Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E   1.8.

Types of modeling statements

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 Type of statement

Example

Defining the 

problem

“What is it I have to do here?”

“The assignment is to write a narrative essay.”

“How should I begin? Maybe I’ll begin by setting the scene.”

Focusing attention 

and planning

“I need to develop a plan for approaching this assignment.”

“What steps can I take to achieve my goals?”

Choosing a strategy 

and implementing it

“What strategy should I use?”

“I’m going to use the STOP strategy. The first step is to…”

“My goals for this essay are…”

Self-evaluating and 

error correcting

“How many pieces of supporting evidence have I used?”

“Oh, my thesis statement isn’t very strong. I need to improve it.”

“I should revisit my goals from the planning phase.”

“I need to confirm I refuted that argument.”

“The evidence I identified to support my thesis isn’t factual; I need to 

replace it with real data.”

Coping and 

self-control

“I can do this. I just need to focus.”

“These revisions aren’t too bad. I can address them if I take my time.”

Self-reinforcement

“I really improved my supporting evidence.”

“This is a strong conclusion.”

When explaining the steps of a new writing 

strategy, carefully model how to execute each 

step (as in Example 1.9). If students struggle 

with different aspects of the strategy, more 

modeling may be necessary to demonstrate 

specific steps. To supplement the modeling, 

teachers can post lists of strategies and their 

steps in the classroom or encourage students 

to maintain lists of strategies they use.

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