Writing in school poses a unique challenge for ELL students. Beyond the obvious hurdle of using a new language, many ELL students come from oral cultures, so their writing experiences in general may be limited. Now inside English-speaking classrooms, they are expected to write up to grade-level standards while using unfamiliar words and grammar.

It should come as no surprise, then, when ELL students are reluctant to write. But you can change that. Through support and scaffolding, you can grow ELL students into capable, confident writers.

What motivates students to learn? Researchers tackled this age-old question in a recent meta-analysis of education studies involving nearly 80,000 students. The analysis showed two significant findings. First, teachers hold greater influence than parents in motivating students to learn. Second, students’ motivation to learn depends on meeting three psychological needs: competency, belonging, and autonomy.

As ELA teachers, we know the importance of using classroom practices that support these needs. We also know one of the best ways we can motivate students is through choice. Choice empowers our students through options, giving them a measure of autonomy in their own learning.

One of our favorite ways to foster autonomy is through choice boards.

What are choice boards?

A choice board is a graphic organizer that gives students a range of options for practicing a skill, task, or objective. Students get to choose their own path for learning, picking activities that fit their interests and learning styles. 

In your dream classroom, what does a good discussion look like? For the longest time, my dream resembled a scene from Dead Poets Society. I pictured myself facilitating lively conversations about literature, with energized students speaking up, sharing insights, talking through difficult ideas, and working toward new understandings.

In reality, the reading discussions in my English classes were much more muted. Even the best ones were dominated by a few outgoing students and one loud teacher.

I knew I needed to make some changes, beginning with how I perceived a “good” discussion.

I assumed—incorrectly—that a good discussion must be verbal. By doing so, I excluded quiet students and others who wanted to contribute but needed more time to process new information.

With those students in mind, I began offering more opportunities to engage with reading outside of whole-class discussions, including low-stakes writing such as freewriting, journaling, and chat app conversations.

Those opportunities helped, but I saw the most engagement by introducing collective notes.

What Are Collective Notes?

Collective notes are a virtual space for students to respond to course texts and each other. Each week in a shared Google document, you can post a set of discussion questions about assigned readings. Students pick and choose questions to answer on the main document and post comments to each other in the margins.

This live document grows as the year progresses, becoming a crowdsourced library of notes, conversations, and reflections on books, essays, videos, articles, and other class materials.

Not all the writing your students do needs to be in formal, graded assignments. 

In fact, most should occur in low-stakes situations, where students can brainstorm, wonder, create, practice, reflect, and apply skills without fear of grades or criticism. 

A writer’s notebook offers the perfect canvas for such writing. Writing in a paper or digital notebook for 10–20 minutes a day helps students build a writing identity, gather topic ideas, and experiment with new skills and techniques.