The ELL Writer: Moving Beyond Basics in the Secondary Classroom

220 Pages·2013·28.237 MB·Language and Literacy Series

by  Christina Ortmeier-Hooper

Moving Beyond Basics in the
Secondary Classroom
Digitized by The Free Society
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SERIES
Dorothy s. Strickland, FOUNDING EDITOR
Celia Genishi and Donna E. Alverm~mn, SERIES EDITORS
ADVISORY BOARD: Richard Allington, Kathryn Au, Bernice Cullinan, Colette Daiute, Anne Haas Dyson,
Carole Edelsky, Shirley Brice Heath, Connie Juel, Susan Lytle, Timothy Shanahan
The ELL Writer: Words Were All We Had
Moving Beyond Basics in the Secondary Classroom MARIA DE LA Luz REYES, ED.
CHRISTINA ORTMEIER-HOOPER
Urban Literacies
Reading in a Participatory Culture: VALERIE KINLOCH, ED.
Remixing Moby-Dick in the English Classroom
HENRY JENKINS & WYN KELLEY WITH KATIE CLINTON, JENNA Bedtime Stories and Book Reports
MCWILLIAMS, RICARDO PITTS-WILEY, ANO ERIN REILLY, EDS. CATHERINE COMPTON-LILLY & STUART GREENE, EDS.
Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Achievement Gap Envisioning Knowledge
RICHARD L. ALLINGTON & ANNE McGILL-FRANZEN, EDS. JUDITH A. LANGER
Real World Writing for Secondary Students: Envisioning Literature, Second Edition
Teaching the College Admission Essay and Other JUDITH A. LANGER
Gate-Openers for Higher Education Writing Assessment and the Revolution in
JESSICA SINGER EARLY & MEREDITH DECOSTA Digital Texts and Technologies
Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners MICHAEL R. NEAL
MICHAEL F. GRAVES, DIANE AUGUST, Artifactual Literacies
& JEANNETTE MANCILLA-MARTINEZ KATE PAHL & JENNIFER ROWSELL
Literacy for a Better World:
Educating Emergent Bilinguals
The Promise of Teaching in Diverse Schools
OFELIA GARCIA & Jo ANNE KLEIFGEN
LAURA SCHNEIDER VANDERPLOEG
(Re)lmagining Content-Area Literacy Instruction
Socially Responsible Literacy:
RONI Jo DRAPER, ED.
Teaching Adolescents for Purpose and Power
Change Is Gonna Come
PAULA M. SELVESTER & DEBORAH G. SUMMERS
PATRICIA A. EDWARDS, GWENDOLYN THOMPSON MCMILLON, &
Learning from Culturally and Linguistically
JENNIFER D. TURNER
Diverse Classrooms: Using Inquiry to Inform Practice
JOAN c. FINGON & SHARON H. ULANOFF, EDS. When Commas Meet Kryptonite
MICHAEL BITZ
Bridging Literacy and Equity
Literacy Tools in the Classroom
AlTHIER M. lAzAR, PATRICIA A. EDWARDS, &
RICHARD BEACH, GERALD CAMPANO, BRIAN EDMISTON,
GWENDOLYN THOMPSON MCMILLON
& MELISSA BORGMANN
"Trust Me! I Can Read"
Harlem on Our Minds
SALLY LAMPING & DEAN WOODRING BLASE
VALERIE KINLOCH
Reading Girls Teaching the New Writing
HADAR DUBOWSKY MA' AYAN ANNE HERRINGTON, KEviN HODGSON, & CHARLES MORAN, EDS.
Reading Time Critical Encounters in High School English, Second Edition
CATHERINE COMPTON-LILLY DEBORAH APPLEMAN
A Call to Creativity Children, Language, and Literacy
LUKE REYNOLDS CELIA GENISHI & ANNE HAAS DYSON
Literacy and Justice Through Photography Children's Language
WENDY EWALD, KATHERINE HYDE, & LISA LORD JUDITH WELLS LINDFORS
The Administration and Supervision of Reading Programs,
The Successful High School Writing Center
Fourth Edition
DAWN FELS & JENNIFER WELLS, EDS.
