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English as a Second Language
Work Sample & Commentary: The Theme

The task
Transitional ESL students were given specific topics related to The Diary of Anne Frank and asked to expound upon them. The purpose of these cooperative learning activities was to enhance the students’ critical-analytical skills and to enable them to personally identify with the text. This work sample was produced as a long-term project.

Circumstances of performance
This sample of student work was produced under the following conditions:

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alone in a group
in class as homework
with teacher feedback with peer feedback
timed opportunity for revision
What the work shows
b Writing: The student produces a response to literature that:
• engages the reader through establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• advances a judgment that is interpretive, analytic, evaluative, or reflective;
• supports a judgment through references to the text, references to other works, authors, or non-print media, or references to personal knowledge;
• demonstrates understanding of the literary work through suggesting an interpretation;
• anticipates and answers a reader’s questions;
• recognizes possible ambiguities, nuances, and complexities;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

The work immediately introduces the title of the literary work under consideration in the first sentence, and engages the reader and establishes the context by stating that this is the diary of a young Jewish girl living in hiding from the Nazis.

Throughout the work, the student demonstrated an understanding of the literary work by analyzing Anne’s feelings, beliefs, and abilities with references to the text.
The student interpreted the role of the diary as a confidante for Anne and referred to the text in general (e.g., “Anne confided her most private thoughts…”) and in particular (e.g., “…which she believed was her friend named ‘Kitty.’”) to support this.

This work sample illustrates a transitional level ESL performance for the following part of the standards:
b Writing: Produce a response to literature.

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In admiring Anne’s ability to discuss serious questions about “life, religion, and humanity,” the student referred to personal knowledge that these types of issues are often not dealt with by adults.
The student anticipated and answered a possible reader question as to how Anne lived in a different age that might “be beyond our comprehension.” The student stated that “Anne just an ordinary girl, grew up in extraordinary times.”
The work closes with the statement that teenagers should learn a life lesson through reading Anne Frank’s diary. This is in keeping with the subject of the work.

The student demonstrated the ability to manage the conventions of grammar and usage appropriate for the transitional level of ESL student. Students at this level are expected to demonstrate control of grammar, paragraph structure, and complex sentences.

However, as second language students, they will still make errors as evidenced in this work by the awkward constructions, improper use of prepositions and articles, and errors in punctuation and capitalization. In this sample, we see improper use of articles (e.g., “a fiction” and “the two years“) as well as misuse of prepositions. There are also punctuation errors and awkward constructions, e.g., in paragraph three. However, these errors do not detract from the overall quality of the work.