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Deliberate acts of teaching

Modelling

Modelling, or demonstrating, is perhaps the most powerful and pervasive form of instruction. Almost everything the teacher does and says in the course of the school day provides a potential model to the students in the classroom. Much of this modelling is implicit and occurs without either teacher or students being conscious of it. However, deliberate, goal-directed modelling is an essential teaching tool.

By articulating how they arrived at a solution – thinking aloud as they go through the process – the teacher (or possibly a peer) provides the learner with a model of how a proficient reader or writer works. This sort of modelling makes the learning “visible”; it makes explicit what was previously only implicit. Modelling supports students in finding out not only what to do but also how to do it. This enhances their awareness of the literacy-learning process, especially when they are encouraged to articulate what they have learned from the modelling.

Modelling is a strategy that can be used to great effect in shared reading and writing. Teachers leading a group session can demonstrate the skills that the students need to master. They can also discuss them, providing (and modelling the use of) new language that the students need to master. This may be language for talking about encoding or decoding text, for talking about how to make meaning of a text, for discussing texts and thinking analytically about them, or for talking to develop metacognition – learning about learning.

A combination of modelling and directing (or explaining) may be necessary at times. Using modelling along with other instructional strategies to convey a teaching point is especially useful for students who are not yet fully familiar with the school’s literacy practices and those who are experiencing difficulties in their literacy learning.

Prompting

Prompting means encouraging the learner to use what they already know and can do. It is an effective strategy to focus students’ attention and to build their metacognitive awareness and their confidence. In order to prompt effectively, the teacher needs a detailed knowledge of the learner. Prompting may take the form of a reminder, a strong hint, a clue, or a gentle “nudge” to help students use their existing knowledge and literacy strategies to make connections and reach a solution. A prompt often takes the form of a question and involves allowing “wait time” to give students the opportunity to develop and express their own ideas.

The teacher cannot assume that students will automatically transfer their learning to new situations. Prompting is an indispensable tool for helping students to understand how and when to use their knowledge and strategies.

Questioning

Questioning is perhaps the instructional tool used most commonly by teachers. Questions may be directed towards building a particular aspect of students’ knowledge, such as how to use a strategy for making meaning or thinking critically. Carefully planned questions can help to build students’ metacognitive awareness of how they comprehend a text or of how a text they are writing will affect its readers. It is generally more effective to use fewer questions, strategically placed in a discussion or conversation, rather than a greater number of randomly placed questions.

Asking questions can be an ideal way to generate thoughtful discussions about the deeper levels of texts and to help students develop the habit of reflecting critically by asking themselves questions as they read. For example, “What do you think the author’s viewpoint is?” “How did you work this out?” “How does this support or challenge your own viewpoint on the subject?” One or two well-thought-out questions can be powerful in helping students develop their ability to look below the surface of a text they are reading or writing. It is important that teachers ask a range of questions and know why they are asking them.

Questions become effective teaching tools when:

• they are directed towards helping students to meet a learning goal;
• they are centred on and draw out students’ knowledge;
• there is adequate “wait time” for students, especially those who are new learners of English, to think through their responses;
• appropriate follow-up questions or probes are used to extend students’ thinking.

Questioning is a highly productive way of bringing out what students know and can do, so that they can apply their expertise to their tasks. An effective teacher extends questioning well beyond the kinds of questions that require students only to recall factual content or to make predictions that are purely speculative. The teacher asks questions that require students to explain their choice of language in their writing or to think critically and reflectively about texts. In responding to such questions, students learn to link their thinking about texts with their knowledge and experience.

Patterns of “teacher question, student response, and teacher reaction” can inhibit learning. For example, if the students become more occupied with finding out what is in the teacher’s head than with their own learning, they are much less likely to show creativity in composing texts or to explore the deeper features of texts. Students’ responses should be valued and not transformed by evaluative comments that suggest the responses are inadequate. In continuing the discussion, the teacher can sometimes add value to a student’s response by modeling more appropriate language or syntax.

Effective questioning by teachers during literacy learning generates focused, text-based conversations with students and between students. Co-operative activities such as “think, pair, share” and activities in which students form their own questions about texts can be useful for generating conversations.

Attending to the answers that students give, and probing their responses, is just as important as planning and asking the questions. Teachers can ask follow-up questions, such as “How do you know that?” “What evidence can you find that supports your thinking?” Students’ responses yield important information that can be used to evaluate their learning and identify their next learning steps.

