the modelled, guided and independent writing...

THE MODELLED, GUIDED, AND INDEPENDENT WRITING CYCLE

The Modelled, Guided, and Independent Writing Cycle:

An Instructional Method for Teaching Children to Write

Jason Taylor

Assumption University, M.A. ELT

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The Modelled, Guided, and Independent Writing Cycle:

An Instructional Method for Teaching Children to Write

In 1963, Edward Anthony defined a method as the second of three hierarchical

elements: approach, method, and technique. According to Anthony (cited in Brown,

2002, p. 9), an approach is a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language,

learning, and teaching. Method is defined as an overall plan for systematic

presentation of language based on a selected approach. Techniques are specific

classroom activities consistent with a method, and hence in harmony with the

approach as well.

The past forty years have seen significant shifts in how writing has been

theorised and taught in schools. Key approaches have been teaching writing as

production or encoding skills; teaching writing as a creative and personal approach;

writing as a process; and teaching writing as a genre-based approach. This last

approach provides the framework for the current approach to writing as a set of social

practices. As each new approach evolved, it emphasized particular aspects of writing.

With this evolution came the debate about which approach is better. The aim

of this paper, however, is not to make such judgments, but rather, to present a method

of instruction that is suitable for the systematic teaching of writing, regardless of the

particular approach a teacher chooses to follow.

Writing in the Primary School Classroom

At school, children seldom encounter writing without some form of teacher assistance

and guidance. This support is generally geared towards children reaching

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independence in their writing. In other words, “what children can achieve as writers

with the support of the teacher will, over time, become what they can do as solitary,

independent writers” (Harris, McKenzie, Fitzsimmons & Turbill, 2003, p. 59).

This shift from being able to perform in a shared writing environment to that

of more solitary writing does not effectively occur in isolated lessons or episodes.

Rather, teachers’ assistance of children’s writing is ongoing, occurs over an extended

period of time, and moves through significant stages that build on what has gone

before and paves the way for what is to follow.

To facilitate this shift from dependent to independent writing, an instructional

method is clearly needed, and one that engages the active participation of children in a

systematically guided and explicit way. Further, to be of genuine pedagogic value,

this method must be principled and based upon research and insights into the learning

process.

Principles for Teaching

Four basic insights into the nature of the learning process have come out of research

over the past twenty years or so. Each of these has important implications for

approaches to teaching. These have relevance across the entire school curriculum but

are particularly important when considering the teaching of writing and literacy in

general.

Firstly, learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is

to be learnt. The work of Brown (1979), Wray & Medwell (1991), and Rumelhart

(1980) has highlighted the need to ensure that learners have sufficient previous

knowledge and understanding to enable them to learn the new things planned for

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them. Teachers also need to help learners make explicit links between what they

already know and what they are currently learning.

Secondly, the ideas of Vygotsky (1962, 1978) gave recognition to the

importance of social interaction and support in learning and suggested the view of the

learner as a social constructor of knowledge. Teachers need to make provision for

group interaction and discussion as part of their teaching, “giving children

opportunities to engage in guided work both in small, teacher-less groups and in

groups working alongside experts” (Wray & Medwell, 2001, p.10). For genuine group

interaction to take place, and to be beneficial in learning, activities designed for

children must be truly communicative and planned so that discussion becomes an

essential part of them.

Thirdly, learning is a situated process, and everything is learnt within a

context. Modern learning theorists [see Lave & Wenger (1991)] take this further and

suggest that what we learn is the context as much as any skills and processes which

we use within that context. In other words, the knowledge and skills acquired through

learning are only usable in contexts very similar to those in which they were learnt.

Hence, teachers need to ensure meaningful and appropriate contexts for learning.

Children should be taught the skills they need in settings that are as close as possible

to those in which the skills are regularly used. Decontextualised exercises are not

likely to be effective as a long-term teaching strategy.

