The Productive or Presentational Mode
Strategies to Support Academic Writing
Focus on effective expression and content
In order to support students during the writing process, it is important to engage them in interaction and collaboration with peers at different stages of the process. Some high-leverage strategies and opportunities for interaction could be:
- Engaging students in collaboration while you explicitly teach the analysis of mentor texts as models for genre studies and student writing (See the text deconstruction and reconstruction strategies below)
- Planning for interaction opportunities where students can work together to brainstorm ideas for writing and provide and receive feedback on writing drafts
- Creating a space for students to share, publish, or otherwise formally present their work in front of the class and other appropriate audiences. In the case of dual language and world languages classrooms, find opportunities to include target language audiences. Build in opportunities for students to receive audience feedback.
For strategies to develop relevant academic and domain-specific vocabulary, see the Vocabulary Learning Through Marzanos’ Six Steps and the Four Square Organizer section and the The Vocabulary Bridge (World Languages and Dual Language Learners).
Collaborative Revision and Editing, Publishing
During this phase of the writing process, students have the opportunity to receive and give feedback on their writing drafts. Participation in a structured peer feedback process allows students to reflect on the success criteria as it relates to their own writing and to the writing of their peers. This process helps them internalize the expectations for a particular writing genre instead of solely relying on the teacher for help.
Drafting
The drafting phase is an essential part of the writing process during which students produce a first, unpolished version of the text they are writing. Oral interaction and collaboration can be very beneficial to language learners as they engage in this task.
Brainstorming and Oral Practice for Prewriting and Drafting
Pre-writing and drafting are important elements in the writing process. Many students struggle with finding ideas to write about or with how to begin writing a text. For this reason, allowing students to discuss ideas with others can greatly support writing their own personal pieces. Graphic organizers can be very helpful scaffolds during this part of the process.
Text Reconstruction
This task requires students to use their knowledge about genre and text structure to reorganize a text that is presented out of order. Students need to learn first about the genre and work on text deconstructions in order to build the foundation to be able to engage in text reconstruction. This learning helps them later as they write their own pieces.
Text Deconstruction
The purpose of a text deconstruction is to guide students to use a mentor text to learn about the organizational structure, key elements, and language of the different genres (recount narrative, informational/explanatory, or opinion/argument). This learning helps them later as they write their own pieces.
Strategies to Support Academic Speaking
Focus on effective expression and content
Round Robin Storytelling
Round robin storytelling is a game popular for family time and language classes in which the group creates a collective story. Participants take turns to add their creative sentences to the story. This version of round robin storytelling adds props for students’ brainstorming before the whole class starts the storytelling session.
Round Robin Storytelling (See the World Languages section in each document)
Create Your Own Ending
The purpose of this task is to provide students opportunities to speak in the target language, creating an ending of their choice for a given narrative. Students need to make meaning, comprehend the story in the target language, and provide an alternative ending. Let students' imagination go wild and use their language skills to generate creative endings.
Rebroadcasting
The rebroadcasting strategy requires students to process and comprehend information in English and then deliver the information in the target language. Rebroadcasting is not a translation task. Students must internalize and re-elaborate the information in order to be able to summarize and communicate it in the target language.
Rebroadcasting (World Languages and Dual Language Classrooms)
Connecting with Target Culture Communities Through Oral Presentations
More ideas for oral presentations about the target culture for world languages and dual language classrooms.
Oral Presentations
In addition to providing students opportunities to strengthen their oracy skills, designing and delivering oral presentations presents students with a creative way to demonstrate their learning and share it with others. In this section, we focus on practical and doable ideas to make presentations more interactive and collaborative.
Picture Prompts
A picture is worth a thousand words. Using images in the language classroom is one of the most effective ways of supporting comprehension. Pictures are excellent visual cues to inspire students to express their ideas offering a wide range of flexibility for interpretation based on their personal life experience, interests, and cultural backgrounds.
Variations: See, Think, Wonder
Ver, Pensar y Preguntarse (Spanish)
Image Exploration Report
The image exploration report strategy provides students the opportunity to work as a team, negotiate meaning, develop visual observation skills, build background knowledge, and present on a given topic.
Interpretive Mode
Find ideas for how to support your students in understanding, interpreting, and analyzing what they hear, read, or view.
Collaborative or Interpersonal Mode
Find ideas for how to support your students in interacting, collaborating, and negotiating meaning.
Productive or Presentational Mode
Find ideas for how to support your students in presenting information to diverse audiences.
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This content is made possible by a grant from the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE).
The Oracy Toolkit resources were produced by the San Diego County Office of Education, MEGA Department (2021). The digital resource was produced by the San Diego County Office of Education, Innovation Division (2021).