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FEATURE ARTICLE

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Teaching Adolescent ELs to Write Academic- Style Persuasive Essays

Kathleen Ramos

This article describes the way that English as a Second Language (ESL) and content area teachers can employ the genre- based Reading to Learn approach to support adolescent English learners (ELs) in learning to write in an academic way.

The need for theoretically informed ap-proaches for designing reading and writing instruction that can support adolescent English learners (ELs) in developing academic literacy practices has intensified with the wide adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). At the January 2012 Understanding Language Conference, national experts convened to develop guidelines for supporting ELs in meeting these rigorous academic standards. These guidelines include designing instruction that supports ELs in negotiating meaning from complex texts and in writing across disciplinary areas ( http:// www.ell.stanford.edu ).

This initiative also highlighted the need to increase teachers’ awareness of the critical role language plays in literacy and learning (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2010; Hakuta, Santos, & Fang, 2013 ). Supp orting adolescent ELs in strengthening academic literacy practices repre- sents a sig nificant chal- lenge for teachers and adolescent ELs alike.

What ’ s the Challenge About? College and Career Readiness (CCR) for all learners is a central goal of the CCSS. Thus, educators need to implement instructional approaches that foster students’ development of academic literacy practices. This need is particularly acute for adolescent ELs who often under- achieve on high- stakes literacy assessments in English, especially when they do not receive high- quality instruc- tion (Soltero- Gonzalez, Klingner, & Cano- Rodriquez, 2014 ).

As educators, we are challenged to ensure that ado- lescent ELs learn standards- based content while devel- oping the academic literacy practices necessary for post- secondary success.

This article describes a study that I designed and implemented involving an eight- week instructional unit focused on teaching 20 adolescent ELs in a northeast- ern U.S. urban public high school to write academic- style persuasive essays. As an experienced ESL teacher, I recognized the need for a research- based framework for explicitly teaching these learners how to shift from spoken- language style writing to academic- style writing.

A principled search led to the Reading to Learn approach (Rose & Martin, 2012 ), a genre- based framework for helping culturally and linguistically

Kathleen Ramos is an assistant pro- fessor in the education department at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA, USA; e- mail kathleen.ramos@ stvincent.edu .

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diverse (CLD) learners develop increased control over the academic language resources needed to suc- cessfully read and write in school. This comprehen- sive framework was developed across decades by Australian educational linguists who worked closely with classroom teachers to support all learners in de- veloping academic reading and writing practices.

The Reading to Learn approach has been found to support CLD learners in developing academic lit- eracy practices (Acevedo, 2010 ; Culican, 2006 ). Grounded in theories of language (e.g., systemic functional linguistics) and learning (e.g., sociocul- tural theory), this approach centers on the notion of guided interaction in the context of shared experi- ence in which teachers “make visible” the language resources that function to create meanings in school- valued genres (e.g., literary response, scientific expla- nation, persuasive essay).

I hypothesized that using the genre- based Reading to Learn approach would strengthen learn- ers’ control over the academic language resources that function to build persuasion. I invited the adoles- cent ELs to participate in the instructional unit with the goal of strengthening their ability to write academic- style persuasive essays.

Who Were the Participants? The 20 participants were adolescent ELs, ranging in age from 15 to 20 years old, in a secondary ESL class for which I was the teacher. These bright, enthusias- tic learners earned good grades overall in every sub- ject. Yet their oral language skills surpassed their literacy skills in English as measured by the standard- ized WIDA ACCESS exam for ELs in grades 9- 12 ( http://www.wida.us ).

Used in nearly 30 states, ACCESS measures ELs’ progress toward developing social language profi- ciency and mastery of academic language in content areas. These learners possessed Level 4 Expanding or Level 5 Bridging speaking skills but Level 3 Developing reading and writing skills. In this study, I aimed to leverage their strong oral proficiency skills

and their motivation to learn to strengthen their academic writing ability.

The need for intensive instruction with a deliber- ate focus on enhancing academic writing practices was urgent for these learners. All but four were resettled refugees with varying levels of formal education and first language (L1) literacy skills. Ten were graduating seniors who planned to attend a local community col- lege. Most had attended U.S. schools for two to five years.

