Modeling

One of the biggest challenges faced by teachers in the new world of teaching is modeling assignments for their students. I'm not referring to using prior students' papers, rather using our own work to help clarify our expectations. I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. Are we providing too many answers and too much support? (Coddling)

2. Is showing our work demonstrating an unfair expectation given that we are at a different stage in our lives and education? 

3. What if the students don't think it's good? Will I lose credibility in the classroom? 

I think all three reasons are credible excuses, but usually the benefits of modeling outweigh the negatives. Perhaps the only time I wouldn't provide a model is for a creative assignment, as creativity is more subjective, and I actually think students can exceed their teachers creative abilities if given the opportunity. Maybe I will change my mind about that. We will see. 

Here is an assignment that I recently modeled for my students. 

Read the following article and included excerpt.http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137522219/what-does-a-post-american-world-look-like

Assignment: Fareed Zakaria wants to publish an update to his book “The Post American World” He makes many claims in the first chapter of his book and in the NPR article. Choose one claim and recommend to the author what changes or additions should be made to provide an accurate depiction in 2016. This is an independent assignment and should be completed individually. If you need help, please seek out the instructor (me!).

Paragraph 1: State the original claim in your own words.

Paragraph 2: Update Mr. Zakaria on whether his claim has stayed the same or is different. Use and reference (talk about) three sources that support your update.

Paragraph 3: Conclude with your recommendation on what the text should say.

Here is my model! I hope I get a good grade....

Modeling the Annotation of Literature

Every year I tell my students that they can use their novels on tests and every year several students come with novels that are not annotated. Their reasons range from the fact that they didn't read much of the novel to they don't believe in taking notes to they don't know how to annotate.


I can't completely control the first two, but I can help with the last issue. Even though I know students have been taught how to annotate in prior classes, I review with them on the first day of the novel.

I posted part of the first chapter on the board and demonstrated how and what I would annotate. Then I asked them to do the same thing on their own with a paragraph. We put on the board what and how they annotated.

I hope that this modeling provided them with some guidance and explicit expectations. We will see how it goes.