Reading the selection Dear Mr. Henshaw in the HMR 5th grade
anthology provided an opportunity for the beginning ELL student to record a
personal narrative. The students
were given the writing prompt with a story board to tell a personal narrative
like the boy in the story Dear Mr. Henshaw. Garage Band has allowed
limited English learners to participate in story telling. It is much easier for them to tell a
narrative story with support of a story board and sentence starters than to
write it out. This allows the
teacher to hear pronunciation, grammar, syntax and story sequence that the
student uses so planning can be done to focus on the student’s English language
development and comprehension. This sample is a first draft. The student would be given a chance to
re-record several times before being reviewed by the teacher. That opportunity also gives the student
numerous chances to practice orally that in turn strengthen the student’s
understanding and language development.
