Developing Literacy Skills in ELLs

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English Language Learners (ELL) require thoughtful and careful instruction for both reading and writing education. Both of these skills are necessary for a bright future and to be a functioning citizen in Canada. Those that do not possess considerable literacy levels will be effectively 'locked out' from so much knowledge, information and ideas that are part of the culture of society (Christie 1990, 20). Having a low level of literacy usually means acquiring an unskilled job. The relationship between literacy levels and poverty is something that should not be ignored (Gibbons, 2002). Developing literacy skills in ELLs is a daunting task and especially with students that have not developed those skills in their first language originally. Through the Curriculum Cycle and proper scaffolding of writing strategies, this paper will provide a lesson plan that will help develop an ELL's writing skills. It will include many different tools that will help students gain an understanding and confidence of the narrative writing form. This paper will target ELL students of a secondary age level. It will be assumed they are between levels 3 and 4 of the Ministry of Education ELL/D Performance Standards. This level of student will often need help to elaborate on certain ideas. Sequencing is generally good at this stage, as is accessing prior knowledge, however, a graphic organizer can always benefit a student no matter what level. Grammar is improving greatly through these stages, but things such as homonyms and figures of speech will still be difficult (BC Performance Standards, 2001). Having the students learn how to write a narrative will complete a Prescribed Learning Outcomes for English 10: writing in a variety... ... middle of paper ... ... more likely the students will write effectively. When they feel in control of their writing they will gain confidence and be proud of their achievements (Gibbons, 2002). Works Cited 1. British Columbia Integrated Resource Package (2007). English 10 2. Cummins, J. and Schecter, S. (2003). Multilingual Education in Practice: Using diversity as a resource, Ch.3: Valuing Multilingual and multicultural approaches to learning, pp. 32-55. 3. Delpit, Lisa D. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New, 1995. Print. 4. Derewianka, B. 1990. Exploring How Texts Work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann 5. Gibbons, Pauline. Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002. Print. 6. Ministry of Education ESL/D Performance Standards, (2001).

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