How can you help students from diverse backgrounds improve their writing skills?

Give short writing assignments appropriate to the grade level daily. Have students express their thoughts on any topic they desire. Read the top five back to the class as good examples and to stimulate discussion.

In my experience, building meaningful relationships with students is a necessity. Students who have a good relationship with their teacher will work harder to meet the teacher’s high expectations. The teacher will also be able to relate content better for each student based on the student’s background and needs.

Some easy ways to encourage greater understanding of student backgrounds is to include routine writing about their experiences. A memoir about a favorite family experience, a chance to reflect on a unique belief practice, places they have been, people that are personal favorites. These observations can be shared with peers and occasional illustrations that match their stories. They can engage peer critiques in feedback and written reflection using a shared rubric. In this way, they start to exchange positive personal moments and practice different ways of sharing parts of their lives.

I used checklists - a system for what to look for during a long revision process. Also had students research other words to replace simple vocabulary (e.g., “a lot”, “this”, “that”, “many” and all absolute language). All students need to learn process.

I reinforce the improvement of students' writing skills by emphasizing the importance of clear and consistent expectations. This involves ensuring that teachers communicate the purpose, audience, format, and criteria for each writing assignment. I advocate for the explanation of learning outcomes, the use of rubrics, and a transparent grading system. It's crucial to provide examples of both good and poor writing while modeling the writing process. I encourage the use of simple and direct language, avoiding jargon, slang, or idioms that might confuse or exclude students. Regularly checking for understanding helps reduce anxiety and ambiguity, fostering increased motivation and engagement among students.

This could be a repetitive problem, students will need you to spoon feed every time. Instead let them write what they feel is something substantial. Tell them what to add or change. Constructive Criticism is know to be the best tool to aid improvement

This can require some in depth reteaching if students haven't had many models of good writing. Clear expectations should be modeled and repeated often.

Clear expectations via rubrics with exemplars for calibration with students. Support students to deconstruct exemplars with the intended outcome of identifying skills and language usage.

One of the strategies I use is to have everyone submit a writing sample at the beginning of a course/school year so each student has a benchmark. Subsequently, writing assignments and help with writing are given throughout the year/Semester and a sort of portfolio is compiled. Students get to choose what they write about. By the end of the year students are able to see where they started (benchmark) and where they ended. This is a great way for them to visually see their improvement and it also bolsters confidence to continue writing.

I keep a log of each students progress through the writing conventions. That way I can complement each student individually when they achieve a new goal, and then remind them what the next steps are up the ladder. Meeting each student where they are, makes a big difference.

In my experience, having them read their own writing and noticing for themselves how it can be improved is quite powerful. Just make sure that it's done after some time has passed or after it's been graded, so there is no external pressure anymore. Reading what their peers have produced is also quite useful. Although I'd advocate against making it a standard run-of-the-mill classroom activity guided by the teacher - "Here you go, read your peer's work and give feedback". Students need to develop genuine interest in reading their classmates' writing. Use their innate curiosity to make this happen, choose engaging topics that students would be interested in writing and reading about.

If I notice that the topic is not of interest to the student, I allow some free writing and take the strengths from that, use those strengths as a foundation to build on the required piece of writing.

I like to keep a portfolio of each students writing throughout the year and show them their writing from beginning of the year and compare to current at least three times a year. Showing them the growth they are making really inspires them to continue the climb to the top. Also, I like to give them a paper someone wrote from the beginning of the year and have them practice peer editing with the new knowledge they have acquired.

I have witnessed how engaged students are when they feel their story matters. When new texts or resources are brought in, they help create deeper understanding among all learners. Students who identify with the text have richer responses because they have a deeper sense of its meaning, often adding stories or details that bring even more context to the presented material; everyone benefits from this! When followup questions are asked, these storytelling moments create opportunities for students to delve deeper, explain more clearly, and elaborate in order to help the audience have more knowledge. There is so much pride in students who feel their history and culture is made visible in their classroom and is receiving deserved respect.

Writing prompts that allow students to explore and express their cultural backgrounds and experiences serves two important purposes: it allows students from diverse backgrounds to reflect on their reservoir of rich cultural experiences and share them with others who benefit by broadening their own cultural understanding.

Allowing the students to share their culture makes it more worth while and significant to them. It makes them feel they are valued and this makes writing more important for them.

It must be a key aspect and whenever possible, I leverage playful tools, music, art, literature, or current events. Showcasing the cultural richness in our world is vital for cultivating individuals who are more tolerant and capable of understanding others, especially in classrooms with students from diverse cultures and nationalities. When working with children, I have dedicated entire class days to explore various aspects of a particular culture or region, consistently yielding excellent results.