Teachers sometimes categorise the kinds of questions they use, for example, as open or closed or as questions for clarification, elaboration, or justification. The kinds of question and the forms they take will depend on the teacher’s instructional objective and the learning goal of the task (which will always be related to the students’ needs). Sometimes closed questions will be most effective, for example, when the teacher wants to probe students’ ability to describe the steps in an explanatory text or to recall (in order to prioritise) the main points in an argument. It’s not necessary or even useful to plan activities based on categories of questions. There is no formula for asking the right questions. Effective teachers aim to ask questions that reveal their students’ thinking, including any misconceptions or inappropriate assumptions that they may have. Like prompting, questioning may unlock the understanding of a student who is struggling with an aspect of their reading or writing by giving them clear guidance towards what they need to do.

A teacher who uses questions effectively provides a good model to students and shows them how to develop their own questioning strategies. Teachers can model the art of self-questioning, especially in shared writing and reading, as a strategy that writers and readers can use to help them create texts and make meaning of texts.

In a classroom environment of critical reflection, thought-provoking questions are not seen as threatening; they are welcomed as a highly valued part of learning.

Giving feedback

The impact of effective feedback on student outcomes has been established through a number of studies (for example, Hattie, 1999, and Crooks, 1988). Hattie, on the basis of extensive research, describes feedback as the most powerful single factor that enhances achievement. Like modelling, feedback pervades the school day: most interactions between teachers and students involve some element of feedback.

The purposes of feedback are:

• to affirm;
• to inform;
• to guide future learning.

Like all the teaching strategies, feedback is most effective when it relates to specific learning goals that students recognise and understand and to the ultimate aim of enabling students to monitor and regulate their own learning. Feedback should always be honest and specific so that students know how they are doing and what they have achieved.

Effective feedback motivates students to learn. The way that students feel about and perceive themselves affects their expectations and consequently their performance. A simple comment can have a major impact – positive or negative – on a student’s motivation and confidence. It is important to consider cultural and social appropriateness when giving feedback (as when using any teaching strategy). Students approaching adolescence often respond more positively when feedback is given privately rather than in public.

 Feedback may be thought of as either descriptive or evaluative. Descriptive feedback means describing or explaining what has or has not been achieved and why. It also involves giving information on how to learn further or what to do in order to succeed. Evaluative feedback involves making a judgment about what the learner is doing or has done and carries the idea of approval or disapproval.

 Interactions involving feedback can yield valuable knowledge of learners as well as enabling them to move forward.

The primary use of feedback is not to indicate whether learners are right or wrong but to enable them to reflect on their use of strategies and on their learning. Feedback involves giving learners information about when to use what they know and what they can do. Feedback can provide a model of what proficient readers and writers do and how they think. An important message for teachers to convey, in their feedback to students, is that using effective strategies in their reading and writing is what causes their success; this is crucial to building students’ metacognition. It’s especially useful to encourage students themselves to suggest what they could do to solve the problems they identify. This is a great way to build their awareness of how they can increase their control of their own learning.

Feedback may be verbal or non-verbal, spoken or written. The quality of the teacher’s written feedback on a student’s writing is especially important, both for providing further guidance and for the student’s confidence. Students in years 5 to 8 will benefit from receiving regular written feedback about their writing that gives details of what they have achieved and have yet to achieve and indicates their next learning steps.

The teacher should not allow their feedback to take over the ownership of the learning task. For example, a teacher may be tempted to “improve” a student’s piece of writing, with the result that the student’s voice or sense of ownership may be lost (even though the teacher may feel that the work is better crafted).

Criteria developed from shared learning goals give valuable focus to teachers’ conversations with students and to the feedback that they provide. It is essential to ensure that the students understand the information conveyed through feedback and to provide time and opportunity for them to act on it.

The teacher and year 7 students had been working on personal experience writing. The shared goal was “to recount a personal experience in a way that has impact on the reader”. The task was “to share a significant moment in time with a reader”. The teacher and students had jointly developed the following criteria:

• feelings suggested through descriptive actions;
• expressive and precise verbs, adjectives, and adverbs used to depict atmosphere;
• use of deliberately selected poetic language features, e.g., metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, and alliteration, to suggest feelings and atmosphere;
• main ideas broken into paragraphs.

This is Jessica’s published text. (Her draft version is on page 56.)

A Journey Through the Morning

Brrr! I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk, my nose was red and my lips were blue. Who would have thought that an innocent, harmless winters walk to school could suddenly turn into a blistering snowstorm!

My fingers were numb as I shivered my way into school and up the stairs. The pins and needles in my left foot felt like a thousand darts jabbing at me.

My friends bounded over from the computer to say “hi” to me but I wasn’t listening. All I could think about was getting to the heater.

