The Benefits of Writing your Own Model Texts

The following article is comprised of a number of extracts from PETAA's Book Teaching the Language of Climate Change Science, written by Julie Hayes and Bronwyn Parkin, published 2021.

A model text, written by a teacher as part of the planning process for a specific topic to be taught, encapsulates and summarises the intended learning, including content and language, as well as guiding the scope and sequence of the topic. While asking the teacher to write a quality text with this much attention can be challenging, it is also tremendously useful in planning and teaching. A model text is both the starting and end point of a topic. At the start, it is written by teachers just for themselves, as a guide and a planning tool for the topic. At the end, when teachers have explicitly taught the text structure and the language within the text, a close approximation of the same text can be written by the students, either independently or with support (Parkin and Harper, 2018). Writing your own model text has the following benefits:

As a planning tool: the model text acts as the scope and sequence for the topic. The content of each paragraph is taught in sequence, with activities selected for their usefulness in teaching the content of each paragraph. 

As knowledge checker: when teachers write a model text in preparation for the topic, it comes immediately obvious which parts of the content we know well, and what we have to brush up on before we begin teaching. Filling in the gaps in our knowledge avoids confusion during the teaching and learning process. 

As language checker: when writing the model text, we have the chance to crosscheck with the ACARA English Curriculum descriptors and the ACARA Literacy continuum to make sure that we include language structures, vocabulary and grammatical choices that are appropriate for the year levels (this is the difficult bit). By keeping the model text close by during activities, the teacher keeps the target language in mind. Rather than swapping from one scientific term to another, the teacher knows which terms to use, providing the consistency that is so important for EAL/D students or any student for whom this language is new. (For example, will we use 'rotate', 'orbits', 'goes around', 'circles' or 'is in orbit'?)

As the basis for joint construction of written texts: an important step in the shift from talking to writing is through the class construction of a written text - one paragraph at a time - as the culmination of each set of activities. The model text becomes the basis for our negotiated text, including the grammatical features we may want to draw attention to later. 

As model text: many teachers will be familiar with the use of model texts in the teaching and learning cycles (Derewianka 2020b; DSP 1994). Model texts are introduced to the class as good examples of the writing task, and the teacher explicitly points out text structure, paragraph structure and the grammatical features to be taught. For teachers who are familiar with the role of model texts in the teaching and learning cycle, the text created and known as a 'joint construction' - negotiated between teacher and students with the teacher's original model text as its basis - can take over the role of a model text and provide the resources for further teaching about grammar as well as independent writing. 

As assessment task: once the class has summarised their learning in a jointly constructed, class-written text, there is nothing wrong with students writing the same text independently. In the Early Years, writing and then reading a jointly constructed class text is a fine place to finish the topic. As students move up in the primary years, another shift to independent writing will be appropriate for many, but not all, students in the class. This does not mean mindlessly copying, but rather providing students with a writing template that matches their inquiry questions and enables them to use their research notes to construct logical and coherent paragraphs and texts. In the middle years, these texts can be very useful as 'SHE' tasks: writing as part of 'Science as a Human Endeavour'.