‘Model Good Writing’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale

The thought processes behind any piece of writing are often opaque.

What you see, when you read, is the end result.

While it’s possible to work out some of the decisions the writer has made, it’s doubtful anyone could get a truly accurate understanding unless they asked the writer themselves.

Even then, the author might struggle to explain why they wrote what they did.

Sometimes, the author cannot explain themselves at all. Perhaps they were hit by inspiration or found their muse.

These two clichés signal the, sometimes subconscious, processes that lead to breakthroughs, seen most commonly in creative writing.

When we pose questions for learners, set them tasks, or ask them to respond to stimulus material, we expect them to use specific processes.

These include things like analysing the question, ordering information, testing alternatives, and logical sequencing.

Each of these can be taken as a discrete process, although they tend to work in conjunction with one another.

To some extent, it is expected that learners will develop these skills – all of which are necessary precursors to good writing – through repetition, practice and feedback.

Time and experience show this approach works.

However, it does so without attending explicitly to the things done before and during the act of writing.

EAL learners cannot call on years of practice writing in English.

It is to their benefit if we can speed up the development of their understanding.

Modelling good writing is a way to do this.

It involves the teacher creating their own written response to a question or task, and talking learners through the process of writing, as they are doing it.

This is where the most powerful modelling happens.

It helps demonstrate precisely what it is that a learner should do to write well.

And it demystifies the process of creating a written answer, giving clear guidance about the separate things you need to do before and during the act of writing.

For example, a teacher might model how to analyse a question and then show the impact this has on how you structure the first few sentences of your response

Here are three further, more detailed, examples.

‘Model Good Writing’ Example One

Sit with an EAL learner, or a group of EAL learners, and demonstrate how to rewrite at sentence level.

Take a question or task and show how you personally would construct a paragraph in response.

Talk your learners through what you are thinking as you write.

Make it explicit for them. So they understand what is happening in your mind and how this gives rise to the sentences that can be seen and read.

Once you have done this, read your paragraph aloud.

Next, read it again, this time commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of what you have written. Make it clear what is good and what could be improved.

(Depending on where your EAL learners are at with their language development, this is also a good point at which to invite them to critique your writing.)

More importantly, make it clear why certain things are good and why others need improving.

Having done this, address the areas that need to be improved and explain how you will go about making the improvements.

Talk learners through what the improvements will look like.

And tell them what strategies will help you to achieve these results.

For example: moving the subject of the sentence; refining the sentence so it says the same thing in fewer words; comparing the sentence to those around it and asking whether it fits; asking whether the sentence repeats information already given, and so on.

‘Model Good Writing’ Example Two

Sit with an EAL learner, or a group of EAL learners, and demonstrate how you go about rewriting at word level.

Write a response, consisting of a few sentences, to a question or task.

As you write, explain how what you are doing relates to what the question or task has asked of you.

Talk about the decisions you are making regarding what to write and in what order.

When you have finished, read the sentences aloud.

Then, read them again, this time identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your writing, paying particular attention to the choice of words.

(Again, this is an opportunity for EAL learners to get involved in the critique.)

Identify a range of words in your sentences you could move, remove, substitute or change (when you are writing, you may want to put things in which you know you will be able to pick up on here, for demonstration purposes).

Talk to learners about why you have selected particular words.

Go through each one in turn and show how it could be revised.

Explain why this would be an improvement and what caused you to make a change.

For example, if you replace the word ‘prior’ with ‘before’ you may explain that ‘before’ is simpler than ‘prior’ and that they both convey the same meaning.

Therefore, making the change retains the meaning of the sentence while making things clearer for the reader.

All of this is about modelling word-level decision-making for your learners, so they can then use what you’ve show them in their own writing.

‘Model Good Writing’ Example Three

Show EAL learners how to make the meaning of their writing precise by modelling dictionary-use.

Work with an individual or group and pick out a question or task that asks for a written response.

Talk to your learners about how you would plan your answer.

Draw out a range of options and explain how you would choose between them.

Having decided on your course of action, begin to write.

Talk learners through what you are doing at each stage. Remind them you chose a path before you started and that you are now trying to stick to that.

Have a dictionary on hand and refer to it regularly to check the meaning of the words you are using.

Indicate to learners how this checking involves comparing the meaning given by the dictionary with:

• (i) Your overall purpose.
• (ii) The specific intentions that led you to choose certain words.

If the meaning of the words does not accord with (i) and (ii), show learners how to find an alternative.

Repeat this process until the writing is complete.

Finish by rereading and comparing to your original plan.

(If appropriate, invite your EAL learner to critique what you’ve done and use this to stimulate a discussion between the two of you.)