Exploring How Fourth-Grade Emerging Bilinguals Learn to Write Opinion Essays

ABSTRACT The population of emerging bilinguals (EBs) is rapidly growing across the United States leaving many teachers wondering how best to teach these students to read and write effectively in English. Concurrently, and as a result of the Common Core State Standards, elementary school students are required to produce more sophisticated writing than ever before. For example, all students in Grades K-5 are expected to write an opinion essay that requires an understanding of the topic in order to generate an opinion and the ability to craft evidence to support this opinion. The purpose of this study was to determine how EBs develop as writers of opinion essays. A multiple case study was conducted in a 4th grade English as a Second Language classroom where students (N = 6) were taught to write opinion essays in English. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and multiple student writing and work samples that were conducted and collected over the course of six weeks. Three specific categories emerged from the data including: (a) a more knowledgeable other, (b) the need for two-step graphic organizers, and (c) the value of partner talk/collaboration. Implications and recommendations of these findings are provided for both educators and researchers.