Finally, the work of Vygotsky again proved significant in defining learning as

a metacognitive process. He suggested (1962) that there are two stages in the

development of knowledge: “firstly, its automatic unconscious acquisition (we learn

things or how to do things, but we do not know that we know these things), and

secondly, a gradual increase in active conscious control over that knowledge (we

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begin to know what we know and that there is more that we do not know)” (cited in

Wray & Medwell, 2001, p. 9). Hence, teachers should try to promote learners’

knowledge and awareness of their own thinking and learning. This can be done by

encouraging children to think aloud as they perform particular cognitive tasks and

through “the essential teaching strategy of teacher demonstration” (cited in Wray &

Medwell, 2001, p. 10).

An Instructional Method for Teaching Writing

Much recent theory behind the teaching and learning of writing describes instructional

cycles that are grounded in the principles of learning outlined above [see Palinscar &

Brown (1984), Hammond (1990), Paltridge (2001), Feez (2002), and Harris et al.

(2003)]. These teaching and learning cycles are based upon the notions of expert

scaffolding and what Palinscar & Brown (1984) term ‘proleptic’ teaching: that is,

teaching in anticipation of competence.

These cycles have arisen from the ideas of Vygotsky (1978), who put forward

the notion that children first experience a particular cognitive activity in collaboration

with expert practitioners. “The child is firstly a spectator as the expert (parent or

teacher) does the majority of the cognitive work. He then becomes a novice as he

starts to take over some of the work under close supervision of the expert. As the

child grows in experience and capability of performing the task, the expert passes

over greater and greater responsibility but still acts as a guide, assisting the child at

problematic points. Eventually, the child assumes full responsibility for the task with

the expert present still in the role of a supportive audience” (cited in Wray &

Medwell, 2001, p.11).

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This shift from a dependent to an independent writer is often referred to as

‘apprenticeship’. Using this model, children learn about writing at their own pace,

joining in with writing tasks only at a level at which they are capable, or perhaps a

little beyond this level so that the task continually provides sufficient challenge to be

interesting. In the writing classroom, Harris et al. suggest this model is best

implemented through “a cycle that contains three inter-connected stages of modelled

writing, guided writing and independent writing” (Harris et al., 2003, p. 60). The

relationship between the student and teacher at each stage of this cycle is shown in the

following table. As the child’s control grows and takes over, the teacher’s support

diminishes.

Modelled Writing

Modelled writing is a time when a teacher writes for children, immersing them in the

processes and products of writing. Demonstrating compositions in front of the whole

class allows the teacher to explore many of the inter-related processes associated with

writing. These include “identifying the purpose for writing; choosing a genre

appropriate to that purpose; selecting and researching the topic; preparing materials

for writing; drafting, editing, reviewing, conferencing about, and re-drafting the piece

of writing; and publishing the writing in some form or other (e.g., as a display, as a

book, as an oral reading)” (Harris et al., 2003, p. 61).

Modelled Writing Guided Writing Independent Writing

Child Control

Teacher Support

Child Control

Teacher Support

Child Control

Teacher Support

Writing for children Writing with children Writing by children

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Modelled writing also provides ideal opportunities for the teacher to explicitly

identify and discuss word and sentence level features of the text such as spelling rules,

rhyme, phonics, grammar and syntax, alliteration, personification, choices of

vocabulary, handwriting, and the layouts of written texts. Many of these features can

be incorporated into word banks and word families for display in classrooms as

resources for children in later stages of the writing cycle.

In addition to demonstrating how these texts are written, the teacher can use

modelled writing sessions for explicit discussion about different types of texts (text

genres). Knowledge of how a text is labelled (for example, ‘narrative’); the purpose a

text serves (for example, a narrative serves to entertain); how a text may be organized

(for example, a narrative can be organized as beginning with an orientation, followed

by a series of events and complications that sustain reader interest, and concludes with

some kind of resolution); and the language features of a text (for example, a narrative

typically contains descriptive words and action verbs) can all be passed on during

these discussions. Whilst modelling these features and processes the teacher, ideally,

should bring into play the experiences of various authors, showing the different

resources and processes that writers might use.

