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When the writing gets tough


       Today I had an experience not very unique with my students.
In helping my ELL students with an English essay, I found that I myself did not understand the prompt or the article. I feel that secondary ELLs face a unique set of challenges in that they are to be writing college level essays in a school system they may be new to. This is not to say that the students cannot do the work, on the contrary they can.
     However, we as teachers need to break things down much more in order for all our students to understand the task. All the acronyms in the world do not guarantee students understand the task we ask of them. Many students are not used to writing about their personal opinion and they may not have a opinion on the taks we give. This experience today made me frustrated as a writer, struggling to write my own mentor sentences. I am reminded of the importance of knowing what we are asking of our students as teachers and always making sure if we ask them for something, we ourselves could do the task too.
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