I designed the instructional unit around the theme of whether amnesty should be granted to un- documented immigrants and implemented the genre- based Reading to Learn lessons daily for one class period during the last eight weeks of the school year.

Why Genre Pedagogy? Using a genre- based approach aligns with extant re- search that emphasizes the need for all educators to focus on developing adolescent ELs’ academic liter- acy practices through direct and interactive ap- proaches to teaching reading and writing (Genesee & Riches, 2006 ). Gebhard and Harman ( 2011 ) have argued for research that explores the usefulness of genre pedagogy for developing academic literacy practices, including with CLD learners. Relatedly, Hakuta et al. ( 2013 ) have called for writing instruc- tion that engages ELs with mentor texts, focusing on the way academic language resources are used in those texts.

Teachers using the Reading to Learn approach explain the way that a particular genre has a global purpose, shaped by culture, and moves through a se- ries of stages to accomplish that purpose. In this per- spective, genre is understood as a staged, goal- oriented social process (Martin & Rose, 2008 ). By deconstruct- ing model texts in a given genre with the teacher, learners are supported in comprehending and critiquing these texts.

In turn, this scaffolding assists students in using what is learned through reading to independently write similar texts. Thus, teachers explicitly model how to use language as a meaning- making tool to build three overarching meanings simultaneously.

These three meaning types, experiential, interper- sonal, and textual, are referred to as the metafunc- tions of language (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004 ). Simply put, experiential meanings convey a text ’ s content, or what it is about. Interpersonal meanings

Teachers explicitly model how

to use language as a meaning-

making tool.

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reveal the author ’ s judgment of the topic and his/her relationship with the reader. Textual meanings indi- cate the text ’ s organization and coherence.

Importantly, authors employ language resources in distinct ways in a given genre to fulfill the global purpose (e.g., to explain, to persuade) and create the three meanings. To illustrate, key language resources that function to create experiential meanings in an academic- style persuasive essay include nominaliza- tion , modality, and causal links . Nominalization , or turning a verb into an event or an act, allows an author to present arguments while strong modality (e.g., will, must) functions to convey the author ’ s stance authorita- tively. Causal links , or verbs that suggest causality, indi- cate the result of the nominalized event.

Thus, in an academic persuasive essay against hy- drofracking , these language resources function to pres- ent the author ’ s arguments in sentences such as “The unchecked expansion of hydrofracking will adversely affect groundwater.” Using these language resources, the author builds the text ’ s experiential meanings in an academic way.

The language resources of nominalization , modal- ity , and causal links also contribute to building interper- sonal meanings in an academic- style persuasive essay by allowing the author to present opinion as fact, as can be seen in the previously mentioned sentence. Additionally, evaluative language , or words with positive or negative connotations, is a key language resource that reveals the author ’ s judgment of the topic. In the sentence above, the author ’ s choices of the adjective unchecked and the adverb adversely further contribute to conveying the au- thor ’ s anti- fracking stance in an authoritative, imper- sonal way.

Finally, key language resources that function to build textual meanings, or the development of a chain of reasoning in an organized academic persuasive essay, include cohesive devices such as referents (e.g., demon- strative pronouns), synonyms , and conjunctions . Using these language resources, an author may follow the sen- tence “The unchecked expansion of hydrofracking will adversely affect groundwater” by writing, “In turn, this poisoning of the groundwater will harm people and wildlife.”

All of these key language resources function to build experiential, interpersonal, and textual meanings simultaneously in an academic persuasive essay. Yet the language resources that function to produce academic texts in school- valued genres are often distinct from those that are typically used in spoken communication (Schleppegrell, 2004 ). As Christie ( 2012 ) has argued,

how to shift from spoken- style language use to academic- style writing is often left invisible to adolescent ELs and other learners.

The genre- based Reading to Learn approach can be a useful framework for explicitly teaching adolescent ELs and other learners how to use academic language resources to write successfully in school. In turn, in- creased control over academic writing practices can strengthen learners’ preparation for post- secondary success.

To situate the description of the instructional unit, I begin with an introduction to Htoo (pseudonym) and his writing.

Introducing Htoo Htoo, a ninth grade Burmese male, came to the U.S. with his family as a resettled refugee when he was in the fifth grade. Htoo was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his parents fled Burma. He attended school in the refugee camp but described his school experience as having “about 50 students in class with no books.”