I slowly approached the heater and finally collapsed. I felt the warmth drain back into my veins like water draining through a sieve.

I look over to the whiteboard and remember the horrors of the school day. the dreaded climb up the mountain of math’s, the horrifying swim through the waves of writing and finally to conquer the rocks of reading.

I slumped down off the heater and groaned as I sat on the ground. I knew then that it was goingto be a long day.

The teacher gave Jessica the following written feedback on her published text.

This writing has impact, Jessica – I can feel the coldness of this horrible school morning very clearly. You’ve achieved this by:

• using full descriptions to “paint a picture”, e.g., “my nose was red and my lips were blue”;
• using expressive verbs such as “shivered”, “bounded over”, and “slumped down”;
• using poetic imagery reasonably carefully, especially similes and alliteration – though beware that you don’t over-use these because too many can make writing sound insincere.

You have also begun to experiment with paragraphing clearly.

Your goal: To make your tenses consistent in your writing. Avoid moving between the present and past tense (unless there is a reason for doing so).

The teacher gave Jessica feedback that primarily related to the writing rather than the writer. It specified what she had achieved in the writing, it linked specifically to the agreed goal and criteria, and it suggested the next steps in Jessica’s learning. The teacher discussed the feedback with Jessica, and together they decided how Jessica’s goal could be met. This written feedback was supplemented by oral feedback during the writing process.

Telling

At its simplest, telling means supplying what the student needs, such as an unknown word, the URL of a relevant website, or the steps in a literacy learning task. The idea is to fill a gap at that moment to enable the student to maintain momentum and move on. The teacher makes a professional judgment, for example, to reduce the number of challenges facing a student who lacks confidence in their ability to complete their learning task. For example, the teacher tells the student how to spell the unfamiliar word they need for a piece of writing or, at the beginning of a reading task, tells them the theme of the text. This may be the most effective way to work with some students who do not have the background knowledge on which to base productive prediction. Simply providing a label or definition may be the most efficient way to move a student’s learning on.

A strategic use of telling may involve providing the language needed to participate successfully in an activity. Telling can also mean providing information about when to use a particular literacy strategy in a given task – making explicit the fact that the students can apply their existing knowledge at this point and so building their awareness of when to apply that knowledge in future situations.

Explaining

Explaining can be thought of as an extension of telling. Teachers may explain the task itself, or they may explain a strategy, a learning activity, or the content of a text. For example, the teacher may explain:

• what they want the students to do and think about while reading a particular text;
• how a certain task will help the students to achieve a particular goal;
• the background to a writing topic.

Teachers also use explanations in the context of classroom management (for example, when they explain what is involved in an activity such as buddy reading, reciprocal teaching, or giving peer feedback) so that all the students can participate confidently.

A characteristic of explanations is that they are verbally explicit. Careful explanations enable students to develop their own understandings. Throughout the many interactions that occur during the school day, the teacher needs to be alert and ready to explain things, picking up cues from the students and adapting the use of this teaching strategy to supply what each learner needs. Sometimes a direct approach is best (“Let me explain this to you”), especially for students who are not yet familiar with the literacy-learning practices of New Zealand classrooms.

Directing

Directing is simply giving a specific instruction. Like all these instructional strategies, it is used deliberately, for a purpose.

Supporting the writing process

To support students to produce high quality writing that achieves its purpose and has impact on the reader, teachers need to:

• understand the processes writers move between as they create text
• engage students in reading and writing rich texts
• model the writing processes and the “interior dialogue’ that effective writers engage in during the process of creating texts
• provide a range of cross curricular opportunities for writing texts.

Processes and strategies for writing

Writers move between certain processes as they create texts. These processes relate to the stages of creating a text. The processes are:

• forming intentions (planning) for writing;
• crafting or composing a text;
• reflecting on, recrafting, and presenting (or publishing) the text.

It is important to recognise that these processes are not discrete but are closely interrelated. Generally, writers do not use them in sequence but in the way that is most appropriate to the new text they are creating. Moving between the processes is influenced by what has gone before and what is anticipated. For example:

• the initial intention may be clarified during crafting and recrafting;
• crafting often creates a need for gathering more information or reorganising ideas;
• decisions made during crafting and recrafting sometimes influence how the text will be presented.

Writers employ a range of strategies to help them write effectively, many of which relate to the reading processing strategies. Writers attend to their developing text and search for the exact word or phrase that will convey the desired meaning; they predict by thinking about which words, language features, or structural features will enhance their text for its purpose; and they continually reread, cross-check, confirm, and self-correct their writing in terms of its meaning, accuracy, and impact.

