Primary ESOL
Professional Readings: Writing
On ESOL Online
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On Other Websites
- An Approach to Factual Writing
Wray and Lewis on text types and writing frames, with clear explanations and exemplifications.
- Grammar for Writing
2003 report by Schleppegrell that looks at text types students are expected to write and discusses how teachers can help students develop proficiency through a functional approach to grammar and explicit attention to language features (PDF).
- Grammatical Knowledge for Teachers
A series of modules for teachers to build traditional grammatical knowledge (the UK National Literacy Strategy).
- Joint Construction
Joint construction is a collaborative writing process involving the students and the teacher in constructing a text (Tasmanian Educational Office for Curriculum, Leadership and Learning).
- Sentence Combining
2004 report on the role sentence combining can play in improving writing quality (The Institute of Education, University of London).
- Targeting Text: A Guided Writing Project
A project focusing on using guided writing to teach text types. Plenty of practical ideas. (Department of Education, Tasmania.)
- Thinking About How Language Works
Useful information especially on how writers develop and connect ideas in text. Includes theme and rheme, nominalisation, reference and ellipsis. Helpful for teachers when analysing and teaching written text. From the Assessment Resource Banks.
- asTTle What Next: Writing
Learning intentions for level two to six writing and links to 'What Next?'.
- Cohesion: Using Repetition and Reference Words to Emphasize Key Ideas in Your Writing
Cohesion is the glue that holds a piece of writing together.
- Developing Literacy in English as a Second Language: Guidelines for Teachers of Young Children from Non-Literate Backgrounds
Basic principles and practical suggestions for teaching reading and writing using a whole language approach (Teacher Resource Guide Series).
- Dialogue Journals: Interactive Writing to Develop Language and Literacy
CAL Digest written by Peyton.
- English & ICT
2006 report on the effectiveness of different ICTs on written composition (The Institute of Education, University of London).
- Features of Text Forms
Structure and language of different types of text forms.
- Formal Grammar is 'Ineffective'
2005 Report on researchers at the University of York who say teaching formal grammar in a traditional way is not effective in teaching students to write.The teaching of 'sentence combining' may be one of the more effective approaches.
- Grammar Correction in ESL Student Writing: How Effective Is It?
Shawn Loewen reports on research carried out on Truscott's 1996 claims that grammar correction is completely ineffective.
- Guide to Writing a Basic Essay: Essay Resources On-Line
Links to online writing resources.
- How Does Understanding Text Features Benefit Reading Comprehension?
From the Assessment Resource Bank, this article uses narratives and science reports to exemplify how learning about particular text types helps students develop control over their options as they read and write.
- How Much Does Correctness Matter?
Michael Swan argues that society tends to overvalue accuracy (The Language Teacher Online, 1997).
- The Improvement of Student Writing: What Research Says
2001 research, Journal of School Improvement.
- Learner Diaries
Learner diaries can be used to ensure the teacher sees each student as an individual (British Council).
- Literacy Resources: David Wray
Literacy articles and writing frames by David Wray and links to other literacy readings on the web.
- Looking for Ideas about Error Correction? Try One of These!
From The English Teaching Forum, 1998.
- A model for In-school Teacher Professional Development: Extending on Action Research
Study of a group of Australian primary teachers teaching writing and how action research changed their practice.
- National Education Monitoring Project
2006 reports - Writing, Listening and Viewing, Health & Physical Education.
- Product and Process Writing: A Comparison
From the British Council.
- The Quality of Teaching in Years 4 and 8: Writing June 2007
An ERO evaluation of the quality of teaching of writing in 159 state schools. Includes examples of good practice to help schools review their own writing programmes.
- A Revised Apprenticeship Model of Teaching Writing
From Reading Online, 1998.
- Support for Writing (Writing Frames)
Guidelines on how to use writing frames effectively. From the UK's department for Education and Skills (Dfes).
- Syntax
2004 report on whether grammar teaching affects writing accuracy and quality (The Institute of Education, University of London).
- Targeting Text - A Guided Writing Project
A project focusing on the place of guided writing in a balanced writing programme (Department of Education, Tasmania).
- Teaching and Learning Writing: A Review of Research and Practice
From the British National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy. The two reviews of literature are relevant for the secondary context.
- These Words Were Meant For Speaking
In favour of reading out loud (TES).
- Using Email with Foreign Language Learners
From the Internet TESL Journal.
- Writing in a Second Language
2004 article from the UK Higher Education Academy.
- Writing in Years 5 to 8: An Evaluation of Writing Programmes
2002 ERO report.
- Written Genres in the Classroom
Text structures and language features of common text types (Reading Online).