Texts relevant to the children’s home, school and community settings such as

narratives, poetry, factual texts, and popular culture texts and so on, are ideal for

demonstration in modelled writing sessions. Teachers can also encourage children to

bring texts from home, so that these may be explored and bridges built between home

and school. The materials used during modelled writing are best enlarged for all to see

for example, by using big-books and overhead projections. Modelled writing is high

on teacher support and guidance. Teachers can use this time to teach certain skills or

knowledge that they have assessed that their students need to learn.

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Finally, teachers not only model conventions and rules for encoding texts.

They also write in front of children, and in so doing, model themselves as writers.

Through their actions and ‘think-aloud’ commentaries, teachers demonstrate “certain

ways of ‘behaving’ as a writer that are helpful. These include, for example, reading

back while developing a text. Teachers should not expect such skills to develop

naturally. They need to be taught, at least through example” (Harris, J., 1993, p. 63).

Appendix 1 and 2 provides the reader with examples of how writing can be

modelled for primary school children when creating a simple poem or narrative. Note

the suggested commentary and questioning as the teacher writes for the class.

Guided Writing

Guided writing is a time when the teacher works with children who have been

assessed by the teacher to have similar writing needs. This is usually done in small

groups of between two and six children at a time, although with large class sizes these

groups may need to be bigger. The purpose of a guided writing session is to enable

students to practice effective skills and strategies which have been taught by the

teacher in the modelled writing sessions. These skills and strategies for composing

new texts can be developed over time at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty.

In conducting guided writing, the group may focus on the same set of writing

skills at hand, or work individually on similar tasks under the direct supervision of the

teacher. The children may write together with their teacher (a kind of synchronized

writing), or dictate their text as a group or individually for their teacher to scribe.

Using a guided writing approach in the primary school classroom has many

advantages. Firstly, it gives children the opportunity to develop as individual writers

while participating in a socially supported activity. Secondly, it gives teachers the

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opportunity to observe individuals closely as they compose and give guidance on

specific skills and strategies a particular student needs in order to write increasingly

difficult texts independently. Thirdly, it provides children with enjoyable, successful,

and motivating experiences in writing and helps children learn how to initiate their

own writing.

One way of effectively implementing guided writing in the classroom is for

the teacher to take control of the structuring of the text, while children take charge of

its content. “Children should be given ample opportunity to think about what they will

write about, and research and talk about their topic. As children then come to the

guided writing session, they contribute their ideas, while the teacher scribes their

ideas for the whole group to see” (Harris et al., 2003, p. 62). In taking the lead with

the text’s structuring, the teacher prompts children with questions. For example, if

jointly writing a narrative, a teacher might ask questions such as “How will we begin

this narrative so that readers can know where this story is set?”, “What complication

might we now introduce to the story?”, “What happens next?”, and “How might this

problem be solved?”

In addition to guided writing sessions that are characterised by teacher-led

interactions, there are also a number of activities that, used appropriately, may serve

to guide the development of children’s ideas in particular ways. Some of these are

presented in the appendices and discussed later in this paper (see ‘Extending the

Scaffolding’).

Independent Writing

Independent writing is the time when children write by themselves. Texts that they

write need to be familiar and clearly arise from what has been demonstrated in

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modelled writing and composed in guided writing. “In independent writing situations

teachers construct conditions for children to write, explore and respond to texts

independently” (Harris et al., 2003, p. 62).

It is important to provide children with adequate time for independent writing

to allow them to work through its many processes and produce a satisfying text.

Although the emphasis is on the child writing independently, interactions with their

classmates are acceptable as they provide important support and encouragement, as

well as helping the writer to nurture and elaborate on their ideas (Dyson, 1993).

Ample writing resources should also be provided. These may include a variety

of writing materials and implements; a suitable area in the classroom where children

can write alone or in small groups; charts that provide prompts for children working

through the processes of writing and outline the generic text structures and features; a

range of texts that provide useful models and inspiration; and displays of children’s

own published writing.

