Great Writing Strategy for ELs!

We know that when teaching EL students we need to provide them with learning strategies. One writing strategy that has worked for me throughout the years is Hamburger Writing. It provides students with cues and visuals. They will be writing 5 sentence paragraphs (in primary grades) or 5 paragraph essays (for upper grades) in no time!


Top Bun: Write 1 sentence. State your topic. Color Code Brown.

Lettuce: Write 1 sentence that supports your topic sentence. This is detail sentence #1. Color Code Green.

Cheese: Write 1 more sentence that supports your topic sentence. This is detail sentence #2. Color Code Yellow.

Meat: Write another sentence that supports your topic. This is detail sentence #3. Color Code Black

Bottom Bun: Rewrite the sentence from your top bun. Color Code Brown

It has ALWAYS worked for me! I hope your students enjoy it, grasp it, and “take off” with their writing skills! When introducing Hamburger Writing, I would create a HUGE hamburger with butcher paper. We would model this technique several times before letting students work independently on their own hamburger. Color coding each condiment helps too.

FOUR PLANNING QUESTIONS

Four Planning Questions
~When planning for your lessons, ALWAYS ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the outcomes?
(What is my purpose?)

2. What steps will I take?
(How will I set up my lesson? I, We, They? Wait Time? Pacing? Will I give multiple opportunities to respond? How will I keep students engaged?)

3. How will I know if the learning
has occurred? (What will learning look like?)

4. What will I do if learning doesn’t happen? (Who/What/How/When will I explicitly and intensively reteach?)