A great article by Tan Huynh to describe a process of deconstructing mentor texts to help develop ELs’ writing skills.
FRAME IT: SCAFFOLDS
"To help students at all language proficiency levels incorporate higher levels of academic language into their speech and writing, teachers can incorporate the use of sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words with students at a variety of proficiency levels."
Adapted from 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman.
Sentence and paragraph frames that correlate to specific language functions.
Paragraph frames and graphic organizers for: conclusions, historical settings, predicting, identifying significant details, main idea, sequencing, characterization, compare/contrast, cause & effect, problem-solution, author's purpose, event map, symbolism, conflict, and visualization. Wow!
Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy have collaborated to create "Pixar in a Box", a behind the scenes look at how Pixar artists do their job. "The Art of Storytelling" section provides great information on character development, story structure and visual language.
TRANSITION WORDS
Transitions or signal words help the reader follow the direction of a writer’s thought.
These are free posters you can print out and hang in your classroom that provides signal words for compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, sequencing, and descriptive writing.
Perfect list of transition words for academic writing.
Lists of useful words in composing a written response to a novel.
GRAMMAR RESOURCES
While grammar should be taught in context rather than in isolation, having anchor charts, such as the Royal Order of Adjectives, provides English language learners with a visual reference.
With over 70 000 printables, you can tailor your search to find appropriate anchor charts and support material.