The following table provides a useful summary of the teachers’ and students’

roles at each stage in the scaffolded writing cycle.

Type of Scaffolding Teachers’ Roles Students’ Roles

Modelled Writing write, show,

demonstrate, explain,

watch, engage, listen,

follow, share,

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instruct, interpret

responses

question, participate

Guided Writing support, prompt,

guide, question,

scaffold, observe,

instruct, assess,

record

try, explore, problem

solve, experiment,

take risks,

approximate, predict,

self-correct, practise

Independent Writing construct, encourage,

respond, question,

observe, record

initiate, select, use,

control, practise,

consider, discuss,

evaluate, justify,

record

(From Harris et al., 2003, pp. 60-63)

Extending the Scaffolding

There may be times when a teacher is unable to offer adequate support to learners

who are struggling to master new writing skills. Large class sizes and, for example,

inexperience in recognising an individual’s specific learning needs, may lead some

teachers to withdraw too quickly the support their students require. There is a clear

need, therefore, for teachers to develop a range of ways in which learners might be

given guidance in written tasks without the necessity for the teacher to be constantly

with them.

Lewis & Wray (1995) and Rapp-Ruddell (1993) developed the idea of writing

frames to support children when working without the direct guidance of the teacher.

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These simply provide children with the basic structure for a piece of writing by setting

out a sequence of cohesive ties into which the writer can then enter appropriate

content. Research has proved this strategy especially useful for children with reading

problems. The reader is presented with examples of non-fictional writing frames in

Appendices 3 - 5.

There are a whole host of other techniques for guiding children in their

writing. John Harris (1993), for example, presents a variety of what he terms

‘assembling strategies’ for helping children to plan their writing process. Tribble

(1996) presents similar guidance for helping the peer editing process, and Harris et al.

(2003) present a number of techniques for guiding children through the composition

process such as story mapping, planning play sets, graphic organizers, clustering, and

story webs. In fact, with the addition of published materials in the teaching of

language and writing, the list of resources for guiding children’s writing is nearly

endless.

Conclusion

This paper focuses on the teaching and learning cycle of modelled, guided, and

independent writing. It has shown the implementation of each different stage in the

primary school classroom, the role of the teacher and the students at each stage in the

cycle, and the advantage of employing such a cycle in the systematic instruction of

children’s writing. Ideas and classroom techniques for extending this support and

guidance without the direct assistance of the teacher have also been provided.

This method is firmly grounded in four widely held principles of learning.

Firstly, by providing children with expert modelling of written texts it enables them to

build explicit links between past knowledge and new learning. Secondly, it

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emphasizes the need for truly communicative tasks and encourages social interaction

in learning through whole-class and small-group discussion and activities. Thirdly, it

involves children in authentic materials and appropriate contexts for learning. Finally,

it gives students many opportunities for developing their metacognitive knowledge of

language and writing and helps them acquire new writing strategies that will aid them

in becoming independent writers.

In referring back to Anthony’s definition of method as an overall plan for

systematic presentation of language based on a selected approach, this paper has

aimed to highlight the suitability of the modelled, guided, and independent writing

cycle as a means for successful implementation of all the current approaches to

teaching writing commonly used in language classrooms. This method, for example,

allows the teacher to explore features of written texts at the word, sentence, and

discourse levels whilst simultaneously providing a platform for demonstration,

explanation, and discussion concerning writing processes and text types.

Hence, whether a teacher chooses to follow a form based, creative based,

process based, or genre based approach, they will find the modelled, guided, and

independent writing cycle an invaluable, and highly practical method for the

systematic implementation of their chosen approach.

References

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Brown, A. (1979). Theories of memory and the problems of development: activity,

growth and knowledge. In L. Cemak & F. Craik (Eds.), Levels of processing in

human memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Brown, H. D. (2002). English language teaching in the “post-method” era: Towards

better diagnosis, treatment, and assessment. In J. C. Richards & W. A. Renandya,

Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 9-18).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dyson, A. H. (1993). Social worlds of children learning to write in an urban primary

school. New York: Teachers College Press.