In high school, Htoo was regarded by his teachers as a successful, motivated learner and earned As and Bs in every class. I chose Htoo as one of six focal stu- dents in the study who enjoyed academic success and planned to attend college yet whose current capacity to write in an academic way would make the transi- tion to college challenging indeed.

Htoo and his classmates were given a writing prompt as a pretest on a topic related to school life (e.g., whether students should be required to use school- issued student planners). As a posttest, the students were given a similar writing prompt (e.g., whether lunch detention was a fair policy). Both written prompts directed students to persuade the school principal to ac- cept their point- of- view. Students wrote the pretest and posttest essays independently during one class period.

Htoo ’ s pretest essay (see Figure 1 ) is reproduced as written.

Htoo ’ s pretest essay shows understanding of purpose (e.g., to persuade) and structure (e.g., paragraph organi- zation). However, Htoo uses spoken- style language that is more typical of learners who have not yet gained con- trol over academic language resources (Christie, 2012 ).

Htoo presents two arguments and makes an effort to develop these points, although he presents his first argu- ment within his thesis statement and develops it within that same paragraph. Htoo also chooses the modal should in his opening sentence, which weakens his stance.

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Htoo ’ s use of conjunctions (e.g., in my opinion, another reason) helps to organize his text. Yet, rather than reiterating his arguments in the conclusion, Htoo chooses to write, “These are the reasons,” a concluding phrase typically used by younger stu- dents. All participants’ pretest essays were similar to Htoo ’ s. That is, these learners possessed fundamen- tal understanding of the purpose and structure of a persuasive essay but needed to strengthen control over the academic language resources for creating persuasion.

Given the importance of being able to write well- developed arguments, I focused the study on strength- ening these learners’ capacity to write academic- style persuasive essays.

The Research Method The main research question was, “What was the effect of the genre- based Reading to Learn instructional ap- proach on adolescent ELs’ ability to write persuasive ar- gument essays?”

To determine differences from pretest to post- test in the participants’ effective use of the academic language resources that function to create experien- tial, interpersonal, and textual meanings in this genre, I employed Functional language (FL) analy- sis (Fang & Wang, 2011 ). Functional language analysis allows for the systematic analysis of the lan- guage resources that function to construe these three meanings in a text.

Following Schleppegrell ( 2006 ), I designed a Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool (see Figure 2 ) that delineated the academic language re- sources (e.g., nominalization, modality, causal links, verbal processes, evaluative language, conjunctions) that function to build meanings in this genre. I

renamed these meanings in more student- friendly terms as Presentation of Content and Knowledge: Realizing Purpose; Projection of an Authoritative Stance: Meeting Audience Expectations; and Construction of a Well- Organized Text: Building Coherence.

This Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool was used to evaluate and score the pretest and posttest essays. Inter- rater reliability was established by co- rating several essays with two raters familiar with FL analysis. A score for each meaning type as well as a total score were assigned based on stu- dents’ use of the academic language resources using a scale ranging from “very effectively used” to “not effectively used.”

Analysis of difference scores from pretest to posttest using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test re- vealed a statistically significant increase of the 20 adolescent ELs’ effective use of the academic lan- guage resources for each meaning type as well as for the total score.

These results are discussed following succinct descriptions of the lessons that comprised the in- structional unit, which are based on videotapes of the lessons. All adolescent ELs’ names are pseudonyms.

The Instructional Unit The Reading to Learn approach involves moving learners through five key stages designed to support them in reading texts in a particular genre and using what has been learned through reading to write simi- lar texts. These stages are Building Field, Preparing to Read, Detailed Reading, Joint Construction, and Individual Construction.

FIGURE 1 Htoo ’ s Pretest Essay

In my opinion I think students should be require to use a planner because in some of my class students just walk out of the room. Whenever the secretary see them secretary will think students get permission from the teacher to leave classroom.

Another reason I think the students should be require to use a planner because some students forget to do their homeworks. But in planner students have space to write their homework and what is it for to remid [remind] them to do their homework. For example I write down the homework in my planner, when I get home, I check the planner and do the homework that was assign to me.

Those are the reasons I think students should be require to use planner during school years.

