Modelling Matters

When our children are learning to speak, we speak to them, for several years, before we expect them to say more than a few words.

This is the way we teach spoken language. This is the way our children naturally learn a language.

When our children are learning to write, we often demand they sit with their feet flat on the floor, hold the pencil correctly, hold their paper with their non-writing hand, form their letters correctly using the correct size, shape, slope and pencil pressure, spell each word correctly, remember what they were going to say, formulate their own correctly structured sentences,...STOP

When our children are learning to speak write, we speak to write for them, for several years, before we expect them to say write more than a few words.

This is the way we teach spoken written language. This is the way our children naturally learn a language.

Examples of modelling writing:

• Your child tells you a story, or tells you about something exciting they did, and you ask - "Could I write that down for you?" 
• When writing for your child, 'talk' your thoughts, the process, the spelling etc aloud... eg. "It was a b-e-a-UUU ti ful day...full stop...the children...Is that a new sentence?... Should we put a capital letter? OK - The children walked along the beach... let's think of a more descriptive verb...instead of walked, what if we put 'wandered' or 'explored' or 'splashed' instead of walked?"
• Writing a shopping list together.
• Writing an essay with your child - When your child is learning to write an essay, you might write for them so that they can concentrate on the process of structuring their essay and excellent sentences.