Writers also use strategies that relate to the reading comprehension strategies. Good writers, like good readers, synthesise ideas and information. They bring together previous learning and experiences, make connections, visualise, and go on to create imaginative pieces or clear descriptive accounts. They analyse and evaluate ideas and information as they clarify their intentions, choose vocabulary, compose, and recraft their work.

Students need both excellent models and explicit instruction in how to move between the writing processes and use the writing strategies efficiently and effectively. They also need many opportunities to practise what they know, address new challenges, and simply enjoy writing. Refer to pages 153–160 in chapter 5 for more information on the processes and strategies that writers use.

Forming intentions for writing

Forming intentions means planning carefully in order to create an effective text that has clarity and impact. Teachers need to provide focused instruction on how to identify purposes and audiences for writing, how to choose a text form that aligns to the purpose for writing, and how to gather, select, and organise ideas and information for writing. Teachers can engage their students in forming intentions for writing by, for example, sharing personal stories with them, reading to or with them, researching a topic with them, or discussing a topic in depth with them.

When students know what writing that achieves its purpose looks like, they can develop personal learning goals for improving their writing in specific ways.

The points listed under the headings “What writers do” and “How teachers can support learners” are examples rather than comprehensive lists of what writers do and what teachers might say to support them.

What writers do

• identify the purpose and audience for their writing
• think carefully about the possible content of their writing
• gather, select, and organise ideas and information, either in their minds (to be drawn upon when required) or by recording them using graphic organisers such as word lists, flow charts, and mind maps
• make connections between the ideas and information, ask questions about them, visualise them, analyse them, synthesise them, and evaluate them, in order to decide which ideas and information to include
• visualise a structure or sequence that conveys their intended meaning
• decide on the text form that best meets their purpose
• discuss their planning with other writers and get feedback about it.

How teachers can support learners

• The goal of our shared writing session is to identify and articulate a writing purpose and describe the audience before beginning to write. Knowing why you are writing and who you are writing for affects the text forms that you consider using.
• I will demonstrate how I record my planning for explanation writing as a flow chart. I want you to think about the best way to sequence the text and whether I could improve my planning.
• What is the purpose of your writing? How will your reader work this out? Will it be stated or implied? Why?
• Who is your intended audience? How do you think this will affect your writing?
• What do you want your readers to think about as they read your text? What will you include or exclude to ensure that your readers consider these points?
• What will you need to do to gather and organise your ideas for writing this text? What difficulties do you think you will have in doing this?
• Remember your personal learning goal as you plan for writing this text. What are you trying to improve in your writing? What was that recent feedback on your writing that you wanted to act on?
• The mind map that you have developed indicates the key ideas that you want to communicate. I suggest that you sequence these ideas before you write – this might help you to clarify your thinking.
• You will need to analyse this section of the text you’re referring to if you want to get information for your writing. This means that you will need to skim-read it and identify the key points. Think about how we did this in shared reading.
• Read this article closely, because it contains examples of the criteria you are working to meet. Let’s see if we can identify them.

Crafting or composing a text

Crafting or composing a text means recording ideas and information, usually on paper or in electronic form. The student creates a text to meet the writing purpose and engage the intended audience by writing down the best possible words in the best possible order, using and extending their knowledge of English vocabulary and syntax.

Students can develop their expertise in many aspects of crafting a text by watching and listening as the teacher or another writer demonstrates or explains a relevant part of the process. They also learn about crafting texts by thinking and talking about the texts that they read and by discussing frequently, with their teacher and with other students, what they are doing as they write.

The points listed under the headings “What writers do” and “How teachers can support learners” are examples rather than comprehensive lists of what writers do and what teachers might say to support them.

What writers do

• order selected ideas and information in a way that makes the meaning of the text clear to the reader
• shape their text to create links between the main information and supporting details or between the introduction and conclusion
• synthesise and use ideas from their previous learning about texts, for example, ideas about using appropriate vocabulary, text structure, and language features
• ask questions of themselves (and sometimes others) about the content and impact of their writing, considering especially the deeper features of their writing, such as author’s voice, structure, vocabulary usage, imagery, and language features
• attend to these deeper features of their writing and also to surface features, such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation (where this does not interrupt the flow of composition at this stage)
• seek and act on feedback from their peers.