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s Building Field Stage During several lessons, the students and I read several texts ( http://www.eHow.com ) about what amnesty for undocumented immigrants is and the reasons why many people are for or against this policy. Reading these texts served to build background knowledge around unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts.

Paraphrasing and explaining unfamiliar vocabu- lary and concepts are scaffolds embedded in Reading to Learn to assist learners in engaging with complex texts. For example, in one lesson I focused the stu- dents’ attention on the word recipient in the sen- tence, “Amnesty provides a powerful and undeniable benefit to the recipient ” ( http://www.eHow.com ).

After the students identified recipient as the word that must mean “a person who receives something,” I elaborated by stating, “Kaw Poe was the recipient of a scholar/athlete award last year for being a great stu- dent and soccer player.” This strategy of Focus, Identify, Affirm, and Elaborate through paraphrasing

meanings in everyday language connected to learn- ers’ experiences scaffolds comprehension of challeng- ing texts (Rose & Martin, 2012 ).

The Preparing to Read Stage The principal goal in this stage was to acquaint learn- ers with the global purpose of a persuasive essay as well as its schematic structure (e.g., introductory paragraph to present the arguments to be developed, body paragraphs to develop each argument, and con- cluding paragraph to reiterate the arguments). To be- gin, I introduced the students to the three meanings named on the Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool and to the language tools that function to create these meanings. I reassured students that they would learn how successful authors used these academic language tools through reading two model persuasive essays, one for and one against amnesty.

As the students read along, I read the pro- amnesty model persuasive essay aloud emphasizing

FIGURE 2 Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool SCALE

Types of Meaning

Language Resources for Realizing Each Type of Meaning Very Effectively Used

Effectively Used

Used with Moderate Effectiveness

Not Effectively Used

1 Presentation of Content and Knowledge: Realizing Purpose

Thesis statement draws on modality and consequential markers to propose and support a position.

Nominal structures used to name the arguments to be developed.

Counter-arguments presented through concession and refutation.

Key terms defined through relational processes (verbs of being or having).

Projection of Authoritative Stance: Meeting Audience Expectations

Evaluation and judgment conveyed in an authoritative way to construct argument with claims and evidence.

Use of modality that constructs possibility and necessity.

Use of markers of consequential meanings to build explicit point of view.

Projection through mental and verbal processes (verbs of thinking and saying) to cite authorities that support or challenge the argument and to present author’s own stance

Construction of Well-Organized Text: Building Coherence

Introduction that names points to be developed.

Points developed one by one in separate paragraphs.

Summary statement reiterates the arguments.

Chain of reasoning developed through nominal structures and internal connectors, including conjunctive links.

Use of theme/rheme progression. Use of referents (cohesive demonstratives and other pronouns).

Adapted from Schleppegrell, 2006

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the essay ’ s purpose and explaining its schematic structure. I noted that following this schematic struc- ture was not the only way to produce a persuasive text. However, I explained that using this structure would strengthen their capacity to write persuasive essays in the academic style that would be necessary in college.

To conclude this stage, the students discussed why people write persuasive essays and about which topics. Responses included “propose solutions to problems” and “persuade people to change their minds about important issues.” Students named global warming and gay rights as potential topics for persuasive essays.

The Detailed Reading Stage The Detailed Reading lessons, representing the core of the instructional unit, aimed to build stu- dents’ awareness of the way that the academic

language resources functioned in the two model texts to simultaneously Present Content and Knowledge, Project an Authoritative Stance, and Construct a Well- Organized Text. To scaffold dis- cussion of the function of several of the key lan- guage resources noted on the Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool, I provided students with col- ored markers and a color- coded Language Tools or- ganizer (see Figure 3 ). The “language toolbox” visually represented the way an author could “choose and use” language resources to write an academic- style persuasive essay.

Using the Language Tools organizer, the students highlighted, circled, and underlined the academic language resources as we discussed their function and contribution toward building the three meanings. At every opportunity, I emphasized authorial choice and invited the students to consider the way different lan- guage choices contributed to presenting the author ’ s stance authoritatively and impersonally.

FIGURE 3 Color- Coded Language Resources Toolbox

MODALS will be coded in BLUE.

NOMINALIZATIONS will be coded in PURPLE.

