#effective instruction

“Modeling informs and motivates. Models provide information about what sequence of actions will lead to success and which actions have undesirable consequences.” –Dale H. Schunk

I could probably write a really long post (or an entire book, actually) on how to effectively model writing in instruction. But, that would be silly when the whole point of this is to show you how to model a behavior or skill as a teaching strategy. Instead, I’ll touch on some points about modeling effectively and then I will model modeling writing for you. Watch my video here. 

Create a positive, safe environment.

I’ve touched on this before, but I’ll emphasize again the importance of helping students feel comfortable about writing. Promote respect, be positive, be encouraging. Schunk says that “personal and environmental factors affect one another.” Students who have a higher self- efficacy will be more likely to work diligently and create a positive classroom environment, while students with a lower self- efficacy will try to avoid doing the task and therefore create a distracting environment (160).

 Have your students set goals.

Goal setting and achieving goals are important to building a student’s self-efficacy. As they reach their goals, they’ll feel more successful and capable of reaching other goals. According to Schunk, goal progress may “enhance efficacy and maintain motivation. Learners may decide to continue pursuing their goals, modify them, or set new ones” (161).

Make mistakes.

Although your students might think you’re perfect (haha!—sarcasm), it’s important for them to see you struggle and problem solve as you write at any stage in the writing process. They’ll feel okay about mistakes they make and will also be equipped with the tools to solve their own writing struggles. Schunk recommends using “coping models” so students can see how you handle struggles and difficulties. Your problem solving strategies will translate to their problem solving strategies (161).

Be explicit and specific.

When you model, make sure students know how they can apply the strategy to their own writing. Take them through each step and be ready to answer questions. Berkely and Regan emphasize the important of explicit explanation of how and why a strategy is being used (277).

Give students guided and independent practice.

As you model, let students practice the strategy. Walk them through the process, and then give them the opportunity to do it on their own.

 Provide encouraging and relevant feedback.

This is important for building a student’s self-efficacy about a task. Even though you’ll likely have suggestions for improvement, let students know what they did well. Through your feedback, affirm students of their ability to be effective writers.

Click here to see my video on developing a thesis statement. 

You are not Giada De Laurentiis. You should not have a perfect looking lasagna ready to pull out of the oven after having only shown a few scenes of mincing garlic and stirring a pot. No, no. Modeling writing is about getting down to the nitty gritty. It’s about the flour all over the kitchen, the egg dropped on the floor, the crushed tomatoes and spices simmering in the pot. On Food Network we see brief snippets of some prettily laid out process and then miraculously a perfectly baked pie emerges from the oven…”I made this one earlier and it looks just about done. Yum! Isn’t this nice!” Yeah, that is nice, but how in the world did it happen? I want to grab the cook by their shirt perfectly coordinated to their kitchen curtains and yell, “How does this work?!”

It will do students absolutely no good to watch a teacher with everything perfectly together. When you write on your own, you pause at times, you scratch out words, you backspace. You delete entire chunks of text, you light up with a brilliant realization. These are important steps in the writing process, and students should have the opportunity to see them modeled.  Holmes says, “Show the students. Don’t just tell them some of your own writing struggles and how you solved them” (2). Being real, or authentic, about writing is essential for this modeling strategy to work. The entire strategy is based on the concept of high self-efficacy being necessary for students to feel capable of performing a task or acquiring a skill. If they don’t think it’s normal to struggle and are not equipped with the tools to problem solve, they are not going be efficacious about writing. Therefore, teachers must be honest when they model.