How teachers can support learners

• As I write, I want you to think about whether I am making my intended writing purpose clear. Be ready to suggest to me what changes I can make so that my text matches my writing purpose.
• Our learning goal for writing today is to make sure that the main points of our reports are very clear to the reader. We have identified this as a need that many of you have when you write reports. Look particularly at where I place my main points in the paragraph, how I draw the reader’s attention to them, and how I support them with detail.
• How are you making use of the language features that we identified in the text that we read together? How are they enhancing your writing?
• I notice you’re using some technical words, like “hypothesis”, “data”, and “phenomena”. How do these strengthen your writing?
• Are you thinking about the key sounds or the spelling pattern of that word as you write it down?
• Maybe you need to look again at the explanation that we wrote together to see how to express cause and effect clearly.
• How are you attempting to meet your personal learning goal for writing? What do you expect to get particular feedback on?
• I’m unsure about your point of view on the topic after reading the introduction that you’ve drafted. You have only described your topic so far. I want to know your position on it.
• We agreed earlier that imagery can sometimes enhance a piece of transactional writing, but it can also become intrusive. Think about whether all the imagery you’ve used in this text is appropriate for the purpose and audience.

Reflecting on, recrafting, and presenting text

Proficient writers continually reflect on what they write. They reread their text again and again, both as they write and after writing. This often leads to recrafting (making changes to their text) if the writer thinks of a way to meet their purpose more effectively, clarify their meaning, or give their writing more impact. This process of reflecting on the text and recrafting it is sometimes called revising and editing.

Often, but not always, writers decide to present their text to others, for example, by publishing it in written form. (Every text is written for an audience, but sometimes that audience is the writer alone, or the writer and the teacher.) The writer may make further changes to their text to enhance the way it will look or sound to the intended audience.

Students often find it useful to ask their teacher or peers for feedback on their recrafting or their preparation for publishing or presenting. Writers become better writers when they reflect and act on informative, thoughtful, and constructive feedback.

The points listed under the headings “What writers do” and “How teachers can support learners” are examples rather than comprehensive lists of what writers do and what teachers might say to support them.

What writers do

• reread and evaluate the ideas and information that they record, seeking and acting on feedback from others to ensure that their writing is clear and meets its purpose
• reread their writing to evaluate its impact (especially the effect of the vocabulary, structure, and language features), seeking and acting on feedback about how their choices may affect the intended audience
• make changes to their text after rereading, evaluating, and seeking feedback, usually to clarify the meaning or add to the impact, for example, by:
  • adding words or ideas
  • changing the way words and ideas are organised in the text
  • replacing words with better ones or deleting redundant words
  • adding language features or improving them

• proofread the text carefully, checking the surface features and correcting any errors
• consider how to share their writing most effectively with their intended audience
• present the text in a way that will enhance the effect it has on its audience
• (after the writing has been presented) reflect on whether they have achieved their writing purpose and what they might do differently as a writer the next time they write.

How teachers can support learners

• Let’s reread the draft that we wrote together yesterday. As we reread it, I want you to focus on how far we achieved our learning goal of “implying characterisation through carefully chosen anecdotes”. Think about changes we could make to meet this goal more successfully.
• I want you to observe and think carefully about all the changes that I make to my draft. Why might I make them? Do they help my writing to meet its purpose?
• Do you think you need to make any more changes to meet your writing purpose better or to make a direct connection with your audience?
• What would happen if you added/deleted/ altered that word/sentence/language feature? How would that affect your text?
• I don’t quite understand that part. How could you change it to help me, as a reader, to understand it better?
• Do you think your writing will be easy to read? Have you checked your surface features for errors? How are you going to present the text so that others appreciate your writing and get your meaning clearly?
• How are you going to use the feedback that the group or your partner has given you? What is the most important point that you have taken from our discussion of your writing? What are you going to do with this information?
• You have clearly met your learning goal for writing. Your consistent use of the inclusive “we” engages the reader in your recount, just as you intended. I suggest that you now reread your text and attend to the tenses of your verbs. The way they move between present and past tense confuses me a little, especially in the middle section.
• Revising means rereading to check that the text makes sense and conveys the meaning as well as possible. Reread your draft writing carefully and think about any revisions that might help your reader to understand your writing more clearly. Get feedback on this from a friend.

Accelerating Writing Progress in Years 7 and 8

It is possible to accelerate students’ achievement in writing. The resource below outlines what you can do to make this happen.

• Writing Resource (PDF 479KB)

At level 4, students need to confidently and independently use a wide range of writing strategies and skills to meet the demands of specific learning purposes across the curriculum. This resource is designed to support you to accelerate the writing achievement of your year 7 and 8 students so that they can meet these demands.

You can read the whole document in sequence, or you can skim it and choose relevant parts to read in detail.

The synopsis indicates the scope of this resource and shows how it is structured. A section on planning and organising for writing, is followed by sections that cover the six dimensions of effective literacy practice. Each section includes reflective questions for teachers.