Thank you.   I had a vague notion such as you described; however, your
words create a scene for me that is most helpful.  In fact, today I will
start working just as you described with one of the adult students in
our college prep writing course. 

 

 Thanks so much.  

Sheryl Rogel
English Instructor
Bates Technical College
1101 Yakima Ave S
Tacoma, WA   98498
253-680-7267 

"Every study of young writers I've done in the last twenty years has
underestimated what they can do; in fact, we know very little about the
human potential for writing."  Donald Graves

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Holly Dilatush
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 2:24 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2366] Re: advancing competency

 

Hello Sheryl, all,

a quick response now, maybe more later --

But setting written specific goals and then developing a rubric (with
input from learner and facilitator/instructor on observed
error/challenge patterns) --

then ensuring that the rubric is understood, then editing paragraphs
with a focus on ONLY one rubric item at a time, repeatedly -- 

challenge the learner to take one paragraph, edit it looking ONLY for
ONE of the errors she/he is trying to correct, 

then have it reviewed by instructor, then edited / perfected again for
that ONE error only.

Then repeat with another paragraph and another and another until learner
feels more confident in that skill (this may be a day, days, weeks;
varying per learner), then POST a written dated track record of
progress, and tackle the next item -- I've noticed in informal research
that this method yields positive results, measurable results, and is a
motivator, and often rapid incremental progress noted, with fewer
backslides than other approaches.

 

must dash, hope this makes some sense and is helpful in some way -- will
try to post/share a sample rubric later,

Holly 

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:29 PM, Sheryl Rogel <srogel at bates.ctc.edu>
wrote:

Greetings.  I am new to this blogging world; thus, I may be not applying
this form correctly as I am just 'replying to all' via my email.

I am quite interested in the how teachers advance the language of higher
level learners of English.  In my regular college prep English courses,
I work with a few students each quarter at this level, and in the last
week I have been introduced to two young, 14 year old, Chinese students
attending a local private school who want to advance their English this
summer.

They have been excellent students in their Chinese schools and their
thinking shows depth and much of their speaking and writing in our
language is delightful --- similar to our high school and adult
students.   However, their writing also reflects a variety of
misunderstandings about sentence structure and verb and preposition
choices, as well as a lack of depth in vocabulary, i.e. overuse of words
such as 'good' - 'nice' - words that appear in primary school readers.
They are asked to write page+ long assignments and the misunderstandings
continue to pile up until we must ask,  "Where do we start?"

Any suggestions focusing on strategies, lessons, and/or ideas that have
been successful in advancing English competency would be welcomed.
Thank you.


Holly (Dilatush)

holly at dilatush.com
(434) 960.7177 cell phone
(434) 295.9716 home phone
[OK to call 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. EST / GMT -5 time]

"As soon as we begin to generalize, we fail to have meaningful
dialogue." (Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, 2008)

"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe
and nurture in nature."

www.tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com
www.abavirtual-learningcenter.org 

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