POSITIVE EVALUATIVE LANGUAGE will be coded in YELLOW, and NEGATIVE EVALUATIVE LANGUAGE will be coded in ORANGE.

RELATIONAL PROCESSES will be coded in BROWN.

ADVERBS will be coded in RED.

CAUSAL LINKS will be coded with a BROWN CIRCLE.

SYNONYMS will be coded in GREEN.

MENTAL and VERBAL PROCESSES will be coded with a BLACK BOX.

These are the linguistic tools that you will use to write academically valued persuasive arguments. By knowing which language tools function for which purposes, you will become a master of the trade of writing!

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For example, after introducing the function of modals as conveying how possible or how necessary the author believes it is for something to occur, I asked the students to consider the difference be- tween “You should join an after- school club” and “You must join an after- school club.” One student responded, “ Should is like choice. Must mean like you have to do.” This example supported students in considering how the author ’ s choice of the modal will over might or could in the sentence, “Allowing undocumented immigrants to become legal and stay in the U.S. will strengthen the U.S. economy” func- tioned to authoritatively convey certainty about this claim.

I repeatedly used the strategy of Focus, Propose, Affirm, Elaborate, and Direct to introduce and discuss the way the author used academic language resources to build a strongly persuasive, well- organized text. For example, in this same sentence, I identified “ Allowing undocumented immigrants to become legal and stay in the U.S. ” as a “giant noun” or a nominalization . I de- fined nominalization in student- friendly terms as “turn- ing a verb, or an action, into a noun, or an event or an act.” I stated its function in academic writing as present- ing an argument as an “event or an act” in order to be able to suggest its result using a modal and a causal link.

In turn, this combination of nominalization fol- lowed by strong modality and causal link functions to “set the author up” to judge the result of the “act” through evaluative language. We discussed the aca- demic language function of nominalizations and causal links in the following exchange:

To build awareness of the language resource of evaluative language, we highlighted examples of posi- tive and negative evaluative language in both model texts.

To illustrate, in the against- amnesty text, a stu- dent noticed the author ’ s switch from undocumented immigrants to illegal aliens . I asked why the author may have used illegal aliens in this essay , and another student responded, “To make very negative.” Through color coding, students highlighted the way that negative evaluative language (e.g., blatantly break the law , sneaking into the U.S. ) was “sprinkled” throughout this essay and considered how this lan- guage resource contributed to authoritatively present- ing the author ’ s opinion as “fact.”

In another lesson, we examined the way an au- thor can choose to use mental processes (e.g., think, believe) or verbal processes (e.g., claim, argue) to in- clude others’ voices and present counter- arguments in a persuasive essay. For instance, after reading the sentence, “Proponents of amnesty mistakenly believe that granting amnesty to more than 15 million illegal aliens will put an end to this tidal wave of illegal entry into the U.S,” I asked students which verb the author used to introduce what proponents of amnesty claimed in this sentence. One student answered, “ Believe .” Another added, “That ’ s a mental process.” I asked which word suggested that the author thought the proponents of amnesty were wrong, and a student answered, “ Mistakenly. ” At this point, another stu- dent interjected, “But what if it ’ s not true? How can your writing be accurate if it ’ s not true?”

This question presented the opportunity to dis- cuss the way that considering the language tools an author uses to build persuasion can support readers in questioning the author ’ s stance. For example, the fol- lowing sentence read, “It should be obvious how ab- solutely unrealistic this claim is.” First, I asked the students what this claim referred to. Pilar, a 12th

Teacher Focus What is the author stating as the result of allowing undocumented immigrants to become legal and stay in the U.S.?

Student Propose Strengthen U.S. economy.

Teacher Elaborate Yes, strengthen is a causal link. A causal link is a “verb that indicates the result of a nominalization.” Allowing undocumented immigrants to become legal is linked to the result strengthen the U.S. economy.

This act (pointing to nominalization) causes this result (pointing to strengthen the U.S. economy ) . That ’ s the power of nominalization. Turning an action into a noun sets up the author to give the result of that act.

Direct Underline the nominalization in purple and circle the causal link in brown.

