Modeling...it's not just in fashion magazines

One of the ideas in this model that struck me as something I do not see often is the teacher as the model of what the process of writing is. The teacher can not simply stand at the front of the room and tell the students about what the writing needs to contain, he or she must write WITH the students. I watched this happen once with Tracy Maury, the principal at Phantom Lake. To me, it was an amazing experience. I watched her write, read her writing to the students, ask them what they noticed in her writing that could be different, and then revised her writing with them. She encouraged the whole class to do the same, so I jumped right in with the students. We did a free write for fifteen minutes and then met in small groups to discuss our writing. I even shared my writing with the students. Dr. Maury’s focus for this writing sample was the idea of having a voice in your writing, so we talked about that and shared with one another our ideas of how to revise our writing, ways we could give more voice to our stories, and then went right back to writing and revising on our own. The topic was picked for the students at the beginning of the lesson and Dr. Maury’s hope was that we would continue with the lesson until the students were able to pick their own topic.

In comparison to the teachers I have been observing, this model was very different in that the teacher was a writer with the students, not the Oracle of Writing. I watched teacher after teacher writing criteria that let the class know what they wanted to see in their writing samples. Then I watched as student after student raised their hands asking for examples of what the teacher was talking about. In Dr. Maury’s lesson I watched as she showed the students by writing and revising with the students what she wanted to see. The students responded to this model with enthusiasm, instead of confusion. In this chapter the author also discusses being positive with the writer. When students read their samples to Dr. Maury I heard her respond positively to the writers. The students were looking at their writing in a whole new light! I was thankful I was there that day to watch all of this unfold.