Feez, S. (2002). Heritage and innovation in second language education. In A. Johns

(Eds.), Genre in the classroom: Multiple perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hammond, J. (1990). Collaborating in literacy teaching and research. Paper

presented at 26th annual TESOL convention, San Francisco.

Harris, J. (1993). Introducing writing. London: Penguin.

Harris, P., B. McKenzie, P. Fitzsimmons & J. Turbill. (2003). Writing in the primary

school years. New South Wales: Social Science Press.

Lave, J. & E. Wenger. (1991). Situated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Lewis, M. & D. Wray. (1995). Developing children’s non-fiction writing. Leamington

Spa: Scholastic.

Palinscar, A. & A. Brown. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering

and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, Vol. 1, No. 2,

p. 117-175.

Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor, MI:

University of Michigan Press.

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Rapp-Ruddell, M. (1993). Teaching content reading and writing. Boston: Allyn &

Bacon.

Rummelhart, D. (1980). Schemata: the building blocks of cognition. In R. Spiro, B.

Bruce & W. Brewer. (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension. Hillsdale,

NJ: Erlbaum.

Tribble, C. (1996). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wray, D. & J. Medwell. (1991). Literacy and language in the primary years. London:

Routledge.

Wray, D. & J. Medwell. (2001). Teaching English in primary schools. London: Letts

Educational.

Appendix 1

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Poetry: Writing exemplar


Appendix 2

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A poem for seeing:

Look

Look!(What can you see?)The curving arcof a rainbow bright.

A twinkling starSetting the sky alight…

Instead of the word ‘Listen’ what is going to be the word on the first line of the poem? …’Look’. And what punctuation do I need? …I’ll add an exclamation mark.

What would the next line be? I musn’t forget the punctuation.

Now I need my descriptive phrase of something interesting to see. I’ll write about a rainbow…

The word ‘bright’ is a good word for the end of the line because we can think of lots of words that rhyme with ‘bright’.

Can you come up with a descriptive phrase of something exciting to see that rhymes with ‘bright’?

Now I’ll just check that I’ve got the same pattern for my punctuation. Have I remembered the question mark and the brackets?

At the Park!

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. The park was full of people. Some children were waiting impatiently for their turn on the merry-go-round. There was a queue for the hot dog stall and one boy was chatting away on his mobile phone.

Mrs. Daniels loved to come to the park on sunny days. She wheeled her wheelchair passed the hot dog stall and the ice cream van. She could hear the happy cries of the children on the merry-go-round. She decided to buy a bunch of flowers.

“It will be like having the park in my living room,” she said sniffing the flowers. But when Mrs. Daniels looked in her handbag her heart nearly stopped beating. Her purse wasn’t there! She must have left it at home.

“Never mind, dear,” said the lady on the stall. “Take the flowers and pay me next time.”“What a lovely day this has turned out to be,” said Mrs. Daniels.

Narrative: Writing exemplar


Appendix 3

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I’m going to introduce the characters and establish the setting in the first paragraph…

…then add colour by describing things that can be seen, heard, and smelled.

A close up shot focuses on one character.

Dialogue moves the action on. Have I used the correct punctuation?

The third paragraph introduces the problem… and hooks the reader in.

…How could the story end?

Before I began this topic I thought that

Recount writing frame


Appendix 4

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Furthermore I learnt that

Finally I learnt that

Concluding sentence

I also learnt that

But when I read about it I found out that

There is a lot of discussion about whether

Discussion writing frame


Appendix 5

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Another counter-argument is

After looking at the different points of view and the evidence for them, I think

because

However, there are also strong arguments against this point of view. believe that

The people who argue with this idea, such as , claim that

They also argue thatThis report is about

is/are interesting because

Another interesting fact about is

are and also

The most fascinating fact about is

Report writing frame

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