Evidence of Character Traits - Writing, Albert Einstein

Here is day two of the lesson I taught on Evidence of Character Traits.  The English Learners I work with need a LOT of modeling before they make a strategy their own, so I used one of my trait words (imaginative - which was the most complicated of the three) to use for shared writing.  I used the following "formula" to write our claim, and then had them expand on what their trait word means using our definitions.

Albert Einstein was ___.  This means that he ______.

I modeled how to write this part for them.  I used our recording sheets (the evidence we recorded as we were reading - see previous post!) to provide evidence/examples.

Then, I had them speak through their first two sentences ORALLY.  English Learners need opportunities to SPEAK before they write.  Having them speak first also gives me the chance to plant contractions, transition words, and academic vocabulary that might help them expand their utterances and write a more complete sentence.  It's also an opportunity to provide them with alternative language structures that they may be ready for.  Writing is a great way to practice new structures, but they need to hear and speak them first.  As Marie Clay wrote in The Journal of Reading Recovery in 2004, a new phrase must go

1.  To the Ear (listening)
2.  To the Mouth (saying)
3.  To the Eye (reading)
4.  To the Written Product (creating text)

Here is what these students wrote in their notebooks.

And here is a video of us working on our claims, definitions, and evidence.