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grade Dominican student replied, “What the propo- nents believe.” I then asked which words functioned to convey the author ’ s opinion about this claim. A student answered, “Absolutely unrealistic.” I reem- phasized the power of authorial choice and each reader ’ s responsibility to critically question an au- thor ’ s presentation of opinion as fact.

The students and I continued to discuss and highlight the language resources delineated on both the Language Tools organizer and the Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool while deconstructing both model texts. This intensive fo- cus on language resources aimed to prepare stu- dents to use these language tools for writing in this genre. Before independent writing, I provided the scaffold of jointly constructing a similar text with the students.

The Joint Construction Stage The joint construction lessons afforded learners the opportunity to “pick up the language tools” to write a persuasive essay on the same topic with teacher sup- port. I projected this text on the screen as a work in progress as we considered how to use the language tools to Present Content, Project an Authoritative Stance, and Construct an Organized Text.

To illustrate, after we developed a thesis statement and defined amnesty, I asked the students what we should do next in the introductory paragraph. They replied, “Introduce arguments.” I asked which lan- guage tool we should use to name the arguments. They answered, “Nominalization.” I asked why, and several students replied, “We can say result and then judge.”

Students decided upon three arguments in favor of amnesty (e.g., providing educational op- portunities for undocumented teens, increasing the U.S. military, and improving cultural diver- sity). Discussing which arguments to include led the students to critically examine the subthemes related to the arguments.

For example, many learners initially disagreed with the idea of granting amnesty in order to increase the U.S. military. Htoo questioned his peers, “So, it ’ s like grant amnesty so they can be killed?”

One student countered that if undocumented immigrants were able to join the military, the U.S. government would let them become citizens. Another student added that since the U.S. military is voluntary, immigrants would not have to join and added, “They might not die in a war even if they join.”

Pilar then suggested that allowing undocu- mented immigrants to become legal and join the military could diminish many Americans’ negative opinions about immigrants and help these immi- grants to earn money for college. The students asked my opinion; I stated that although I personally agreed with Htoo, we needed to develop the arguments with which most students agreed. After a vote, the students decided to include this argument.

Together, we wrote an introductory paragraph that employed nominalization, modality, causal links, evaluative language, and conjunctions to present these three arguments and used these and other language resources to develop each argu- ment to produce an authoritative, well- organized text.

The Individual Construction Stage Finally, referring to the eHow texts, the Language Tools organizer, the Performance Criteria and Assessment Tool, and the model texts, the students independently wrote persuasive essays. During four class periods, the students interacted with peers and with me to write their essays.

Figure 4 illustrates the way that Roshan, a Nepali student in ninth grade, developed his second argument.

This exemplar shows that Roshan used the academic language resources to logically develop an argument and to introduce and refute a

FIGURE 4 Roshan ’ s Second Argument Paragraph

Making illegal immigrant legal will grow college population and undocumented immigrant will gain more knowledge. These skillful learner will start working on their career and be successful in college. Many people believe that undocument immigrant will take their talent to their country after graduating college. On the contrary, undocument immigrant work hard to achieve their goal and graduate for college that mean, they will stay in the U.S. and share their idea to build better community.

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counter- argument. To further demonstrate the way that the Reading to Learn lessons may have supported the adolescent ELs in gaining control over these lan- guage resources, I turn to Htoo ’ s posttest essay.

Strengthening Control Over Academic Language Resources Htoo ’ s posttest essay indicates progress toward develop- ing control over academic language resources (see Figure 5 ).

Htoo ’ s introduction contains a clear thesis state- ment and presents the arguments to be developed using sequential markers (e.g., first, second). His use of the modal will authoritatively conveys his stance.

Throughout the body paragraphs, Htoo employs nominalization, modality, causal links, and evaluative language to present arguments, convey certainty about their result, and “judge” those results (e.g., Having this policy will make less distraction for the students that are ready to learn). In addition, Htoo effectively contrasts and links ideas (e.g., without lunch detention policy, prior to permitting this policy) to logically develop argu- ments and create an organized text.

To conclude, Htoo restates his stance that the lunch detention policy is fair. Notably, Htoo does not use “I think” to express his opinion in this posttest essay. In his

final sentence, the modal must functions to reempha- size Htoo ’ s stance authoritatively, and the main argu- ments are reiterated.

