When students are learning English they are also learning how to read and write. Writing in third grade involves learning how to put stories together focusing on the introduction, the body and the conclusion. Students in third grade also learn how to summarize a story by picking out the main points and writing them down in their own words. Students learning English as a second language (ESL) have special needs when learning how to write in the third grade, and the teacher can assist them with their writing skills.

Sentence Structure
Putting together sentences in the correct structure with nouns, verbs and the words that modify them is one of the most important skills for third-grade ESL students to master. To start, go over parts of speech with ESL students and have them practice identifying parts of speech in a sentence. Begin by writing various types of sentences such as a topic sentence, question sentence, statement of fact sentence or exclamation sentence. Make sure ESL students have mastered sentence structure before beginning to write.

Prewriting
Work with ESL third-graders so they become familiar with the stages of writing and how to pick a topic. In the beginning the teacher of ESL students will want to assign topics for her students to write on. Explain to ESL students the beginning, middle and end of the story and how paragraphs make up a story. Students should be familiar with the prewriting or planning stage of writing after the teacher explains the steps to take before beginning a writing project -- brainstorm, pick a topic, create a beginning, middle and end and start a rough draft.

Drafting a Story
Writing a story takes time and effort and is especially challenging at times for the third-grade student who is just learning how to speak, read and write in English. Students will practice writing sentences to form paragraphs; their stories should have an introduction and then move into a problem or conflict before wrapping up with a conclusion. Explain characters, setting and conflict to students, and make sure they understand these story elements thoroughly while working on their writing.

Revising & Editing
Making revisions to rough drafts of writing is an important skill for third-grade students to learn. Checking for spelling and grammatical errors will ensure that the story flows and is understandable to the reader. ESL students will need extra work with editing and revising their stories. Make use of dictionaries in the classroom to assist students with correcting spelling errors, and use thesauruses and other reference books to check grammar. The teacher will need to assist the third-grade ESL student with this part of the writing process as sentence structure and spelling will be challenging for the ESL student. They are still learning English and becoming acquainted with the parts of speech, so the teacher will need to instruct the ESL student further with editing and revising.