ESL Writing Online Workshop

computer mouse on top of a globeThe ESL Writing Online Workshop provides ESL students with the same kind of comprehensive writing process support available in the other areas of the Excelsior OWL, only this ESL support is contained within one comprehensive area. The writing support in this area is broken down into smaller pieces to help your students who might be just getting started as writers in English. Each lesson provides extensive process support and features a video interaction in which an ESL writer works with a writing tutor. The student in these videos will ask important questions about the writing process and have them answered by the tutor. Additionally, much like the other areas of the Excelsior OWL, the ESL-WOW area features interactive activities you can use to help support lessons learned in the area and in your course.

Activity Ideas for ESL-WOW

  • Almost every student in your remedial composition course needs assistance with thesis statement construction. You refer them to the Developing a Thesis section under the Getting Ready to Write module.
  • You notice that many of the “final draft” essays that you receive in an intermediate ESL writing course are more like rough drafts. In class, you have the students view the Importance of Revision video under the Revising Your Work section.
  • Your institution is considering adding an Automated Writing Evaluation tool to its ESL composition and first-year writing courses. When you look under Editing and Polishing, you will find information under Automated Writing Evaluation to assist your school with making this decision.
  • After viewing the Avoiding Plagiarism module, you assign the students a reaction paragraph or essay on the topic of plagiarism to encourage more in-class dialogue on this complex topic.
  • You assign students the task of creating their own Grammar Journal based on the tutorial found under Editing and Polishing under the Personal Editing Guide section.
  • Before you take a trip to the library to allow students time to find a source for a research project they will do in your class, you first take time to review the concepts of citations, paraphrasing, and summarizing in the Developing Your Ideas section.
  • In the dropbox where students will submit a final paper, you stress the importance of the revision process in the Revising Your Work module.
  • Direct your ESL writers to the Read Your Paper Out Loud page as one last measure of revising before submitting the final product.
  • For one of your essays in an online class, students must submit an outline for approval before the essay is due. You could send them to the Mapping Your Ideas section under the Getting Ready to Write module. There, they can get information on outlines and gain practice with an ordering activity.
  • As a quick reference to MLA and APA, you can refer students to the Format section found under Editing and Polishing for assistance with various research projects that are due in the online dropbox throughout the semester.
  • After completing a rough draft of a process essay, students can take transition words they are using in this essay and add them to their Personal Editing Guide that they are able to create in the Editing and Polishing module. You can create a discussion board forum where they post their Personal Editing Guide for classmates to view.
  • Use the Spelling and Grammar section under Editing and Polishing as a springboard for an online discussion that has students finding misspelled words on signs or elsewhere online. Students will learn the importance of precise spelling in professional communications.

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