• The teacher demonstrates with a topic and
  pictures that relate to the topic. Ask students
  to talk about how the pictures fit the topic.
• The teacher selects a topic and allows students
  to draw pictures in each box that fit the given
  topic allowing many opportunities for students to
  talk about their drawings.
• Students or teachers select a topic, draw, and
  begin to write words, sentences or invented
  writing about the topic

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Four Square Sophistication

1. Students write a concluding thought about their
   four squares.
2. Students write opening topic sentence, list
   details in each box, and write a phrase of topic
   for each box.
3. Students support thoughts with three details in
   each square and write a conclusion.
4. Students construct a five paragraph essay with a
   topic sentence/theme three paragraphs of support
   and a concluding paragraph.

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Four Square Facilitation

• Model at each stage
• Provide mentor texts already completed
• Post charts with transition words to begin
  paragraphs
• Choose subjects and topics that the students know
  well

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II. Power Writing for Fluency

• Why do students lack writing fluency?
• They have too few opportunities to write
• They fear that what they write may be judged
• They lack a metacognitive awareness of how to
  begin

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What is writing fluency?

• Writing fluency is not simply getting lots of
  words down on paper as fast as one can, anymore
  than reading is merely decoding text quickly.
  Writing fluency means quickly creating a cohesive
  message. As students develop writing fluency,
  their word choice and phrasing should become more
  sophisticated adding expression and depth to
  their writing.

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Power Writing Defined

• Power writing is a timed activity that requires
  students to write as many words as they can on a
  topic in a given amount of time.

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Power Writing Advantages

• Stamina
• Confidence
• Students create a cohesive message, as word
  choice and phrasing become more sophisticated
  adding expression and depth to writing.

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Where to begin?

• Pre-selected topics
• Informational text from the curriculum in
  language arts, social studies, or science
• Topics of interest to all students in the group
• Student suggestions for writing

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Power Writing Teacher Script

• Write as much as you can, as well as you can
  about.

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Power Writing Gradual Release

• Teacher modeling
• e.g. write as much as you can as well as you can
  about your favorite part of the morning
• Student Practice
• Group practice with teacher assistance or
  collaborative groups/work stations.
• Individual Practice
• Students on their own.

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Lets Practice!

• Write as much as you can, as well as you can,
  about a goal you have for your students or class
  this year.

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Reflection on writing

• What do you notice?
• What were you surprised by?
• What would it take to get better?

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Collaborative Group Work

• Groups select topics from pre-selected envelopes.
  One person selects topics and is the timer
  other students write and graph results. (Can be
  table work or work stations)
• Teacher works with those students needing more
  support.

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What.So What?

• What implications might power writing have for
  your group?

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Formative Assessment

• Remember it is not about writing as many words as
  you can. It is about easily getting your
  meaningful ideas down in writing.

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Four Square and Power Writing

• With your neighbor share when you might or should
  use Power Writing or Four Square with your
  students.

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Four Square Uses

• Science vocabulary
• High frequency words
• Reading Street prompts
• Writing center
• Content review
• Research projects
• Author studies
• Whole group add details

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Power Writing Uses

• Exit slip check on content
• Journals
• Reading responses
• Center
• Confidence building/goal setting
• Progress Monitoring
• Grammar conventions
• Extended writing pieces
• Interdisciplinary
• Peer conversations