Teaching second grade English Learners to write using the interactive writing approach

Scores on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) reveal that English Learners are not making the adequate progress to become English proficient. Unfortunately, English Learners not making the adequate progress will have a higher possibility to drop-out of school and fail in life as a result of insufficient academic English. Teachers face the challenge to teach the language arts curriculum, guided by the English-Language Arts Content Standards, to the growing population of English Learners. One of the major challenges for teachers is to teach writing to second language writers. Teachers are trying to meet their needs by using instructional approaches that they consider appropriate. Unfortunately, many of the approaches being used in the classroom lack effectiveness, as they are not supported by research. This study was designed to address the limitations of earlier research on teaching English Learners to write. The purpose of this study was to identify the changes which v occurred in writing ability of second grade English Learners when they were taught to write using the interactive writing approach. Sources of Data Data was gathered from collected samples of the students' independent writing throughout the six months of interactive writing instruction, which were analyzed to identify patterns of changes students made as a result of interactive writing instruction. CELDT scores from second and third grade were looked at to determine differences in the overall score and the writing section between the two tests. Conclusions Reached Although analysis of the data revealed that interactive writing instruction did not appear to have a positive effect in the area of grammar, and it appeared to have an unknown effect in helping students stay on topic, the data showed improvement in the areas of spelling and word choice. Additionally, the scores on the last writing samples improved as well as the pre and post writing CELDT scores, which revealed statistically significant differences.