To help students understand expectations for writing assignments, modeling writing in content areas can be beneficial. Providing models or templates for students does not mean doing an assignment for them. Models allow students to see what the teacher’s standards and requirements look like in a finished product, and offer them a point of comparison for their own work. Models can come in many forms: oral examples of participating in a discussion; projects or writing samples from other classes (anonymous and with the student’s permission); a completed math problem; or a sample page for a project. Templates provide a structure that helps students demonstrate what they’ve learned. Templates can also come in many forms: a structure for a type of paragraph or essay; a note-taking structure; or a lab-report structure. A completed template may be used as a model for students to follow.

For the full text of the Landmark Teaching Principles™, including “Provide Models,” click here.

See the attached resources for more specific examples of how to model writing in mathematics, social sciences, and science classes.