Demonstrating+and+Modeling-+Amanda

=  Demonstrating and Modeling =  __Demonstrating and modeling__  is a crucial instructional component in all lessons, but is particularly important in SDAIE lessons. The key role of the teacher is to demonstrate and model all the behaviors to be learned in the lesson, especially the verbal behaviors expected to be mastered by the students. Teachers must remember that for most students, especially for ELL students, teachers are the only role models that students will ever come into contact with for the language of the content areas. In today's world, few parents have the time, energy, or knowledge to discuss the concepts of the content areas using the language of the content areas at home. Only teachers can provide that. (Source: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/o/oreyd/sylabi/SDAIE.htm)  = Examples of different types of demonstrating and modeling: = 

Reading a text/example aloud to model a certain genre or style of writing
 Reading short stories or paragraphs aloud can help demonstrate author point-of-view (first person, second person, third person omniscient, etc.). Sometimes student need to hear the point of view modeled for them in order to understand. After hearing it aloud, they may easier be able to decide which view their own novel or story is from. Another way is to model types of writing, such as informative or persuasive.

=Showing an example of a completed project =  This is the most explicit form of modeling. In this instance, I would do the project I am going to assign to the class, and then show them my model after I present the assignment to them in order for them to get an idea of “what I have in mind.” This form of modeling is what I often discuss as being detrimental to creativity because students will do what will please the teacher, based on what they saw, instead of taking the project in their own direction and being challenged to think and design.

=Collaboration between teachers as a model of healthy relationships =  In my classroom, students had a chance to see how the mentor/intern relationship worked. They would see cooperation, sharing of responsibilities, co-creation of assignments/activities, and even struggles that my mentor and I would go through together. Because my mentor and I had a strong working relationship and related to each other well, the students had a positive model of what it meant to work together and be a member of a respectful classroom community.

**[Oblivious] Modeling—subtle behaviors **  Like the mannerisms of a parent can pass, like osmosis, over to children, so our behaviors in the classroom, good or bad, can be passed on to our students. For instance, consider the simple occurrence of chewing gum while speaking in front of students: we may not realize it, but they could see chewing gum while formally addressing the class as “okay.” Students see us everyday—some of them even wait for us to mess up. As educators, we need to remember that we are examples to youth and that we pass on much of who we are to our students.

=An array of examples presented as options for an assignment = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">Modeling can prompt students to respond in a different way to an assignment, if there is already an array of examples. An example model from a previous year can spark an idea for a student who “feels stuck” or “can’t think of anything.” Also, students can build off of the ideas they see presented, often improving on what’s been done before. During the unit I created, which focused on choice novels, students were assigned to create a tri-fold with their reading groups that would serve as a backdrop for the independent projects each one of them would also create. The projects would then be placed like a museum exhibit, with the tri-fold serving as the description and overview of their book for the rest of the class. As we were preparing for a three-day in-class tri-fold workshop, my mentor and I brought in tri-folds designed by students last year for a research project and set them up around the room for our students to examine. While the assignments were totally different, the students were able to see a variety of ways to visually represent their novel information, from 3-D headings to use of color to over-use of glitter. This method of modeling proved to be very successful, as it generated many ideas for our groups to work from.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">Modeling values (respect, kindness, honesty) ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;"> In an article entitled //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">Modeling Respect in the Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">, author Geralynn Eurich discusses several ways in which we can model respect in the classroom, including modeling respect for other adults who enter the room, respect for individual students with regards to discipline or answering questions, and also respecting anyone who “has the floor” when addressing the class. (120) My mentor also pointed out this key form of modeling to me in our advanced class when we had a “reader for the day” who would begin each class period. One day, as someone began to read, I wrote in my journal or graded vocabulary quizzes as they read. My mentor approached me later and told me that she likes to give them her full attention because it is hard for them to stand before their peers, and we need to, as teachers, demonstrate what it means to be a respectful audience. I had never thought of it that way, but I learned something very important that day and it is a lesson I have carried into all my classes: when someone “has the floor”, I look at them, I really listen to them, I nod, I smile, and I make sure I am not talking to my neighbor. This is a model I have found my students, as most 9thgraders, really need.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">Modeling writing revisions in real time/Modeling the writing process = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;"> I was encouraged by a particular response I received on a survey from one influential educator. He described his experience with modeling this way:

“I think one of the most positive experiences I had was when I wrote an essay for my students live using an overhead and many transparencies—today I would use a computer and projector—it was hard to do, and it was just the first draft, but I wanted to model my composing process for them. Many felt they had never had an insight into another person’s composing process.”

I too, on a day when I was becoming particularly frustrated with fifteen uninterested, brains (fifteen pairs of eyes glazing over), decided to model my thought process in writing an opening paragraph. I was able to show them that I can write an introduction paragraph as I think aloud—I can move my thesis around (does it make more sense at the beginning, middle or end?), cross out unnecessary information (gently removing the B.S…unlike in this paper, perhaps!), and correct any errors of spelling, punctuation, or other mechanics. ( **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">See Appendix B **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">) The students seemed fascinated to watch me think and compose so quickly (which I honestly credited to years of practicing). This process gave students not only an idea to build from in writing a paper that defined who they are, but it also gave them confidence as writers and I think, hope for the future. I’ve probably used hundreds of transparencies this year modeling the revision process with students. Revision, to them, is an abstract idea, one that they can’t quite grasp. But when I work with writing on a transparency, in real time, and they see and hear my thinking process, revising makes much more sense to them. Thinking aloud for the students as I do this helps the students to better understand why they need to revise and how to revise, making it easier for them to implement their own revisions. Another teacher explained it this way: “This strategy [modeling] has been invaluable in teaching writing. I typically Xerox on overheads student writing or my own writing so students can have a concrete example of a writing technique I want them to master.”

I also copied student work onto transparencies in order for students to see positive models of the writing process and product created by their peers. =<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">Modeling reading strategies = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;"> This year with our English 9 classes, we created a whole unit of reading short stories and using reading strategies—important techniques that have come to inform their reading all year long. When I am teaching a text now, I use the very same strategies—especially jotting down questions or comments on post-it notes when I can’t write in the book! The students see that do this, and that it is a valuable method of learning. Often times, we would pass post-it notes out to our students to emphasize their need to dialogue with the text. Modeling these strategies with every text we looked at has helped our students to become stronger readers this year.

Modeling competencies
(Source: http://www.ed.psu.edu/englishpds/inquiry/projects/miska04.htm)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;"> I had the opportunity to teach students how to make web page, as part of the technological competencies they needed to learn in 9th grade, as made by the district. Using the overhead projector and the teacher workstation, I has students model exactly what I did, step by step, to set up their web pages, as the web page program was new to most of them and there were specific competencies, like creating links to other pages and learning how to import images, that they needed to know for the next year. From there, students were able to create their pages, choosing colors and text styles, adding their favorite links, and laying out each page. While the methods to achieve the competencies had to be mimicked, students used their freedom of design to create personal, creative web pages, and enjoyed themselves as they were also fulfilling the competency requirements.

** = How it Looks: =

My SDAIE Video: <span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande',Times,serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;">media type="custom" key="4985391"