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

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 in When 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.