In introducing a new unit on writing research reports to a class that includes English learners, an SEI teacher emphasizes that every paragraph in a report has a job to do. The teacher explains that those jobs can include capturing the audience's attention, providing context or background information, describing a procedure or sequence, explaining a cause and effect, connecting ideas together, comparing and contrasting findings, analyzing a problem, summarizing an issue, and describing a solution. The teacher provides the English learners with a brief model research report and asks the students to read the report, identify the main job each paragraph is doing, and annotate their answers in the margin of the text. Students will then discuss their notes. This activity reflects the SEI teacher's awareness of the importance of promoting English learners' academic writing development by helping them:
