In English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes at the college level, students are often enrolled who have a high degree of oral fluency, but little proficiency in reading or writing. Developmental ESL students need a solid start toward "inventing" themselves as readers and writers. One method of teaching ESL students to write is to build on their level of oral fluency. Situations can be created in the classroom where students collaborate as partners by sharing their personal histories aloud. After students have discussed their broadly focused personal histories, they narrow the focus to one specific aspect (e.g., a childhood memory). Students are encouraged to take notes during the talking and listening phase of their work. This helps them make the transition from the oral to the written phase of their work, and enables students to understand how texts are created on the basis of personal significance. Writers narrow and organize their material on the basis of what is significant to them. Likewise, readers/listeners focus on areas they find to be significant. Within this approach, students begin to make connections between writing and reading that they did not make before. (VWL) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)