Theme: Pre-writing: Choosing, narrowing, gathering and editing ideas Plan

The Importance of Modeling

Writing can be a difficult process for children.  Many students are hesitant writers.  Because of this, it is important for the home teacher to demonstrate appropriate writing strategies.  When dealing with a child who does not enjoy writing, it is very important to model each step of the writing process.

The home teacher should plan to model a composition which parallels the one being written by the student.  For example, if the child is writing on the topic “My Favorite Vacation,” the home teacher might choose to write his own composition at the same time as the child is writing, focused on a similar topic.  This topic might be “My Favorite Weekend” or “My Favorite Holiday.”

The home teacher should plan to work through each step of the writing process with his student.  The teacher should show the child, with his own topic, how to complete a prewriting exercise.  He should then assist the student with this activity, moving through the process step by step, focused on the topic chosen by the student.  A child does not instinctively understand how to take prewriting notes and convert them in to a piece of writing.  The home teacher should model the procedure for this with his own topic.  He should take the time to explain to the student how he chose to focus his composition, why he has chosen to include certain ideas instead of others, and how he plans to organize the piece of writing.  The teacher should then encourage the student to verbalize his thought process and work together to assist the child with the assigned composition.

Writing is a flexible process.  A confident author recognizes that there is always room for improvement and celebrates each step toward a finished piece of writing that he is proud of.

Next month, we will continue our series on writing by focusing on revision.