Analysis of data in an after‐school writing workshop wherein resettled refugee teens were reading and writing identity texts to prepare for achieving their postsecondary goals suggests that a discursive practice of the connective press was productive in helping teens develop cohesion in their writing. Although true communicative competence in an additional language includes grammatical, strategic, sociocultural, and discourse competence, language‐learning environments too often focus on grammatical competence only. Because facilitating language learners’ development of discourse competence can seem more complex than explicitly teaching grammar, this article offers possibilities for educators working with language learners who strive to enhance their reading comprehension and writing skills. The connective press, which is a prompt for someone to notice or create connections between ideas in different parts of a text, seemed productive for teens as they analyzed texts, brainstormed their writing collaboratively, and peer‐edited one another's essays.