How to Write a Model Text in 8 Steps

The following article is comprised of a number of extracts from PETAA's Book Teaching with Intent: Scaffolding academic language with marginalised students, written by Bronwyn Parkin and Helen Harper, published 2019. For the full process, including detailed examples, please see the book.

The Process:

1. Start with the curriculum

2. Set learning goals

3. Collect useful texts

4. Draft your model text

5. Analyse and revise

6. Choose your language learning goals

7. Identify any visuals

8. Type out the final text

Step by Step

Step 1: Start with the Curriculum - Gather together the curriculum documents relevant to your year level, subject and topic: the achievement standards, content descriptors and elaborations (ACARA 2015). Underline the verbs in each sentence to work out which text type will be the focus of the topic. Text types have a social purpose, and the first step is to identify the social purpose relevant to the study of your topic. You do this by working backwards from your curriculum document. Use the achievement standards, topic descriptors and elaborations to find the text type that fits.

Step 2: Set learning goals - Work out your broad content learning goals, incorporating the text type. First, decide on the content of your topic and then combine this and your text type to establish your learning goals.

Step 3: Collect useful texts - Collect examples of text from any source that contributes content and useful language: published text books, teacher background information in Primary connections (AAS, 2008), children's science/geography/history (i.e. subject dependent) websites, reputable reference books, magazines and museum websites. The difficult part of this step is deciding the level of language.

Step 4: Draft your focus text - Consider what you want students to be able to express by the end of the topic. What language do you want to come out of their mouths? What language do you want them to record on paper? Look at other text examples to find out what has been included, and decide whether it is important to include in yours. Then work out how that information should be expressed. As you go, work out a logical order for the text. Decide on what content you think is non-negotiable. 

Step 5: Analyse and review - Once you have a draft that covers the content that you want, and it includes some technical language, you need to cross-check for appropriate language features, as provided by the Australian Curriculum. Do a text analysis to adjust your model text and ensure that the language features, both vocabulary and grammar, are year-level appropriate. Work systematically to analyse your model text, first identifying the broad structure of the text, paragraph by paragraph, then looking within each paragraph to make sure it is well structured, and that is contains vocabulary and grammar that match the Australian Curriculum documents. 

Step 6: Choose your language learning goals - Identify the technical vocabulary and grammatical resources you want your students to be able to use with confidence from the resources available in the text.

Step 7: Identify any visuals - Identify any visuals, such as diagrams, maps or illustrations, that will need to be explicitly taught to accompany the text when it comes to independent written construction later in the topic. 

Step 8: Type out the final text - Once you have finished the model text, type it out large so that you can refer to it easily in class.