Clearly, Htoo ’ s posttest essay shows increased control over the academic language resources that function to Present Content, Project an Authoritative Stance, and Construct an Organized Text in an academic- style persuasive essay. This same progress toward control over these language resources occurred, to varying degrees, for all 20 students.

When asked to explain whether their writing had improved, Htoo wrote, “I learned how to choose tools that work for my writing.” Roshan stated, “I changed the way of writing persuasive essay by writing in impersonal way.” Pilar commented, “I learned that you don ’ t write the way you talk. This for me is a very important key, because after you realize that, you think harder and use more academic words.”

Conclusion This study suggests that Reading to Learn is one peda- gogical approach that may be useful for supporting adolescent ELs in strengthening control over the aca- demic language resources that function to build ex- periential, interpersonal, and textual meanings in

FIGURE 5 Htoo ’ s Posttest Essay

Having lunch detention policy is fair to the students for several reasons. First, students will not cut classes. Second, most students will not late to classes. Lastly, students will not drink soda or other drink in classes.

Permitting this policy will decrease the amount of students cutting classes. Without lunch detention policy students will think cutting classes is acceptable. Thinking cutting class is acceptable will lead students to cut classes. Cutting classes will not benefit students. This policy will force students to go to class and learn what the teachers taught.

Lunch detention policy will dramatically increase students that go to class on time. Prior permitting this policy students come to class whenever they feel like to. Having lunch detention policy will make students to go to class on time and ready to learn.

Having this acceptable policy will decrease amount of students drink soda or other drinks in class. Having this policy will make less distraction for the students that are ready to learn. Without lunch detention policy, the students that are ready to learn will be distracted by the students that drink soda in class. Intelligents students may ask for a drink from their classmates, which distract their learning and future.

Lunch detention policy is fair to every students for their learning. The reason is fair to students is it will make less distraction. School must try to decrease amount of students cutting classes, tardy and drinks.

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persuasive essays, a key genre in the CCSS. Moreover, the development of academic- style writing practices is a central goal of the CCSS for all learners.

Adolescent ELs need support in developing aca- demic literacy practices in English (August & Shanahan, 2006 ). Current research suggests that these learners may benefit from explicit instruction on how to read and write in an academic way (Genesee & Riches, 2006 ).

Furthermore, employing the Reading to Learn framework aligns with the invitation in the CCSS for teachers to use professional judgment to choose instructional practices that support learners in de- veloping academic literacy practices (Hinchman & Moore, 2013 ). Language and literacy experts have echoed this call for the exploration of approaches that contribute to adolescent learners’ develop- ment of academic literacy practices (Hakuta et al., 2013 ).

Future research should investigate whether re- ducing the extensive scaffolding embedded in the Reading to Learn approach will result in indepen- dent academic writing for CLD learners. However, the present study suggests that learners like Htoo and his peers may benefit from the explicit instruc- tion embedded in the Reading to Learn approach that makes visible how to use academic language resources to read and write in school- valued genres.

References Acevedo , C. ( 2010 ). A report on school-based action research: Will

the implementation of reading tolearn in stockholm schools ac- celerate literacy lear ning for disadvantaged students and close the achievement gap? Multilingual Research Institute, Stock holm Educat ion Administ rat ion, Repor t on t he Reading to Learn Project, 2009–2010.

August , D. , & Shanahan , T. (Eds.). ( 2006 ). Developing literacy in second-language learners: A report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth . Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum .

Christie , F. ( 2012 ). Language education throughout the school y e a r s : A f u n c t i o n a l p e r s p e c t i v e . We s t S u s s e x : Wiley-Blackwell .

Culican , S. ( 2006 ). Learning to read: Reading to learn, a mid- dle years literacy inter vention research project, final report 20 03 – 0 4 . Cat hol ic E duc at ion O f f ice, Melb ou r ne. Retrieved October 2012 from http://www.cecv.melb.catho- lic.edu.au/ResearchandSeminarPapers

Fang , Z. , & Schleppegrell , M.J. ( 2010 ). Disciplinary literacies acro s s content are a s : Supp or t in g second ar y re adin g through functional language analysis . Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 53 ( 7 ), 587 – 597 .

Fang , Z. , & Wang , Z. ( 2011 ). Beyond rubrics: Using func- t ional lang uage analy sis to evaluate st udent w rit ing . Au st ralian Jour nal of L anguage and Literac y , 34 ( 2 ), 147 – 165 .

Gebhard , M. , & Harman , R. ( 2011 ). Reconsidering genre the- ory in K- 12 schools: A response to school reforms in the United States . Jour nal of Second Language Writing , 20 , 45 – 55 .

Genesee , F. , & Riches , C. ( 2006 ). Literacy: Instruction issues . In F. Genesee , K. Lindholm-Lear y , W. Saunders , & D. Christian (Eds.), Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence (pp. 109 – 176 ). New York : Cambridge University Press .

Hakuta , K. , Santos , M. , & Fang , Z. ( 2013 ). Challenges and opportunities for language learning in the context of the CCSS and t he NGSS . Jour nal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 56 ( 6 ), 451 – 454 .

Halliday , M.A.K. , & Matthiessen , C.M.I.M. ( 2004 ). An intro- duction to functional grammar ( 3rd ed. ). London : Arnold .

Hinchman , K. , & Moore , D.W. ( 2013 ). Close reading: A cau- t ionar y inter pret at ion . Jour nal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 56 ( 6 ), 441 – 450 .

Take Action S T E P S F O R I M M E D I A T E I M P L E M E N T A T I O N

STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION:

1 Choose, or create, a short model text from a genre learners must read and write well in your disciplinary area.

2 Make sure to choose a text that serves to engage learners around key content concepts and the features of academic language.

3 Think about the way language functions as a tool to write successfully in this genre. Identify what learners need to know about the way an author ’ s language choices work together to create an academic text.

4 Design a few lessons that aim to deconstruct the meaning of the text from this language perspec- tive. Discuss and explain the way that language resources function to realize purpose, meet audience expectations, and build a coherent text.

5 Design a few lessons to apply these same language resources to jointly write a similar text, or chunk of text, in this genre.

6 Invite learners to independently apply these language resources to write and revise a similar text. Allow interaction with peers and with you during writing!

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Martin , J.R. , & Rose , D. ( 2008 ). Genre relations: Mapping cul- ture . London : Equinox .

Rose , D. , & Martin , J.R. ( 2012 ). Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School . Bristol : Equinox .

Schleppegrell , M.J. ( 2004 ). The language of schooling: A func- tional linguistics perspective . Mahwah, NJ : L aw rence Erlbaum .

Schleppegrell , M.J. ( 2006 ). T he linguistic features of ad- vanced language use: The grammar of exposition . In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribu- tions of Halliday and Vygotsky (pp. 134 – 146 ). London and New York : Continuum .

Soltero-Gonzalez , L. , Klingner , J.K. , & Cano-Rodriquez , E. ( 2014 ). English language learners: Instructional practices to promote literacy development . In C.A. Stone , E. Silliman , B. Ehren , & G. Wallach (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders ( 2nd ed. pp. 654 – 674 ). New York : The Guilford Press .

Understanding Language Conference ( 2013 ). Key principles for ELL instruction . Understanding language: Language, literacy, and learning in the content areas. Retrieved from http://www.ell. stanford.edu

World Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium , Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners (ACCESS ) . Retrieved from http://www.wida.us

More to Explore C O N N E C T E D C O N T E N T - B A S E D R E S O U R C E S

BOOKS: ✓ Fang , Z. , & Schleppegrell , M.J. ( 2008 ). Reading in

secondary content areas: A language-based pedagogy . Ann Arbor, MI : University of Michigan Press .

✓ Gibbons , P. ( 2009 ). English learners, academic literacy, and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone . Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann .

JOURNAL ARTICLES: ✓ Fang , Z. ( 2012 ). Approaches to developing content area

literacies: A synthesis and a critique . Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 56 ( 2 ), 103 – 108 .

✓ Gebhard , M. , Harman , R. , & Seger , W. ( 2007 ). Reclaiming recess: Learning the language of persuasion . Language Arts , 84 ( 5 ), 419 – 430 .

WEB RESOURCES: ✓ Reading to Learn . http://www.readingtolearn.com.au ✓ Functional Grammar . http://www.mourass.eq.edu.au/

functional_grammar.html

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