Looking at the small group set of writing samples, I learned that I need to back up and teach sentence structure. Each student wrote a short response to a CELDT released four-picture narrative prompt. We discussed the story orally in class and practiced telling the narrative with partners. We used the CELDT rubric to inform our oral practice. Then each student wrote. There was no teaching of writing. This was our first meeting together.
The oral practice improved their narratives. The data showed evidence of this, each student included all four major events, and details that weren't in their first oral renditions. However looking at the data I saw that these students have little sense of sentence structure or spelling. Even though they each had much to say, the errors in grammar, spelling and letter formation interfered with communication. The papers were mostly one long run on sentence.
What is preventing these 6 kids from learning to write in English? They are all 5th graders who are CELDT 1s or 2s. They have all been in our school for 3 or more years, except one, who came 20 months ago. I teach this group for 30 min. 4 times a week in addition to their 30 min. daily ELD class.
