Identifying barriers

I think there's a distinction to be drawn in tackling a reluctance to write.  One barrier is the construction of writing -- organizing thoughts, explaining ideas.  The other is an attitude -- reluctance to reveal inner thoughts, embarrassment, the belief that it's somehow soft or touchy-feely.  They can happen independent of each other, and they can conspire together to create a non-writer.

Over the next week, I am going to continue to check out NWP.org for writing ideas and resources that would be useful in my classroom.  I am hoping to find ideas to help my ESL students become more interested in writing.  This will be measured by the production of student writing.

Are You Ready for College Writing? - National Writing Project

Are You Ready for College Writing? - National Writing Project
This is really interesting about "unteaching" students who write the 5-paragraph essay.  This is not how they need to write in college.

I like the suggestions under "Supporting Good Writing Instruction." I think they are very practical.

National Writing Project:  Resource Topics

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/resources/topics.csp