SHELLEY B. WEPNER & DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, EDS.
Interrupting Hate
"You Gotta BE the Book," Second Edition
MOLLIE V. BLACKBURN
JEFFREY D. WILHELM
Playing Their Way into Literacies No Quick Fix
KAREN E. WOHLWEND RICHARD L. ALLINGTON & SEAN A. WALMSLEY, EDS.
Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom Children's Litefature and Learning
JEFFREY D. WILHELM & BRUCE NOVAK BARBARA A. LEHMAN
Overtested Storytfme
JESSICA ZACHER PANDYA LARWRENCE R. SIPE
Restructuring Schools for Linguistic Diversity, Second Edition Effective Instruction for Struggling Readers, K-6
OFELIA B. MIRAMONTES, ADEL NADEAU, & NANCY L COMMINS BARBARA M. TAYLOR & JAMES E. YSSELOYKE, EDS.
(c ontinued)
For volumes in the NCRLL Collection (edtted by JoBeth Allen and Donna E. Alvermann) and the Practitioners Bookshelf Series (edited by
Celia Genishi and Donna E. Alvermann), as well as a complete list of titles in this series, please visit www.tcpress.com.
LANGUAGE ANO LITERACY SERIES (continued)
The Effective Literacy Coach The Testing Trap
ADRIAN RODGERS & EMILY M. RODGERS GEORGE HILLOCKS, JR.
Writing in Rhythm Inquiry Into Meaning
MAISHA T. FISHER EowARD CHITTENDEN & TERRY SALINGER, YITIH ANNE M. BUSSIS
Reading the Media "Why Don't They Learn English?"
RENEE HOBBS LucYTSE
teachingmedialiteracy.com Conversational Borderlands
RICHARD BEACH BETSY RYMES
What Was It Like? Inquiry-Based English Instruction
LINDA J. RICE RICHARD BEACH & JAMIE MYERS
Research on Composition The Best for Our Children
PETER SMAG0RINSKY, Ea. MARIA DE LA Luz REYES & JOHN J. HALCON, Eos.
The Vocabulary Book Language Crossings
MICHAEL F. GRAVES KAREN L. OGULNICK, Ea.
What Counts as Literacy?
Powerful Magic
MARGARET GALLEGO & SANORA HOLLINGSWORTH, Eos.
NINA MIKKELSEN
Beginning Reading and Writing
New Literacies in Action s.
DOROTHY STRICKLAND & LESLEY M. MORROW, Eos.
WILLIAM KIST
Reading for Meaning
Teaching English Today
BARBARA M. TAYL0R, MICHAEL F. GRAVES,
BARRIE R.C. BARREU ET AL., Eos.
& PAUL VAN DEN BR0EK, EDS.
Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, 4-12
s. Young Adult Literature and the New Literary Theories
DOROTHY STRICKLAND & DONNA E. ALVERMANN, EDS.
ANNAO. SOTER
Out of This World
Literacy Matters
HOLLY VIRGINIA BLACKFORD
ROBERT P. YA GELSKI
Critical Passages
Children's Inquiry
KRISTIN DOMBEK & Scarr HERNDON
JUDITH WELLS LINDFORS
Making Race Visible
Close to Home
SruART GREENE & DAWN ABT-PERKINS, Eos.
JUAN C. GUERRA
The Child as Critic, Fourth Edition
Life at the Margins
GLENNA SLOAN
JULIET MERRIFIELD ET AL.
Room for Talk Literacy for Life
REBEKAH FASSLER
HANNA ARLENE FINGERET & CASSANDRA DRENNON
Give Them Poetry! The Book Club Connection
GLENNA SLOAN SUSAN I. McMAHON & TAFFY E. RAPHAEL, Eos.' ET AL.