When I was a young teacher on the Big Island of Hawaii I would tell my students to write in “proper” English. I had a student who whispered to me, “I thought I was.” I realized his and the other students use of Pidgin was not a barrier but a benefit. We started each writing assignment with student’s rough drafts being identical to how they spoke. I then broke down revision and editing and taught grammar. My students flourished. Had I not LISTENED to my little sweethearts, I might never have broken through.

Some ways to get students started to being exposed to language acquisition: - Watch TV programmes of interest to understand and immerse self in that language - Subtitles can be a great way to start reading in that particular language When there is love for the language, the inspiration to express through writing comes naturally. Anything that stems from an interest, becomes less of a chore Though this article focuses on writing. Sometimes, deviating from the actual task can be less daunting. After all, language acqusition begins when we listen, speak, read and eventually write.

I think what’s most important when thinking of resources and support is parents. Writing skills are not always viewed as important. You have to get buy-in from parents and guardians. They need the resources and support sometimes more than their children. You might have students coming to you that have parents that don’t write well or at all. This needs to be taken into account.

I teach at a school with a primarily middle-class socioeconomic demographic. Our "students from diverse backgrounds" tend to be first-generation diverse, meaning that they are trans, bi-, differently abled, self-chosen named, or LGBTQIA+. The more difficult identification is the economic piece. It's not something we can ask about. So, as teachers, we have to figure out ways to create safe spaces to share their backgrounds.

A classroom library is an excellent resource for students beyond the internet. Adding a variety of resources, including graphic novels, allows for new perspectives.

Good ideas rarely comes in meeting. They come in walks and showers. Collaborate and Interact. Resources are all around us.

Good ideas rarely comes in meeting. They come in walks and showers. Talk to people. Collaborate. Travel ?? Grow your network ??

Reflection and self-assessment are skills that must be taught. They are very difficult skills to learn and require extensive, direct instruction. For elementary students, you lay the foundation by providing them with the instruction, allowing them to practice the skills but knowing that at that stage, it will not be very effective. If you stick with it though, when those students go on to middle and high school, they can actually make use of reflection and self-assessment to further their learning.

Reflection is an important part of growth. Refrain from grading writing assignments as long as possible, opting instead for a feedback loop that allows you to trade thoughts about the work with students as they work toward a final product. Not only does this approach more accurately reflect the writing process in work settings, it allows you to model how to engage in self-reflection, receive feedback from others, and implement new ideas to an existing text. Too often, students don't revisit work beyond the first draft, but any writer will tell you the magic of writing is in the rewriting. Making the feedback loop part of the writing experience facilitates a holistic process where learning and growth is prioritized over "getting it done."

Self-reflection often gets cut from lessons due to time constraints. Students need to be explicitly taught how to reflect on their process and progress. Educators can support students by giving students context and meaningful feedback to support arbitrary number and letter grades. As a middle school teacher, I used Google Forms to build in and support students in their self-assessments and reflections. I was able to build in extra supports based on their answers and provided them with the vocabulary to talk about their progress on their goals. By adding the "Turn In Form" to all of the projects in my class, I was helping students build a habit of self-assessment and reflection.

When students write a recount or story, encourage them to read their work . I find when they do this , they make self corrections , before I mark the paper . Also giving clear instructions on what is expected , Genre etc .

It's all about relationship building. You have to establish a bond between you and each student, or, at least, the ones that would benefit from such a connection. It's not an on/off switch kind of experience, but an ongoing process. Make the connections early and often.

Encourage translanguaging, provide a lot of exemplars, study patterns of language, the rhythm of poetry, provide supports such as sentence starters, online resources such as Grammarly, allow choice so students can write about what they are passionate about, and finally, model a love for writing.

As a math and engineering teacher, I honor my students’ diverse backgrounds and opinions through tasks that are open ended. For example, after unit tests, I have asked students to write about their performance in terms of what strategies worked and how will they improve besides giving me feedback on what I can do to improve their learning. When it comes to honor their own personal backgrounds, I have students research on and write about mathematicians, scientists, careers of their choice and the connection to math, for example.

Students should be encouraged to share their unique stories. Not one family member has the same perspective on an event or situation that occurs. Therefore, we must not take for granted how a child is impacted. Always take time for reflection and to invite a response in creative ways. The responses could be in a visual depiction , a song, a poem, a speech, a skit, role-play ,a story or a creative dance, or a sentence.

Honest conversations are such a valuable tool. Engage with your students once a week and provide a safe space for them to share with you. I’ve found in my 24 years that this creates a sense of mutual respect and understanding. Students appreciate your genuine interest.