Capstone: Academic Success for ESL Students

What makes CAPSTONE: Academic Success for ESL Students different from other Intermediate ESL Writing books? 

It is driven by ideas rather than rhetorical forms.

Comparing seasons may fit nicely into the comparative/contrast rhetorical form, but the resulting essays tend to present platitudes rather than thoughts. CAPSTONE is organized around ideas: how people use the time they have, whether they have any control over their fortune, what their basic neurological make-up is, how personality emerges, ways in which people get a sense of belonging to a culture, how they achieve or don’t achieve status in that culture, how work shapes adult lives and engenders migrations people make in service of their work.

It doesn’t define or outline the writing process; it requires students to experience it

Ideas come from responding to short excerpts from authentic readings in each chapter. There is a full glossary after each reading, but students are not responsible for knowing even one word in the glossary. For that matter, the three readings in each chapter are not in and of themselves important. They are there only to initiate the writing process.  The readings should be read aloud by the teacher in the class so that students can hear the cadence of English while the teacher reads students’ faces and answers every question to ensure comprehension of the reading.  Students respond to each reading in writing and synthesize the readings through discussion.

It engages students in collaborative modeling with the teacher rather than asking them to merely look at a model essay.

Many books put model essays in chapters for students to look at.  CAPSTONE involves students in composing a model essay by contributing parts of their reader responses in sections of a Cloze essay at the end of the first chapter. By working with the teacher to fill in the blanks in the essay, students learn about structuring ideas with details and transitions among paragraphs.  They then have a model essay they participated in making to consult throughout the term.

It takes students step by step through the process of including quotations, summaries, and paraphrases in their essays.
 

Writing an essay is an entry into an academic world where people share with others their thoughts about their reading and reflections.  To be a part of an academic community, students need to use or refer to the words and ideas of others.  The academic skills of quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing are essential to strong academic writing.

How CAPSTONE Presents Writing Features

Most student writing books are organized by rhetorical model.  However, real people, who may have to write a job-related report or study, don’t wake up and say to themselves, “I think I’ll write a comparison/contrast report.” They wake up and reflect on the ideas they have for the report.  That is why CAPSTONE is organized around ideas rather than rhetorical structures. Students need stimulation for their ideas, so there are brief yet authentic readings to help students generate ideas. 

CAPSTONE is firmly based in the writing process. Rather than discuss the writing process, students use it from the first assignment.  CAPSTONE uses an integrated skills approach, and as such, students write about what they read.