The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write Until We Are Strong Together
ANNE HAAS DYSON CAROLINE E. HELLER
"Just Playing the Part" Writing Superheroes
CHRISTOPHER W0RTHMAN ANNE HAAS DYSON
The ELL Writer
Moving Beyond Basics
in the Secondary Classroom
CHRISTINA ORTMEIER-HOOPER
Foreword by Thomas Newkirk
~CHERS
CQ~LEGE
~PRESS
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York and London
Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Copyright© 2013 by Teachers College, Columbia University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
Figure 2.1 is reprinted from Journal of Second Language Writing, volume 6 number 1,
P. K. Matsuda, "Contrastive rhetoric in context: A dynamic model of L2 writing;' pp.
45-60, copyright 1997, with permission from Elsevier.
"Puzzles" by Myrna Nieves reprinted by permission of the Publisher. From Karen Ognul
nick, Language Crossings: Negotiating the Self in a Multicultural World, New York: Teach
ers College Press. Copyright © 2000 by Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights
reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ortmeier-Hooper, Christina, 1972-
The ELL writer : moving beyond basics in the secondary classroom / Christina Ortmeier
Hooper, Teachers College, Columbia University.
pages cm. - (Language and Literacy Series)
ISBN 978-0-8077-5417-7 (pbk.)-ISBN 978-0-8077-5418-4 (hardcover)
1. English language-Study and teaching (Secondary)-Foreign speakers. 2. Language
and languages-Study and teaching. 3. Language education. I. Title. II. Title: English
Language Learners writer.
PE1128.A2O76 2013
428.0071 '2-dc23 2012045959
ISBN 978-0-8077-5417-7 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-8077-5418-4 (hardcover)
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For Wisdom, Therese, Ken-zhi, Paul, Miguel, Vildana,
and all my second-language students who continue to inspire me
and
To my family, especially my parents, Lothar and Waltraud

Contents
Foreword Thomas Newkirk xi
Preface: Breaking the Ice xiii
1. Who Are English Language Learners {Ells)?
Understanding Labels and Moving Beyond Them 1
Starting Points 1
Why This Book? Ells in the English Language Arts Classroom 2
Who are ELL Students? A Range of Stories and Circumstances 4
Unpacking the Labels: Learning More About Our Students 6
Complicating Labels and Issues of Adolescent Identity 10
Meet the Students 11
Additional Resources 13
Note 13
Common Terms and Acronyms 14
2. Second Language Writing 16
Why Writing Matters 16
The Challenge of Writing in a Second Language 17
BICS, CALPS, and Academic English 19
"The Knowns" 21
Contemporary Research on L2 Writers in Secondary Schools 24
The Study of Contrastive Rhetoric 26
Conclusion 29
Additional Resources 30
Meet Ken-zhi 32
Meet Therese 34
3. Stumbling Blocks-What We See:
Identity, Confidence, and Writing Practice 36
What We See: Erasers and Insecurities 37
What We Miss: Beneath the Eraser 38
vii
viii CONTENTS
Therese: Losing Her Voice in English Writing 40
Conquering Students' Waves of Doubt 46
Conclusion 50
Additional Resources 51
Meet Miguel 52
4. Overcoming the Myth of Sisyphus 54
The Writing Process 54
Miguel and the Four-step Writing Process 55
Miguel and Sisyphus: L2 Writing as a Rock 61
Helping Writers Move Beyond the Sisyphus Moment 61
Revisiting Revision:
Opportunities to Teach Ells to Engage as Writers 64
Conclusion 69
Additional Resources 70
Meet Paul 71
Meet Wisdom 73
Meet Vildana 76
5. Survival, Writing, and Cycles of lnopportunity 78
Survival Genres 80
At Odds: Concerns About Over-Scaffolding
and Lowering Writing Expectations 82
"I Used to Be an Honors Student" 83
Cycles of lnopportunity 85
From High School to College: More Ramifications 86
What are Advanced and High-Status Genres? 87
Moving Beyond Survival: Some Ideas 90
Conclusion 92
Additional Resources 92
6. Identifying the Strengths and Resources of ELL Writers 93
A Multicultural View in the ELA Classroom 93
Identifying the Rhetorical and Literacy Strengths of ELL Writers 95
Learning from Wisdom 97
Learning from Ken-zhi 101
Learning from Therese 106
Bringing ELL Writers' Competencies into the Classroom 110
Conclusion 113
/\1 ldit io11c1I r~csources 113