Term
Spring 2019
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAESL
Facilitator(s)
Patty Born & Vivian P. Johnson
Content Expert
Liali E. Vang
Abstract
Decades of research has documented the achievement gap between English Learners (ELs) and non-ELs in U.S. schools. According to some measures, one of the areas in which ELs struggle most is writing, an area which is often ignored especially in early childhood and kindergarten classrooms. Furthermore, many teachers report that they feel underprepared to meet the needs of ELs in their classroom. This capstone project addresses the particular challenge of teaching writing to kindergarten ELs and answers the question: What information and strategies would support elementary teachers when scaffolding writing curriculum and instruction to meet the unique needs of ELs? To answer this question, this capstone delves into the current literature surrounding ELs, instructional scaffolding, and kindergarten writing. From information gathered from researched best practices, the resulting capstone project is a PDF of instructional resources designed to scaffold the writing process and support ELs’ during their writing block. These resources specifically are designed to add additional supports to the kindergarten persuasive writing unit in the Lucy Calkins’ writer’s workshop curriculum. Limitations of this capstone include the project’s lack of testing, limited audience and scope, and lack of control over implementation of project resources. There are a number of implications for this capstone project as well, including an impact on teacher professional development, writing instruction resources, efficiency, and writing outcomes for ELs. Overall, this capstone provides instructional scaffolding techniques as a solution to help narrow the pervasive achievement gap between ELs and non-ELs and to promote writing success for ELs in kindergarten.
Project Type
Scaffolding Resources PDF
Keywords
Achievement, ESL/ ELLs, Writing, Writer’s Workshop
Recommended Citation
Carson, Katlyn, "Scaffolding Kindergarten Writing For English Language Learners" (2019). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 315.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/315
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects