Tips for Teaching Writing to ELL Students   

 
1. Activate Students’ Prior Knowledge 
Have students select their own writing topic or choose a topic that 
students will have enough background knowledge about so that they have 
the vocabulary available to write 
 
2. Vocabulary Support 
To help students with a limited vocabulary, have word walls, word charts, 
or grammar charts easily accessible so that students can reference these 
as they write. Explicitly teach the required vocabulary before a writing 
task.  
 
3. Modelling 
Use models to teach students what good writing looks like and sounds like. 
Reading is a great starting point for giving students the structure and 
vocabulary. 
 
4. Different Writing Styles 
Expose students to as many different writing styles as possible, in both 
reading and the writing that they practice. 
 
5. Rubrics 
Rubrics that are provided before a writing task and explained in 
student-friendly language give students a clear set of expectations that 
they need to meet to evaluate their writing. 
 
6. Assessment AS Learning 
Self-Evaluation and Peer-Evaluation are great tools to have students 
practice recognizing errors in writing and ways to make improvements. 
This practice is supported by using rubrics or a criteria checklist.  
 
7. Set High Expectations 
Give students the opportunity to be challenged by setting high 
expectations and working outside of their comfort zone to a certain 
extent.  
 
8. Make Writing Exciting 
Allow students to be creative with their writing tasks. Have students work 
on writing collaboratively. Allow students to choose their tasks or topics. 
Writing does not always need to be formal or written in paragraphs. 
Variety keeps writing exciting!